All right, Theo, now you've got me to vote on my second political video here in ONE DAY! Obama talks like a true believer. He's speaking in the common language of a lot of people right now. Like I said before, he's intriguing. Maybe he'll win over enough.

Okay I like Barak Obama.

But let's not forget besides his vision and his charisma, Obama has not really done anything concrete. Does America see Obama or even Clinton as a possible strong person to run a war on terror? I don't know. How far can they convince the American people that they could be tough on terror? (even if I believe personally the threat of worldwide terrorism is about as empty as the threat of the Soviet Union in the late 80s)

There are also two republicans who could also be running such as John McCain and Chuck Hagel (I hope to God). Both are Army vets. Now I don't like McCain much at all, while he is a war vet his military strategy is entirely flawed as he is pushing for the surge just as much as the Whitehouse is. Hagel has been persona non grata with the Republicans after Kerry dropped his name yet he is the only one who has expressed skepticism about the War in Iraq all this time since 2004, and says that the surge is entirely foolish endeavor. Both men initially voted for the war, however only Hagel has really developed an understanding that it can't work, he's not in the cut and run crowd yet he understands that sending an additional 20,000 troops wont fix the problem.

There is no plan for the surge forces, most of them are being sent to Baghdad to keep the security situation? But how? Will they be used to force a settlement between Sunnis and Shias? Are you going to lockdown Baghdad? All it will do is increase Iraqi animosity and strengthen resistance. Vietnam should have reminded the administration that you CANNOT fight a war of independence for someone else.

What are the Democrats doing? Well they don't want to be labeled as weak on terror so are sidestepping cutting the funds to the new surge, though whether or not they will allow troops to be sent is another matter. Obama himself said that the surge would be a mistake compounding a mistake, however argued that he could not in good conscience cut off funding for troops that are there.

Honestly I think this is starting the race entirely too soon. It really depends on how the so called surge plays out. This is all building up a public persona of a person, however that without real action is merely a paper face still. Furthermore, the Democrats would just as easily divide amongst ties (imagine Obama vs Hillary) and fight it out between themselves instead of joining forces. But I don't think either wants to join forces even when both candidates strengths and weaknesses balance each other out nicely.

First of all, McCain won't get anywhere near striking distance of the Republican nomination again - you can't do that without carrying the religious nuts on the right, which he doesn't have and pretty much hate his guts.

The other two current front-runners are Rudy Giulani, who's pro-choice and gay-friendly, and Mitt Romney, a Mormon who's flip-flopped (to use their term) on abortion. Again, neither carry the Christian conservatives, where all the money is.

Politically, the Democrats are making the right call by not doing anything drastic and letting Bush bury the GOP again for 2008 with this sure-to-fail "surge".
Is it the "right" thing to do? Maybe not, but maybe the best thing to do what it takes to eject the GOP out of the White House for a while.

Questions of Obama's experience are irrelevant, considering Californians are electing muscle-bound movie stars, and I seem to remember this other guy who ran for President from Illinois, and he only had a few state and federal terms under his belt before he won...

Hmmm...Republican, tall, stove pipe hat, freed the slaves - what was his name..?

But Theo isn't that then treating Iraq as a short term problem? What do the Democrats actually suggest as a concrete pull out plan from Iraq post-surge? Without letting the entire thing collapse like a house of cards?

Yes the war is wrong and we need to get out but who is actually putting forward a concrete plan to do so? No one as of yet. I don't know if either party has a feasible plan yet. No matter what situationally Iraq will be still a US problem that will have to be dealt with either diplomatically within the middle east as a whole and economically to aid reconstruction after the hate dissipates and Iraqis start running Iraq totally and not possess political or sectarian affiliations stemming from the fact that people just see the US forces as occupiers and aggressors now.

As Obama himself says when asked about Iraq, there are bad options and there are worse options.

Clearly, we have to withdraw, and will at some point, possibly before the end of the year - but let Dubya pound the final couple of nails in the GOP's coffin with this "surge".

His bonehead move was to invade in the first place;
every day we stay just compounds the problem and keeps a few more Republicans out of elected office the next time around.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Man, he gets me misty eyed even more than Steve Jobs showing the iPhone at Macworld. Actually that's my dream ticket: Obama/Jobs in '08!

Ha! MacSift!

Yes, very inspirational and all that but a bit vague on actual policy. I suppose they are listed on the website or somewhere.

BTW how tall is Obama? Shortarses historically don't do too well...

Nobody can make it right. Nobody can screw it up, too much worse that it already is, and Nobody can please everybody, all the time.
Vote Nobody in 08'!

This guy is damn near the most intellegent democrat i have ever heard. I vote republican but if a democrat wins this next election it had better be Obama. I like that he drops the party designations and actually call us Americans.

According to Project Vote Smart:

Senator Obama supported the interests of the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association 100 percent in 1999-2006.

*dead

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