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Frederick Kagan says the McCain/Obama approaches to the “surge in Iraq” retail the essential differences between them.
It would be hard to design a better test for the job of commander in chief than the real-life test senators John McCain and Barack Obama have undergone in the last two years. As the situation in Iraq deteriorated during 2006 and the war reached its most critical moment, both senators served on national security committees: McCain on Armed Services, Obama on Foreign Relations. From those positions, with access to classified situation reports as well as the public testimony and private advice of those who knew the situation in Iraq best, each man reached an understanding of the facts on the ground and the interests at stake. And each proposed a strategy. It was as close as a presidential candidate could get to showing how he would respond to a national security crisis without already being in the White House.
Both men’s proposals are a matter of public record, available on the Internet. McCain set forth his in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on January 5, 2007 (at an event marking the release of AEI’s “Choosing Victory,” which I wrote, outlining a strategy like the one Bush later ordered). Obama presented his in the “Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007 ” (S. 433), which he introduced in the Senate on January 30. We also know the strategy the president chose–the surge of forces he announced on January 10, very similar to what McCain described–and the outcome it has brought. …
OK, so Obama was wrong on the surge, how’s he doing correcting the moron’s foreign policy mistakes? Jennifer Rubin has answers.
Barack Obama routinely says the Bush administration has left us more isolated internationally and that America’s image in the world must be repaired, even going so far as to suggest that our citizens are not proud to identify themselves as Americans when traveling overseas. Whether or not you think that is true, Obama so far has not demonstrated he would be very adept at improving matters.
We had the Colombia flap over his opposition to the free trade agreement. We saw the leaders of Mexico and Canada upset over his suggestion to rip up NAFTA. The Brits were concerned about Obama’s Iran remarks. And the latest flip-flop on Jerusalem generated not just upset here in the U.S., but anger and confusion abroad, as the New York Times reported: …
Times, UK says Mugabe’s thugs are now attacking Brit and US diplomats.
Relations between Zimbabwe and the West hit a new low yesterday after a convoy of British and American diplomats on their way to meet opposition activists was attacked by President Mugabe’s militiamen and police.
Five American and four British diplomats were detained for several hours after the confrontation at a police roadblock, during which officers slashed their tyres, seized their mobile phones and beat up a driver employed by the US Embassy.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, described it as a serious incident. He said that it served as a window into the lives of Zimbabweans for whom “this kind of intimidation happens daily”. …
Mark Steyn on the crowning of Obama.
The short version of the Democratic Party primary campaign is that the media fell in love with Barack Obama but the Democratic electorate declined to.
“I felt this thrill going up my leg,” said MSNBC’s Chris Matthews after one of the senator’s speeches. “I mean, I don’t have that too often.” Au contraire, Chris and the rest of the gang seem to be getting the old tingle up the thigh hairs on a nightly basis. If Obama is political Viagra, the media are at that stage in the ad where the announcer warns that, if leg tingles persist for more than six months, see your doctor.
Out there in the voting booths, however, Democrat legs stayed admirably unthrilled. The more the media told Hillary she was toast, and she should get the hell out of it and let Obama romp to victory, the more Democrats insisted on voting for her. The more the media insisted Barack was inevitable, the less inclined the voters were to get with the program. On the strength of Chris Matthews’ vibrating calves, Sen. Obama raised a ton of money – over $300 million – and massively outspent Sen. Clinton, but he didn’t really get any bang for his buck. In the end, he crawled over the finish line. The Obama Express came a-hurtlin’ down the track at 2 miles an hour. …
… Speaking personally, I don’t want to remake America. I’m an immigrant, and one reason I came here is because most of the rest of the Western world remade itself along the lines Sen. Obama has in mind. This is pretty much the end of the line for me. If he remakes America, there’s nowhere for me to go – although presumably once he’s lowered sea levels around the planet there should be a few new atolls popping up here and there. …
John Fund shorts on those close to Obama.
Jonah Goldberg wonders if we have a messiah in our midst.
Is Barack Obama the Messiah?
Before we answer that question, let me vent for a moment. In 2000 I was cruelly denied the Pulitzer despite being the only columnist in America to ask the pressing question: Is Al Gore an alien? The evidence was there for all to see. He was born nine months after the mysterious alien sighting at Roswell, N.M. His weird syntax and verbal rhythms are otherworldly. He often refers to “earth” or “this planet” as if he’s just passing through, and he once angrily complained to the Washington Post that it had printed a picture of the earth from outer space “upside down.”
There is no “upside down” in space — unless Gore had his childhood view in mind.
At least I’m not in the wilderness this time. Lots of people have pondered the possibility that Barack is our Divine Redeemer. There are Web sites dedicated to the question “Is Barack Obama the Messiah?” Google that question and you’ll get more than 35,000 hits. (Enter just the words “Messiah” and “Obama” and you’ll get nearly 10 times that.)
But there’s more concrete evidence. Since Obama declared his candidacy, there have been remarkably few biblical plagues. And lions and lambs seem open to bilateral negotiations. …
Club for Growth’s Pat Toomey roughs up Alaska’s Don Young, the poster child for GOP excess.
Today, the Club for Growth Political Action Committee endorses Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Don Young in the state’s August primary.
The reason for the endorsement is simple. Mr. Parnell is a solid conservative who led the fight for lower taxes and spending in the state legislature, and joined Gov. Sarah Palin in pushing for reform in the state. The man he is hoping to replace isn’t economically conservative in the least. Mr. Young is actually a poster child for what has gone wrong with the Republican Party in Washington.
Over his 35 years in Congress, Mr. Young made himself into the most powerful Republican on the House Transportation Committee. But instead of using his power to steer Republicans down a principled, conservative track, he helped derail the GOP train in 2006.
Mr. Young spends taxpayer money so wastefully he could make a liberal Democrat blush. As chairman of the Transportation Committee (from 2001 to 2007), Mr. Young was directly responsible for one of the biggest boondoggles of the Republican majority – the 2005 highway bill. With a price tag of $296 billion, the highway bill contained a record 6,371 pork projects.
One of those projects was the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, inserted by Mr. Young. The notorious bridge was meant to connect the city of Ketchikan, Alaska – population 8,000 – to an airport on Gravina Island – population 50. Instead, it came to symbolize Republican excess, and helped cost the GOP its majority. …
Ed Morrissey says the Dems are even worse.
… Republicans didn’t cover themselves in glory during their porkfest from 2001-2006, and many of them still haven’t learned from their mistakes. However, the Democrats have managed to outdo the GOP during their short run at leadership. Their transparency efforts fell far short of what was required, they air-dropped over 9,000 pork items into the last budget despite supposedly prohibiting that practice, and now they’re preparing a pork roast on a scale not yet seen or contemplated.
If the GOP had any sense, they would take this opportunity to declare an immediate and unilateral moratorium on pork and defy the Democrats to match them. They have an opportunity to take action on reform instead of just talking incessantly about it. Republicans will not win a majority in either chamber unless they demonstrate real leadership on real reform and demonstrate a clear difference between themselves and the Democrats on spending.
Jonah Goldberg notes Seattle about to ban beach bonfires and Andrew Stuttaford reacts.
An entertaining story, Jonah, and yet another example of how certain aspects of environmentalism are, in some ways, taking on the characteristics of a religion. You can read the banning of the beach bonfires both as ritual sacrifice and as no less ritual renunciation of pleasure. The whole thing is, in all likelihood, futile, but it generates a comfortably shared illusion that ‘something’ is being done, as well, of course, as providing an excellent opportunity for those in charge to demonstrate their moral superiority and for those beneath them to be bossed about. In its own remarkably petty way, it’s perfect.
In a NY Times op-ed, Greg Mankiw argues for cutting the corporate tax rate.
AT this point in the presidential campaign, Senator John McCain is the candidate of ideas on issues of tax policy. Too many ideas, in fact. While some of his ideas are great, others are almost laughable.
The one that has received the most attention recently — a gas-tax holiday — falls in the second category. Many economists and policy wonks advocate raising the tax on gasoline to address problems ranging from global climate change to local traffic congestion. It is hard to find one who thinks that a temporary cut in the gas tax is a sensible response to the current spike in gas prices.
Lost in this hubbub, however, is a bigger idea that Mr. McCain and his economic team have put forward: a cut in the corporate tax rate, to 25 percent from 35 percent. It is perhaps the best simple recipe for promoting long-run growth in American living standards. …