Political Football

Mr. Taranto in Wednesday’s BEST OF THE WEB (below) IMHO makes a good case against the logic of Mr. Obama in policy statements as noted below.  I especially like Mr. Taranto’s use of the adage if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

We have social problems to solve in this nation to be sure; but if those problems are solved by ignoring the Taliban, al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezzbolah and other militant groups that value death more than life (their words not mine) we may not have a Republic to support in a few decades if we ignore this threat to modernity and civilization in general.

I believe the world situation is that serious.  Do you?  Mr. Obama, IMHO, and most of the Democratic party does not believe the world situation is as serious as I’ve described on this blog. 

Best of the Web Today – March 14, 2007

By JAMES TARANTO

Everything but the Kitchen Cynic
This column has long been skeptical that there is any depth behind Barrack Obama’s genial demeanor. Our skepticism is warranted, as The Politico’s Ben Smith demonstrates:

“The biggest enemy I think we have in this whole process (and why I’m so glad to see a lot of young people here, young in spirit if not young in age)–the reason I think it’s [sic] so important, is because one of the enemies we have to fight–it’s not just terrorists, it’s not just Hezbollah, it’s not just Hamas–it’s also cynicism,” Barrack Obama told a reception after the AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] policy conference last night. [Video is here.]

He seems to have plugged “terrorists” into his usual stump speech. As he told the DNC Winter Meeting:

“And in this mission, our rivals won’t be one another, and I would assert it won’t even be the other party. It’s going to be cynicism that we’re fighting against.”

We also found this Obama quote in Monday’s Daily Gate City of Keokuk, Iowa: “My main opponent in this race isn’t other candidates–it’s cynicism.”

Now that last comment is at least defensible. It’s hard to think of a more cynical pair than John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. But contrary to Obama, Edwards and Mrs. Clinton are not the equivalent of Hezbollah and Hamas, which are fanatical religious organizations with genocidal aims. Obama seems to think that all the problems in the world come down to “cynicism”–an excellent example of the adage that if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Yet before he became a national figure, Obama looked like a nail, too. Consider this excerpt from a speech he gave in October 2002 in which he explained why he was against the liberation of Iraq:

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.

That’s pretty damn cynical. Of course it’s possible that running statewide and exposing himself to the national spotlight were character-building experiences for Obama, that sometime between 2002 and now he realized that his own cynicism was misguided and developed a more optimistic and trusting outlook.

Or maybe Obama’s hopeful mien is just a pose he has adopted for the sake of political expediency. Maybe the self-styled scourge of cynicism is the biggest cynic of all.

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