Some of Nothing

Obama's Loving It (and so am I)
Friday, May 16, 2008

Watching the back and forth between Bush/McCain and Democrats over Obama's foreign policy strategy today has been a thing of beauty. Seriously. I'm this close to feeling that thrill that Chris Matthews gets up his leg. As Mark Murray explains:

When President Bush -- thousands of miles away in Israel -- decided to fire his thinly veiled shot at Obama yesterday, it was a giant gift to the Illinois senator and his campaign. Why? One, it essentially kept Clinton on the sidelines just two days after her big West Virginia victory. Two, Obama’s opponent was no longer Clinton or McCain, but the man with the 27% job-approval rating. And three, it rallied Democrats to Obama’s side. Even neutral Dems, like Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel and Harry Reid, quickly leapt to Obama’s defense.

President Bush finally living up to his promise to be a uniter not a divider by kindly uniting the Democrats to Obama's side. Love is in the air today.

As far as the actual Bush/McCain foreign policy position goes, I'm with Obama (and Steve Benen):

“They’re trying to fool you. They’re trying to scare you. And they’re not telling you the truth [because] they can’t win a foreign policy debate on the merits,” Obama said. He went on to call the Bush/McCain approach “naive and irresponsible.”

This is what campaigns are all about. Forget pins and preachers — the president and his would-be Republican successor have a specific, misguided worldview about America’s role in the world, and how we can use our international influence to the world’s benefit. That is to say, a failed worldview, which Republicans are anxious to pursue for another four years, starting in 2009. To get there, Bush, McCain, and their cohorts are returning to the cheap and predictable talking points that have gotten them this far — those who reject their ideas are “weak,” “naive,” and putting the nation at risk.

I would add one word to describe Bush/McCain: they are "afraid". Or as JFK said:

Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.

"Afraid" is the word that I'd like to see Obama use the most on Bush/McCain. He's talked a lot about the politics of fear and how damaging it is to our national discourse, but what I wish he'd do more of is turn it around. Explain that they're only trying to scare us because they're the ones that are scared. Scared witless of all enemies--foreign and domestic--simply because they look different, have different lifestyles, speak differently, or have different belief systems. Scared of their own shadows if they ever got out from under their beds.

We, as Americans, simply need to start drawing upon our own faculties and inner strength to protect ourselves. We need to be inspired to rally our courage and not let the fear mongers drive us to our dark scary place. Obama knows we need to feel hope. But we also need to feel anger. We need to be angry at the scared little reprobates who have spent the last seven years playing games with Terror Alerts, Osama bin Laden tapes, and opportunistic bogeymen. The real "hysterical" weaklings in this country are those who are willing to enthusiastically trade liberty for security. The With Us or Against Us chickenhawks who are more than happy to send other people's kids off to war while they hide under their covers at home--maybe periodically skipping a golf game or two. Or, as the new Republican slogan puts it:

Kokokaw. Kokokaw. Kokokaw...Chickens don't clap!

(Yes, I'm going to be playing this slogan every time Republicans happily sound off their inner chicken squawk because it cracks me up.)

And allow me to agree with Steve Benen once again:

You know, after months of malaise, I’m actually starting to enjoy this campaign again.

Right on! Go Obama!

Obama: If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I'm happy to have any time, any place, and that is a debate that I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for.

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Nothing New byslag at 3:43 PM