I saw this today will reading TPM Election Central. When I saw it, I stood up, clapped my hands and shouted, "FINALLY!" What you about to read is a crystal clear example of why, I believe, that Barack Obama is the best candidate for President of the United States.
To set it up, unless you are living under a rock, the past two days has seen a bit of a back and forth between the candidates over how to best keep America safe from terrorists. Barack firmly establishes that a commitment to the Constitution and rule of law is not mutually exclusive from keeping us safe from terrorists.
Grandpa McBush, in typical yelling at the clouds fashion, called Obama naive and having a "September 10th" mindset. Apparently, your un-American if you call for upholding the Constitution. Cranky McSame even rolled out "Mr. 9/11" Guiliani to be his chief attack dog today.
Barack's response:
"I refuse to be lectured on national security by people who are responsible for the most disastrous set of foreign policy decisions in the recent history of the United States. The other side likes to use 9/11 as a political bludgeon. Well, let's talk about 9/11.
"The people who were responsible for murdering 3,000 Americans on 9/11 have not been brought to justice. They are Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and their sponsors -- the Taliban. They were in Afghanistan. And yet George Bush and John McCain decided in 2002 that we should take our eye off of Afghanistan so that we could invade and occupy a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. The case for war in Iraq was so thin that George Bush and John McCain had to hype the threat of Saddam Hussein, and make false promises that we'd be greeted as liberators. They misled the American people, and took us into a misguided war.
"Here are the results of their policy. Osama bin Laden and his top leadership -- the people who murdered 3000 Americans -- have a safe-haven in northwest Pakistan, where they operate with such freedom of action that they can still put out hate-filled audiotapes to the outside world. That's the result of the Bush-McCain approach to the war on terrorism."
Music to my ears. My candidate, a Democrat, refusing to cede foreign policy expertise to the republicans, who clam such knowledge because, well, because their republican. For too long the conventional wisdom in this country is that Republicans have an "advantage" when it comes to foreign policy debates.
Democrats have long avoided to debate. No longer. Pretty stark statement that the murderers that killed over 3,000 Americans have gone unpunished and remain free to this day. For 7.5 years we have known who is responsible but have done nothing to capture them and bring them to justice.
Instead we sacrificed the lives of another 4,000 Americans pursuing a war based, in part, on the premise that there was a connection to 9/11. 7,000 dead Americans and another 30,000 wounded, and still, Osama bin Laden remains at large.
Keep talking tough John, because in 139 days, your time as a central figure in politics will be over and you can join Bob Dole in the pantheon of pathetic presidential candidates. I'm sure he can get you a job as a celebrity spokesman for Viagra so you can be just like him.
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