Posted By: John Handforth  on Thursday, August 21, 2008

WOW!

You sure sent Obama sulking into the corner.

Thank you for your honesty.

Posted By: Jennifer F  on Friday, August 22, 2008

I am saddened that you could not tell the difference between McCain who cut off all the questions with his "maverick" type one word answers to Obama engaging in discussion and giving actual thought to his answers.  I too am an Evangelical Christian and support Obama all the way because I do not base my political views on ONE topic as almost all Christians I know do.  It would be nice to have actual balance in your articles instead of overt hate.  I can't seem to find the verse in the bible where is says to lie about others you don't agree with.

Posted By: George  on Friday, August 22, 2008

To Jennifer:



As I have observed Obama, his vaunted intelligence is a myth foisted on the American public by an adoring press corps. Frankly, I am not impressed.



A person of real intelligence would understand that given the outstanding unfunded obligations of $4 trillion for Social Security and $44 trillion for medicare, the last thing the country needs to do is take on additional obligations. Given the failure of government in disaster recovery (e.g., Katrina) and food safety (e.g., salmonilla), I would be inclined his way if he were to emphasize reengineering the government to meet its current obligations, especially in an efficient manner.



One might agree that the Iraq war was a mistake, but his corrective perscription would have transformed it from a mere disaster to one of Biblical proportions. The fact that he does not view the surge as a necessary prerequisite to avoiding a disaster in that country is testament to either cluelessness or obstinacy.



The same may be said of energy policy, where his opposition to both drilling and nuclear power will ensure future American weakness. I should note that neither of these eliminates the need for enhanced efficiency. But one has to be realistic on oil. Only 50% of the oil used in the US is for transit, and one is not likely to eliminate its use in rail, trucking or air transit. Thus in the best of all possible worlds, we can hope for a 25% reduction in oil usage. Since we import 70% now and the US population is slated to grow by 50% over the next 40 yeas, eliminating new oil and nuclear from the energy equation is stupid at best and more likely suicidal.



Finally regardint the ONE issue as you refer to it (abortion), Mr. Obama did not show any of his vauted intellectual capacity when he stated that the start of a human life was above his pay grade. Frankly he is a lawyer, and any lawyer should be able to posit an intellectually rigorous definition of a living human being, for without that, you cannot have a reasonable definition of murder, i.e., the deliverate, unjustified taking of a human life. In this case, I regard his artful dodge as a form of legal malpractice. Certainly someone with a high school knowledge of human biology and a rudimentary understanding of both law and philosophy, much less an Ivy League education, should be able to at least put forth an argument on the matter.

Posted By: aaron  on Sunday, August 24, 2008

I'm actually gonna go off on your points in numerical order so I don't miss one. First off I don't understand what exactly is Obama doing that causes people to question his patriotism. I would think serving in our highest governing body would be proof enough. Surely the people who elected him into office thought he was patriotic enough.



Second McCain air of so called confidence and clarity came from the fact that he was basically spitting out the same talking points that he has been saying for the past month. The man is like a right wing tape recorder on playback. Obama doesn't need talking points because he understand that the forum is a dynamic conversation and that you must be able to formulate your answers on the fly. McCain speaks in concrete terms because his constituents can only understand things in absolute terms like abortion is legal or illegal and people are either our friends or our enemies. Obama speaks in abstractions because every issues is made up of different facets. In fact it is McCain who is playing it safe but not looking at both sides of the issues so he never has to feel like his worldview is ever in conflict with his beliefs.



On a side note on Obama making you feel uncomfortable when he described his wife Michelle belittling and berating him. So are you saying you have never nagged at each other on anything. Because God forbid you have to be confronted with the fact that people can actually disagree with one another and still care for each other. That would be a horrible world to live in.



Back to the topics, on the discussion of evil. Let's say you have a farmer in Afghanistan who farms poppy seeds for heroin and that it is his only source of income. Without it he will end up a beggar, so the choice come down to which person is more important, the farmer who makes his living doing something he probably doesn't want to do but has no choice. Or the heroin addict who makes a choice every day to feed his addiction and therefore cause the demand for the farmer to supply. Which is the evil that needs to be destroyed the most because with limited funds you can only stop one.



Finally on the issues of leadership. I would like to see you say to my face that the country is now better off than it was 8 years ago. I would love to see you say with a  straight face that the American dream is just as attainable now as it was 8 years ago. Obama wants people to understand that sacrifices will need to be made to allow our country to return to its former glory and that it will be rough but he has just as much faith in the American people that they will endure it. McCain on the other hand  McCain so called "realistic optimism and faith in the American people" may give the idea we will fix our country 's problems but he only want to fix one side of each problem. The sacrifices McCain has in mind to fix our problems will doom 90% of the American population to homelessness, unemployment, and degrading health while the upper class continue to reap the benefit of raping the lower class of its resources.  

Posted By: geoff  on Sunday, August 24, 2008

Interesting paradox (double standard?): Obama saying "[W]e are going to sacrifice... and know that there will be a price to pay in transitioning to a more energy-efficient economy" is timid, indecision & elitist. Whereas McCain repeating some oversimplistic mantra that basically panders to peoples' reluctance to make necessary sacrifices is somehow projecting leadership.

Sorry: I think leadership has something to do with getting people to face up to some hard, ugly facts, rather than feeding their fantasies. Is McCain leading, or following whichever way the polls might happen to blow him? Does leadership involve thinking things through, making informed decisions, or just spouting simplistic slogans that might come back to bite you in the end (i.e. bin Laden as "blowback" for arming the Mujahadin to bankrupt the Soviets)?

Posted By: dEdGrimley  on Sunday, August 24, 2008

To all those who complain that Obama is seemingly planning to spend a full quadrillion dollars on buying mansions for the homeless, or whatever other baseless accusations might be thrown out there... Why do people complain about the democrats spending so much money when billions upon billions upon billions of dollars are being sunk into a war and rebuilding of a country that ultimately will have no financial bounceback for our own country? Are people every going to move past the Democrats "Tax-n-Spend" stereotype, when the Republicans have been the ones spend, spend, spending for the past several decades? In the past 28 years, who has raised the deficit, and who has provided a balanced budget?