Just a couple weeks ago Obama made a statement that rings true: "George Bush and John McCain don't have a strategy for success in Iraq. They have a strategy for staying in Iraq. They say we couldn't leave when violence was up. And they now say we cannot leave when violence is down."

McCain remarks in his NYTimes rejected OPED piece that "The danger is that extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we’ve had too few troops in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history." This is McCain' preemptive excuse for Obama's ultimate correctness. For the same apparent reason we were able to streak across the Iraqi desert to apparent victory in Bagdad, we have a moment of success in the surge.....when in truth, recent history reminds us that the opponents will melt into the Iraqi population or run across their border to evade overwhelming force only to return another day when the surge is over.

Mr. McCain, I understand you have war in your blood and note how it solves so many problems. Father and grandfather would not be proud of their boy if he didn't follow suit.
But as much as you desire it to be, this is not our war. And imposing our form of government on Iraq has always failed to inspire them. What has inspired them of late is Obama and his plan that respects their desire to establish their government independent of us...no matter the struggle.

Clearly the public is not engaged yet. It's too early for most Americans to pay attention to this phase of the race.

"Obama aides protest that public opinion simply needs to catch up with the facts. And it is true that on several key foreign-policy issues, both McCain and the Bush administration--as well as conventional wisdom--have been moving toward Obama's position, rather than the other way around. Obama was the first major candidate to call for a swift diversion of U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and now both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, have echoed those views. McCain himself, who had called Iraq the central front in the war on terror in the early months of his campaign, this week announced that he would send an additional three brigades to Afghanistan (one-upping Obama,who has called for two brigades). Obama has also consistently said--often to hoots of criticism from both Hillary Clinton and McCain for his supposed naiveté--that he would negotiate direcly with Iran over its nuclear program. Now the Bush administration is sending, for the first time, an envoy to the talks with Tehran taking place in Geneva (though the U.S. representative, Under Secretary of State Bill Burns, is not expected to engage in formal direct talks). The administration is also talking about opening a special interests office in Tehran. And on Pakistan, Obama has long called for greater humanitarian aid to help that country wean itself from extremism. Now, in a bipartisan effort, Sens. Richard Lugar and Joseph Biden have sponsored a bill that would authorize $7.5 billion over five years in aid for building schools, roads, clinics and other development projects. All that should be proof enough, says a top Obama adviser, that "the threshold question is whether you have the policies and the judgment" to be commander in chief. " Newsweek.com

McCain hammers Obama's less experience in the US Senate as an indication that the man is not prepared for being President. One must suppose that Hillary Clinton must be disqualified as well. One must suppose that McCain would need to apply the same principle to his best buddy, George W. Bush, but did not. Where was McCain with his own party's nominee, Ronald Reagan, where Reagan had absolutely no experience in the House or the Senate.

With all the scepticism of so called Congressional experience, I believe the scandalous behavior of so many in Congress only nurtures the growth of corruption and dishonesty. The corruption and dishonesty only increases over time. How about some fresh air??

When one would like to acknowledge Congressional experience, it becomes vitally important to determine what type of experience a nominee has had. Has it led to wisdom and sound judgement. Or is it one year of experience repeated eight times.

Attempting to sound presidential, McCain has referred to current events in “Czechoslovakia” – a country that officially ceased to exist in January of 1993. He has gaffed himself twice in three days. Is this what experience brings to this old man?

On the economy, Obama has recently targeted women’s jobs as a priority issue. Lauer asked why he singled out women for an economy that is stressed overall.


“It’s not that women are unique in feeling pressure under this economy. It’s the fact they get paid 78 cents on the dollar compared to men, and 62 percent of families rely on women for at least half and maybe more than half of their income,” Obama replied. “So if we can raise wages and incomes for women, if we can make sure that they’ve got paid family leave, if they’ve got more support for child care, that doesn’t’ just benefit women. It benefits all American families.”

I support Obama completely in this regard. I'm not a woman; nor is my wife suffering from less pay herself. What he is identifying is the need for real change because the demographics of women have changed. Quality child care and family leave is certainly a long awaited step in the right direction.

Barack Obama will win the presidency

By STEVEN R. HURST

Sat., July. 5, 2008

WASHINGTON - U.S. presidential candidates historically steer to the political middle once nominated, but Democrat Barack Obama's unabashed appeal to centrist American voters has further opened the door to Republican claims his message of change only applies to the positions he has taken in the past.

If a candidate has strong appeal to centrist America, you probably didn't think that appeal was a consequence of centrist characteristics exhibited other than found shallowly in a voting record. The voter exercises more than intuition about the substance of Obama. We have seen him to be sympathetic to our interests.

So Mr. Hurst, because he has documented many positions quite clearly, you can predict other positions he should hold. You predict they will always fall to the left of his stated positions. This must be because you have Obama pegged as an "ultraliberal Democrat", when in fact the centrists among us, even the Republicans among us who support him truly know him.

Perhaps most damaging was Thursday's statement in North Dakota, where he said he would reassess his stand on the Iraq war after he visits the front later this summer for briefings from American military commanders. Republicans tried to play that as an expedient political flip flop — a signal Obama was moving away from his vow to withdraw all combat troops within 16 months of taking office, a defining issue of his campaign.

It has been the Republicans who have made the case that the Democrats were now dangerously out of touch with the surge now being so "successful". Conventional Republican wisdom requires Obama not to reassess his position given that change, yet they say the couragous position is to acknowledge its success and to reassess. Well, few of us believe Obama reassessed to become more "centrist" = more populous. No, he is in constant evaluation because that is what the unbound candidate can effectively do.

A spokesman for the Republic party commented, "Obama's Iraq problem undermines the central premise of his candidacy and shows him to be a typical politician."

Obama's position has always been to remove ourselves from Iraq with consideration for its perils. Nevertheless, Obama's position remains the same. We will not remain there for the next hundred years , nor 25, nor 5 in all likelihood.

Obama has spoken out for the death penalty and against strict gun control. He's backed new rules allowing government eavesdropping on terrorism suspects and called for giving more government money to religious groups that tackle social ills.

Let me guess...you believe this upstart Democrat should never support the death penalty, always support gun control, not support legislation against terrorism, and sustain an antagonistic relationship with religious groups.

"The most important thing in politics is your brand," says Matthew Dowd, a former Bush strategist. "Obama's brand is that he will be a different kind of politician. It's a brand he's built up over that past year and a half. But he's dented that brand in recent days."

Mr. Dowd, the politics of the status quo has been the eternally hopeful politics of Bush McCain of full speed ahead, take on the world. The new change happens to be what you are complaining about in Obama. Real change with Obama becomes authentic because one moves better when one is nimble in response to analysis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmUUYo9o9eg