Sunday, October 26, 2008

Krauthammer for Mac


Seeing as the election is closing in, I'm finally going to get around to pushing for McCain and pushing against Obama.

With his typical ability to put excellent thoughts to words, Charles Krauthammer is endorsing John McCain. Here's an excerpt:

"...The case for McCain is straightforward. The financial crisis has made us forget, or just blindly deny, how dangerous the world out there is. We have a generations-long struggle with Islamic jihadism. An apocalyptic soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. A nuclear-armed Pakistan in danger of fragmentation. A rising Russia pushing the limits of revanchism. Plus the sure-to-come Falklands-like surprise popping out of nowhere.

Who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m.? A man who's been cramming on these issues for the past year, who's never had to make an executive decision affecting so much as a city, let alone the world? A foreign policy novice instinctively inclined to the flabbiest, most vaporous multilateralism (e.g., the Berlin Wall came down because of "a world that stands as one"), and who refers to the most deliberate act of war since Pearl Harbor as "the tragedy of 9/11," a term more appropriate for a bus accident?

Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious foreign policy thinker in the United States Senate? A man who not only has the best instincts but has the honor and the courage to, yes, put country first, as when he carried the lonely fight for the surge that turned Iraq from catastrophic defeat into achievable strategic victory?

There's just no comparison. Obama's own running mate warned this week that Obama's youth and inexperience will invite a crisis -- indeed a crisis "generated" precisely to test him. Can you be serious about national security and vote on Nov. 4 to invite that test?

And how will he pass it? Well, how has he fared on the only two significant foreign policy tests he has faced since he's been in the Senate? The first was the surge. Obama failed spectacularly. He not only opposed it. He tried to denigrate it, stop it and, finally, deny its success.

The second test was Georgia, to which Obama responded instinctively with evenhanded moral equivalence, urging restraint on both sides. McCain did not have to consult his advisers to instantly identify the aggressor.

Today's economic crisis, like every other in our history, will in time pass. But the barbarians will still be at the gates. Whom do you want on the parapet? I'm for the guy who can tell the lion from the lamb."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

:D Does this mean you're voting for Mac?

Gino said...

they both suck.

Anonymous said...

People may find the true meaning of "suck" if Obama is elected. While it may roll off the tongue like the juice of chew tobacco, there is a world of difference between a McCain presidency and an Obama Presidency in so many areas of life that matter to real, thinking people, like abortion.

shadowsoflove.blogspot.com said...

"Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious foreign policy thinker in the United States Senate?"

I find it both ammusing and disapointing that every 4 years each side views their canidate as the savior, the best man for the job, the one and only who is going to make everything all right. Then 3.5 years later they realize oh, he wasn't all that after all. He was just another roughly democratic or republican president who served another term and didn't terribe lot to change anything.

Of course there are exceptions, but all this tires me.

Gino said...

abortion:and you trust mc cain to put up the right judges after knowing his record of sabotaging bush's picks?

read my post, and tell me i'm wrong about mc cain.

and whats wrong with chew?
it keeps me from smoking.

RobertDWood said...

Yes Mal, it does. Grudgingly so.

BCBC, I know for sure I am going to be extremely embittered at Mac by the time this candidacy is over, much as I am with W and his domestic policy.

Shadows, I think in this instance, he is indeed all of that in the Senate. Few were stronger supporters of the War on Terror, or pushed harder for the eventual victorious strategy.
But he's not a savior. He'll be a failure in the domestic arena, and certainly on economic issues.

Gino, I trust Mac with his picks now. As dumb as it sounds, if he was willing to pick Palin of all people as his VP, then he'll pick some solid judges rather then caving to a middle of the road benchwarmer.