Posted on 08/01/2007 1:33:53 PM PDT by Jean S
Perhaps you’re suffering from “debate fatigue.” You hear a lot about it these days, with Democratic and Republican presidential candidates squaring off many months before the first primaries or caucuses.
Yes, it can be tiring. But please don’t succumb. For all the derision directed at them, presidential debates are useful exercises. And early debates are especially useful.
Early debates help us learn things about candidates that might have remained unnoticed until much later in the race. And sometimes those things are very important.
For example, in the four Democratic debates held so far, we have learned one crucial fact: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) isn’t anywhere near ready to be president.
Our Obama education started with the first debate, held in April in Orangeburg, S.C.
Moderator Brian Williams of NBC News asked how the candidates would respond militarily if two American cities were hit simultaneously by al Qaeda terrorists.
Obama was first to answer. He said we would want an “effective emergency response.” And “good intelligence.” And a policy that would not “alienate the world community based on faulty intelligence, based on bluster and bombast.”
The only thing he failed to mention was how he would respond militarily. As in, you know, fighting back.
Obama later tried to return to the question, but the damage had been done.
Front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) stepped in with a better idea. “I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate,” she said. After identifying the enemy, Clinton continued, “Let’s focus on those who have attacked us and do everything we can to destroy them.”
After the debate, the Clinton campaign bragged that she had “demonstrated that she would know how to respond if the country was attacked.” Not like that other guy.
Now we’ve had another debate, last Monday night in Charleston, and Obama faced another question on international affairs.
A questioner speaking via YouTube video asked whether the candidates would “meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration … with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.”
Obama quickly said, “I would.”
Really? Would the first year of the Obama administration be filled with summits with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar Assad, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Kim Jong Il?
Apparently so. “The reason is that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding principle of this administration — is ridiculous,” Obama explained. “Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to the Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire.”
As in Orangeburg, Hillary Clinton stepped in with a dose of reality. She would make no such promises, she said, because “I don’t want to be used for propaganda purposes.”
Anyone, other than Sen. Obama, knows that a handshake and a photo-op with the president of the United States would be a huge propaganda gift to the rogue-state dictators. And for what benefit to the United States national interest?
“Certainly, we’re not going to just have our president meet with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez and, you know, the president of North Korea, Iran and Syria until we know better what the way forward would be,” Clinton added.
After the debate, Obama’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, tried to explain that Obama didn’t really say he would meet face-to-face, one-on-one with the rogue-state leaders.
“He said that he would be willing to talk,” Axelrod explained. “And what he meant was, as a government, he’d be willing and eager to initiate those kinds of talks, just as during the Cold War there were low-level discussions and mid-level discussions between us and the Soviet Union and so on. So he was not promising summits with all of those leaders.”
OK. But that’s not what I heard.
The next day, Clinton called Obama’s answer “naïve.” For his part, Obama tried to suggest that just a few months ago, Clinton had said the same thing that Obama said in Charleston. But it turns out she hadn’t.
All of this has come about as the result of early debates. And now, six months before the first primary and 15 months before the general election, we’ve learned that one major candidate is unquestionably unprepared to be president.
That’s worth a little debate fatigue.
York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week.
E-mail: byork@nationalreview.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .
If Obama was a two term Congressman and a two term Senator, but was a White Republican running for Vice President...well you get my point.
Obama’s an empty suit. This morning, Rush said Obama claimed he’d attack Pakistan - I hadn’t heard that, but Obama’s such a dope I wouldn’t doubt it. Pakistan is one of our few semi-reliable allies in the mideast (again, this is one of the reasons we must help Iraq become secure) and Obama apparently wants to attack them. He’s an idiot.
“The reason is that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding principle of this administration — is ridiculous,” Obama explained.”
Hussein Obama’s advisers should explain the “pissing into the wind” analogy to him.
..one other thing, is Obama doesn't already know we have ops in Pakistan he is more naive than I thought he was
Clinton continued, “Let’s focus on those who have attacked us and do everything we can to destroy them.”
That’s exactly how the Clintons approach every issue.
Barry Obsama thinks that the entire world is the Hawaiian Islands. Aloha ain’t gonna cut it, Barry!
My fear that enough guilt-ridden Whites will support him, simply because he is Black, that he might wind up as VP.
Hopefully, this fool will never be in a position of real power. The terrorists are not PC, and wouldn't hesitate for a minute to test Obama's resolve. What most of us know, and what the MSM is trying to cover, is that Obama lacks Gravitas.
If given a choice, I'd rather have Jimmy Carter as President again, then "clean" and "articulate" Obama.
York bump!
Obamaramalamadingdong...shouldnt be allowed to manage a lemonade stand much less a nation...
My guess is that she'll pick a loyal Clintonista rather than Obama as her running mate - most likely Bill Richardson, but we shall see.
“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act,” Mr. Obama said today, “we will.”
“we’ve learned that one major candidate is unquestionably unprepared to be president.”
A little off on the count...
He would assign a study commission if we had two attacks on the USA at the same time. Sounds like something Carter would have done if the Russians ever lobbed a big one on us.
But, he’d stroll right into Pakistan with American troops, with all its internal Muslim difficulties that Musharraf is trying to deal with, without the suggestion that he would consult with any military commanders.
This guy is a third grade Howdy Doody (I think it’s the ears). His intel and policy advisers must be Clarabell the clown, Flub-a-Dub, and Buffalo Bob.
This whole B. Hussein Obama phenomenon was hatched during one five minute speech in 2004.
The Dhims looked up at this guy on stage and said we finally got it, “an articlulate black, but not too black candidate who won’t scare the white Libs like Jesse and Al (and of course isn’t a rebublican like Alan Keyes).”
Imagine someone running today with Carter's resume in 1976:
- Annapolis grad
- Nuclear submarine commander
- Governor of a large southern state (Georgia) - 52 years old
They would be a shoe-in - as either a Dem or GOP.
How could someone so impressive on paper turn out to be the worst president in US history?
Obama will never be ready because he is manufactured just like Hitlery and the rest. We probably have one the most incompetant Congress ever.
From day one this hussein osama character has come across as a sixth grader wearing a suit that has to last until 9th grade. That also explains his policy nonsense. This guy belongs in an updated Leave it to Beaver episode, getting good advice from brother Wally
Intellectually, his background as a community social activist, whatever that is, has prepared him to be a community social activist, and nothing else, except perhaps a democrapper candidate for Prez.
You don’t need a Clinton war room to take this banana out, he is up to the task on his own.
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