in the link above to the article by the Bush assistant, a couple of responses:
the surge of forces in Iraq, Senator Obama was a harsh critic.
His opposition to President Bush's new strategy was wrong.
Much worse is the fact that Obama continued to oppose the surge at every stage, even after it was obviously succeeding.
COMMENT: As I understand it, Obama has been a critic of the war in Iraq from the beginning, so of course he might be a critic of the surge. If the overall premise, and therefore the overall aims, of going into Iraq is questionable, then any tactic or strategy would also be questionable. Winning will get our country what? What does 'success' mean?
At $50 billion a month - or whatever insane number that it is -- it is that much less that our government can have to bail out the banks, that much less for schools, both k-12 and college, that much less for infrastruture, states, and local governments such as Riverside; also, is getting back at a crazy dictator who dissed his dad, a great and sufficient reason to spill the blood of our precious warriors who truly want to help OUR country, especially after 911? In short, the 'success' of such a strategy might cost more to us than the benefits to us. If we are liberating that country, then why is it that most Iraqis want us to go home?
Beyond that is the fact that Senator Obama, while exuding a centrist style and employing soothing rhetoric, has amassed a record that places him on the extreme left end of our political spectrum, whether the subject is taxes, trade, healthcare, the size and role of the federal government, the federal courts, missile defense, or virtually any other policy area.
COMMENT: In my opinion, his record is too centrist and even right of center, as has been expressed by me in this space, at least on the issue of H-1B. Obama's position is very close to the position of Bush-McCain; on H-1B, for example, he firmly sides with the corporate mucky mucks.
His record as an Illinois state senator is, if anything, more troubling. He opposed legislation that would have prevented infanticide against children who had survived abortion attempts.
COMMENT: true; troubling to me or to anyone who values a consistent ethic of reverence for life. Of course, McCain, Palin, Bush indiscriminately bombing the crap of Iraq that has killed tens of thousands of innocent children is hardly expressing such a consistent reverence for life. iraqbodycount says it is about 100,000 lost civilian
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
he has no impressive bipartisan achievements to his credit.
COMMENT: I thought I heard that Obama has done some leadership work in a bipartisan manner on securing nuclear weapons.
confirmed it just now - http://factbeat.com/get_story.php?id=263
.
On the other hand, here is an article from steve Huntley who casts some doubts on Obama; the bunching up of a certain kind of supreme court justice that is not centrist philosophically is a more important concern than Obama being a friend of Rashid Khalidi - the latter is so much fluff, imo.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/huntley/1252150,CST-EDT-hunt31.article