Middle Earth JournalMiddle Earth JournalNews and Opinion from left of center. Politics and current events Articles
"Democrat" Taylor Marsh on Obama and Hillary
2008-02-29 00:31:00 Before I get into this piece, let me say up front that I'm well aware that Taylor Marsh is a good friend of Pam Leavey of The Democrat ic Daily, who has appeared on our radio show several times and we consider a stand up person. And Taylor herself has a long history of doing good work for the progressive cause. But I really have to question what's going on at Taylor's place with this rather odd piece regarding Barack Obama .In case you were hiding under a rock, CTV, a news station in Canada, recently released a story saying that Senator Obama's campaign had informed Canada ahead of time that he would be opposing NAFTA in its current form, but that it was "just political rhetoric' and implying that he didn't really mean it. Taylor Marsh jumped all over that one, apparently thinking it would score some big points for Hillary Clinton, who Marsh enthusiastically supports.Well, it didn't take very long before a spokesperson for the Canadian embassy came out stated in no uncertain te...
David Ignatius gets it right for a change
2008-02-28 23:15:00 I missed this but our good friend Bill in DC didn't. It's the latest by David Ignatius, The Fading Jihadists. Ignatius discusses a new book by a former CIA officer named Marc Sageman who looks at "terrorism" from a scientific point of view. The heart of Sageman's message is that we have been scaring ourselves into exaggerating the terrorism threat -- and then by our unwise actions in Iraq making the problem worse. He attacks head-on the central thesis of the Bush administration, echoed increasingly by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, that, as McCain's Web site puts it, the United States is facing "a dangerous, relentless enemy in the War against Islamic Extremists" spawned by al-Qaeda.Sageman says it's simply not so. The numbers say otherwise, Sageman insists. The first wave of al-Qaeda leaders, who joined Osama bin Laden in the 1980s, is down to a few dozen people on the run in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. The second wave of terrorists, who trained in ... More About: Change
Quote of the day
2008-02-28 20:49:00 As seems to happen more often than not the quote of the day comes from John Cole:Now that Bloomberg has announced he is not running, can we stop paying attention to whiny narcissists (see Nader, Ralph)? You have a clear choice this election. You can go vote for the third Bush term with lots more war and with the filth still in charge, or you can vote to end the nonsense of the last 8 years. The choice is clear.If you choose to vote for some asshole third party candidate, you deserve the rogering you get from another Republican administration and you probably deserved the last eight years. So please STFU- you get to choose between evil and not evil in November. Deal with it. More About: Quote Of The Day , Ralph Nader , Quote
Meanwhile on Page A12
2008-02-28 16:41:00 I agree with Jazz: I want to see Obama keep John McCain talking about Iraq every single day. I want to see McCain's smiling face on the cover of every newspaper with a quote using "Iraq" in the first sentence. I want to see footage of him on the evening news each and every night talking about Iraq.Come November Iraq is going to be a real big issue. It may not seem like it now because this ends up on page A12.Iraqi Leaders Veto Law on ElectionsU.S. Had Pushed for Measure, Which Detailed Provincial PowersIraqi government leaders on Wednesday rejected a law requiring nationwide elections by the fall, sidetracking a measure that U.S. officials consider a key benchmark for political reconciliation in Iraq. Parliament passed the legislation two weeks ago. The veto by Iraq's presidency council was an unexpected setback.Lawmakers will now have to reconsider the measure, which they agreed to only as part of a three-law package reached after weeks of political wrangling. The dispute became ... More About: Page , Surge
We need LOTS more of this
2008-02-28 14:34:00 The New York Times is calling this a preview of the general election debate theme, and I certainly hope they are correct. It seems that John McCain tried to seize on one of Barack Obama's comments during this week's debate for a Gotcha! moment which utterly backfired.Mr. McCain, the likely Republican nominee for president, previewed a possible general election contest with Mr. Obama, the Democratic front-runner. Seizing on a comment from Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, Mr. McCain said that Mr. Obama’s plan to withdraw American troops rapidly from Iraq would leave the country in the hands of Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.In that debate, Mr. Obama had said in response to a hypothetical question that although he intended to withdraw American forces as rapidly as possible, he reserved the right to send troops back in “if Al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq.”Mr. McCain pounced on the remark. “I have some news,” he said at a town-hall-style meeting in Tyler, Tex. “A...
On the Radio Today
2008-02-27 17:17:00 Today, at 1 pm Eastern, 10 am Pacific time, Ron and I take to the airwaves once again on Mid Stream Radio and will be interviewing Barbara Oakley, best selling author of Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend. Barbara is an expert in the area of genetics and will be talking to us about the tragic campus shootings we have seen of late. We'll also try to drag her into a bit more political realm and get her feelings on whether or not Michelle Malkin is actually pure evil for reason of genetics, or just a basically nasty person. (Insert smiley face icon here.) More About: Today
It Just Doesn't Matter
2008-02-27 14:44:00 At least according to St. John of Arizona. If you're running for president, should you keep somebody on as your campaign co-chair in your home state after he's been indicted on a laundry list of federal corruption charges? In John McCain's opinion, apparently it's no big deal. (From Think Progress)Last Friday, Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), who is a member of Sen. John McCain?s (R-AZ) National Leadership Team and a co-chair of his Arizona Leadership Team, was indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other crimes. Asked that day about Renzi?s indictment, McCain said he didn?t ?know enough of the details to make a judgment.?Later, on a conference call with conservative bloggers, McCain said Renzi ?would probably step down as co-chair of his Arizona campaign.? Asked in Ohio today, however, McCain said ?it doesn?t matter? if Renzi stays on his campaign or not.You can watch Big Mac making these comments here. Now, St. John does make a valid point in saying that Renzi is tec... More About: Matter
Wingnuts in attack mode
2008-02-27 00:32:00 Obama's honeymoon is over and he's about to find out that Hillary went pretty easy on him. The Neocon - Likud - AIPAC crowd are about to bring out the big guns. Yesterday Bill Kristol accused Obama of hating America because he won't ware a flag lapel pin. Well this should send Bill and the rest of the lunatics up the wall:Obama: Pro-Israel needn't be pro-Likud "I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud ap-proach to Israel, then you're anti-Israel, and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel," leading Democratic presidential contender Illinois Senator Barack Obama said Sunday."If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we're not going to make progress," he said.He also criticized the notion that anyone who asks tough questions about advancing the peace process or tries to secure Israel by anyway other than "just crushing the opposition" is being "soft or anti-... More About: Mode , Wingnuts , Insanity , Attack
Sully on the Surge
2008-02-26 18:13:00 I discussed how the surge can only be seen as a failure and in fact will make things worse below. Andrew Sullivan takes a look at Anthony Cordesman's latest report which while allegedly claiming the surge is a success actually points out it's failure. Yes: almost everything remains to be done. Note also the Bush-like tendency to reduce the most intractable questions - questions that have never, ever been resolved in centuries - to simple topic sentences, as if writing these goals on a piece of paper makes them any less delusional. More About: Iraq , Surge
So who are the Fascists?
2008-02-26 16:38:00 Many of my Republican friends criticize McCain as a leftist. I can see the point. But we ought not be too quick to believe that all forms of anti-libertarian ideology are leftist. We need to recognize that there is a form of non-leftist statism of a very distinct kind. It is not socialist in the traditional sense. It believes in a corporate state, combined with protectionism and belligerence in foreign policy. The right-wing predecessors here are Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler, and the name of the ideology is fascism.~Lew Rockwell The first person to compare the Bush Republican Party to Hitler and Mussolini was not a leftists but a Republican - the former assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Craig Roberts. Libertarian Lew Rockwell continues that comparison today in:Triumph of the Red-State Fascists .Rockwell begins with a discussion of the precursor to today's Republican Party, the red-baiters of the 50s. Murray... More About: Republicans , Fascism , Libertarians
The Surge
2008-02-26 03:21:00 St. John McBush finally got something right today John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, "then I lose. I lose," the Republican said.Now St. John and everyone else who thinks the "surge" has worked or is working needs to read this piece by Nir Rosen in Rolling Stone:The Myth of the Surge So what is life like after the surge? It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the city's no-go zones. Devastated by five years of clashes between American forces, Shiite militias, Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda, much of Dora is now a ghost town. This is what "victory" looks like in a once upscale neighborhood of Iraq: Lakes of mud and sewage fill the streets. Mountains of trash stagnate in the pungent liquid. Most of the windows in the sand-colored homes are broken, and the wind blows t... More About: Bush administration
Climate Change and Ignorance
2008-02-26 00:37:00 The Headline reads:Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.There are a number of problems with this article all based on ignorance. Let's start with the first paragraph: "Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966". This could actually be seen as a sign of Glo... More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Ignorance
Congrats to Josh, but...
2008-02-25 12:44:00 Well deserved congratulations to Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, who was recognized this week as the first blogger to receive the George Polk Award for legal reporting. This honor was bestowed for his dogged coverage of the story about the firing of the Arizona federal attorneys, eventually leading to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. TPM and its subsidiary sites such as TPM Muckraker are great sites, and Josh has been a fixture in the online news community for a very long time. In the same week he also managed to get his press credentials restored by the Justice Department after they pulled them last year. Well done there as well.I would take one exception with the tone of the coverage on this story and some of the definitions. First, the title... "Blogger, Sans Pajamas, Rakes Muck and a Prize." And then, from the body of the article, there's this...To scores of bloggers, it was a case of local boy makes good. Many took it as vindication of their enterp...
He rides again
2008-02-24 19:30:00 Nader announces new run for presidentWASHINGTON - Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will "shift the power from the few to the many."Nader, 73, said most people are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties due to a prolonged Iraq war and a shaky economy. The consumer advocate also blamed tax and other corporate-friendly policies under the Bush administration that he said have left many lower- and middle-class people in debt."You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized and disrespected," he said. "You go from Iraq, to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts.""In that context, I have decided to run for president," Nader told NBC's "... More About: Ron Paul
Experience: Effort vs. Results
2008-02-24 19:06:00 James Allen once said, "In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result." People seem to have begun paying attention to the message from the Hillary Clinton campaign touting her experience and, in particular, her legislative accomplishments. (This, of course, carries the implied finger pointing at Obama's lack of same - certainly a fair accusation by most counts.) This weekend Maha takes a look at Clinton's list of legislative achievements (vs. "efforts") and finds the tally sheet to be a bit thin, to say the least.What has struck me about the Clinton campaign is that the candidate seems to confuse ?effort? with ?accomplishment.? She tells us she has ?fought for? this and that for many years ? true enough ? but how many of those battles have been won?Last week there was much hoo-hawing among the Clintonistas about a fellow on MSNBC?s Hardball who could not list any legislative accomplishments of Senator Ob... More About: Barack Obama , Results , Experience
Going Out on a Low Note
2008-02-24 17:52:00 Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice draws our attention to a blip on the radar from Political Wire. It appears that one of Hillary Clinton 's supporters and would be advisers, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, gave an appraisal of the current state of the Clinton campaign which might have been a tad too frank.Townsend said she expects Sen. Barack Obama to win the Democratic presidential nomination and that Clinton is finished. She believed that the Wisconsin results demonstrated that Clinton's coalition (voters over the age of 50 and those earning less than $50,000) had fallen apart. When asked why the Clinton campaign had failed, Ms. Townsend had plenty of opinions and she placed significant blame on Bill Clinton and his racially tinged statements in South Carolina. She also felt that Clinton made a tactical error in making "experience and inevitability" her central campaign themes.Ms. Kennedy also picked up the phone to reach out and touch somebody at the Clinton campaign.She said that ... More About: Note
Nightmare
2008-02-24 04:34:00 This was bad for Hillary: Hillary Clinton apparently thought that she had a killer sound bite during Thursday?s debate when she ripped Barack Obama as a promoter of ?change your can Xerox.?Instead, the audience booed, critics winced and once again the New York senator?s attempt to demonize her rival fell flat, another illustration of how 2008, at least so far, is the year that negative campaigning just doesn?t work as it once did.?It looks like people are just burned out on that stuff,? said Peter W. Schramm, the executive director of the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs in Ohio.In state after state, voters said they moved from Clinton to Obama ? or, on the Republican side, from Mitt Romney to John McCain or Mike Huckabee ? partly because they were tired of what seemed like politics as usual.But as John Cole says it has to be a nightmare for the Republican Party: Without negative campaigning, the GOP has- well, nothing, really. They have no new ideas. They have unattractive candid... More About: Republicans , Nightmare
The Party's Over
2008-02-24 02:54:00 When I heard Hillary Clinton 's final comments at the debate in Texas I had the feeling that she knew that the contest was all but over. Patrick Healy has a piece in the NYT, Soldiering On, but Somber as the Horizon Darkens, that all but confirms it. Now Hillary's campaign was not very good and they were certainly not ready for a "movement candidate". That said I think Hillary owes her loss to none other than George W. Bush. After over seven years of George W. Bush's administration people want a change - a big change. Another Clinton was simply not change enough. Now it remains to see how big Obama's change will be or even how much better it will be but he read the American people's desire for change and took advantage of it. I only hope the Obama campaign will make use of Steve Soto's name for McCain - John McBush. More About: Barack Obama
Is this a flip or a flop
2008-02-22 16:49:00 In spite of what I wrote the other night - Jazz is right, Obama is now inevitable and he can beat John McCain . The most obvious thing about last night's debate in the Hillary firewall state of Texas. Hillary Clinton was not the combative Hillary we have seen up to this point. Dick Polman saw it: I'll begin at the end, because somehow it seems most pertinent. At the close of last night's Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton conveyed the impression that she is preparing herself for defeat.Some of this was communicated in her words: "And, you know, no matter what happens in this contest - and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama . I am absolutely honored. Whatever happens, we're going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends." More importantly, it was communicated in the way she spoke those words. She sounded wistful, as if resigned to her political fate.I have thought from the beginning that Hillary would be better equipped to ... More About: Iraq , Flip
Mike Huckabee to take GOP Nomination!
2008-02-21 16:47:00 Oh me oh me oh my. The New York Times has decided to run with a story which will very likely undo some of the damage they did to John McCain among his base by endorsing him.Early in Senator John McCain?s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers. A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client?s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself...Now the implication, for those prone to rapid jumps off cliffs, can be quickly translated to read "JOHN MCCAIN CHEATS ON WIFE!!! OMG!!!" Of course, the story doesn't go nearly so far, but it does raise salacious questions about McCain's relationship with the pretty young lobbyist. Were they attracted to each other? Did she exert inappropriate influence on McCains legislative decisions?Unfortunately, having set out a v... More About: Nomination , Mike Huckabee , Mike , Huckabee
Don't bust that Obama bubble yet!
2008-02-21 06:37:00 Yesterday, my partner in crime Ron took another look at the election landscape and decided that Hillary would be the best bet for the Democratic party. He raises some valid concerns, given that John McCain and the Republican party are already on the attack, saying that Obama lacks experience, is naive, has some questionable ties in his past, etc. However, I still think it's a bit too soon to be throwing the baby out with the bath water.One thing that Ron and I have come to agree on is that it is important to elect the Democratic nominee this November. My own personal reasons center on bringing the Iraq debacle to a close and preventing a further drift to the right on the Supreme Court. However, I still think that a key factor is electability. Ron correctly points out that, by annointing John McCain (who I respect and admire) the Republicans have unwittingly selected the most electable candidate much to the chagrin of their rabid base. Had Romney or Huckabee been the nominee, we wo... More About: Barack Obama , Bust , Bubble
Obama's bursting bubble!
2008-02-20 06:33:00 I have made it clear on these virtual pages that I'm not a big fan of Hillary or Obama. I have also made it clear that I think it's essential that a Democrat take the White House in November. Not just for the country but for the world. It has been apparent for some time that the choice will be either Clinton or Obama. I initially gave my support to Hillary because I thought she had the best chance of surviving the inevitable attack by the Republicans and the corporate media. Until the Republicans actually nominated the one man who might actually be able to win in November - in spite of themselves, it really didn't matter. Well now it does. Barrack Obama was given a free ride by the corporate press and the Republicans as long as he was an underdog to Hillary. We all new that wouldn't last and this week we have seen the bubble burst. Today's example of the attack machine at work is Obama?s Communist Mentor. Larry Johnson writing at the Huffington Post is concerned.No, He Can't B... More About: Barack Obama , Hillary Clinton , Bubble
Paul Craig Roberts on the Surge
2008-02-19 17:56:00 Paul Craig Roberts explains that the "surge" and it's alleged success is just a continuation of the lies and deceptions of the Bush administration and it's neocon allies. It is impossible to keep up with all the Bush regime?s lies. There are simply too many. Among the recent crop, one of the biggest is that the "surge" is working.Launched last year, the "surge" was the extra 20,000?30,000 US troops sent to Iraq . These few extra troops, Americans were told, would finally supply the necessary forces to pacify Iraq.This claim never made any sense. The extra troops didn?t raise the total number of US soldiers to more than one-third the number every expert has said is necessary in order to successfully occupy Iraq.The real purpose of the "surge" was to hide another deception. The Bush regime is paying Sunni insurgents $800,000 a day not to attack US forces. That?s right, 80,000 members of an "Awakening group," the "Sons of Iraq," a newly formed "US-allied security force" consisting of ... More About: Paul , Surge , Paul Craig Roberts
Clinton Fatigue
2008-02-19 00:06:00 Deep down inside I think Hillary would make a better president than Obama. Deep down inside I think she has the best chance of beating John McCain. In spite of that I have become an Obama backer. The reason is simple, I'm sick and tired of the Clinton s. Bill was a decent president but I'll never forgive him for NAFTA. But mostly it's stuff like this:Clinton aide accuses Obama of plagiarismand this:System Worries Clinton Backers and this:Who's calling who a second-class delegate?and that's just today. I'm ready for the day when I don't have to hear about the Clintons anymore. More About: Barack Obama , Hillary Clinton
The Republicans as Faust
2008-02-18 17:52:00 FaustianSomething that is faustian refers to a wider interpretation of the events of Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In part one of Goethe's Faust, the central character's pact with the devil allows him to have energy, life and youth unless he becomes so entranced by the passing moment that he wishes that things will never change. When Faust stumbles unthinkingly into that wish, his world and his life are forfeit to Mephistopheles.The Republicans owe their success to the 15th century loving evangelical Christians. For their support the American Taliban received lip service from the party while their medieval aspirations were marginalized. The Republicans wished that things would never change but change they did. The evangelicals were not getting what they want and are no longer willing to vote against their own economic best interest for lip service alone. According to Captain Ed it's all the evangelicals fault. This is commonly known as being hoisted by one's own petard. T...
CATO and FISA
2008-02-18 07:02:00 The Washington Times quoted someone from the CATO Institute in their piece on FISA this morning. Now I have the CATO blog in my blogroll and while they are certainly right wing I often find myself agreeing with them unless we are talking about economics. I decided to head over to CATO and see what they were saying about FISA. I found two posts by Timothy B Lee, the fellow quoted by the Times. The first, FISA Confusion, is where the Times got the quotes for it's article. Go read the entire thing, a lot more information than given in the Times article. The second post is a reaction to the Times article, Even the Washington Times Says Bush Is Wrong about FISA. There wasn?t an emergency last August when Congress was stampeded into passing the Protect America Act. There wasn?t an emergency last month when the two-week extension got passed. And nothing catastrophic is happening now that the PAA is lapsing. But as long as the president said there was an emergency and the Democrats acted l... More About: Bull Shit , Cato
Credibility - Bush administration edition
2008-02-17 20:18:00 I awoke this morning relieved to see I was still alive in spite of the fact that the Protect America Act had expired. According to the right wing Washington Times I shouldn't have been surprised.Analysts say FISA will suffice Many intelligence scholars and analysts outside the government say that today's expiration of certain temporary domestic wiretapping laws will have little effect on national security, despite warnings to the contrary by the White House and Capitol Hill Republican leaders.With the Protect America Act expiring this weekend, domestic wiretapping rules will revert to the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which requires the government to obtain a warrant from a special court to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance in the United States.The original FISA law, these experts say, provides the necessary tools for the intelligence community to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists.Timothy Lee, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, said the l... More About: Bush , Republicans , Bush administration , Administration , Bull Shit
Credibility
2008-02-17 06:45:00 My initial support of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama was not because I liked Hillary more than Barack, I dislike them both equally, but because I thought Hillary was better equipped to fight the right wing smear machine. Obama has had it pretty easy up until now but that is changing now that he is the front runner. As I discussed yesterday Israel and the neocons are now in full attack mode. The Times Online now reports that the right is ready to tag Obama as a "Chicago Socialist". LEADING Republicans believe they can trounce Barack Obama in the presidential election by tarring him as a shady Chicago socialist. They are increasingly confident that his campaign could collapse by the time their attack machine has finished with him.Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist, said: ?Barack Obama has been able to create his own image and introduce himself to voters, but the swing voters in a general election are not paying attention yet. He is open to being define... More About: Conservatives
This is a joke - right?
2008-02-17 03:05:00 Does David Johnston really consider this to be serious journalism?U.S. Struggles to Tutor Iraq is in Rule of Law A mob had gathered by the time the F.B.I. agents arrived at the house where an assassin?s bomb killed nine people last year, narrowly missing a deputy prime minister. Fearing their own lives might be at risk, the agents gave themselves no more than 30 minutes to collect evidence.As agents worked inside the house, an Iraqi police commander outside ordered the arrest of a man on the fringe of the crowd, according to American agents who were at the scene. The man later confessed to complicity in the attack. The case, if it could be called that, was quickly closed.But it was never really clear to American investigators whether the man was actually guilty, or whether the Iraqi police coerced his confession. As an attempt at Iraqi-American cooperation in law enforcement, the investigators said, the episode was clearly disappointing.Now if the Iraqis have been paying attention th... More About: Joke , Hypocrisy , Bush administration
Target Obama
More articles from this author:2008-02-16 19:03:00 They have Obama in their sights. No, I'm not talking about the Clintons but AIPAC and the neocons. Justin Raimondo reports that:The War Party Targets Obama They'll never let him become presidentHe's said it many times, in many different venues, and perhaps the words change a bit over time, and the cadences, too, but the message is always the same:"I think the pundits have it wrong. I think the American people have had enough of politicians who go out of their way to look tough, who say one thing in a caucus and another in a general election. When I am the nominee of our party, the choice will be clear. My Republican opponent won't be able to say that we both supported this war in Iraq . He won't be able to say that we really agree about using the war in Iraq to justify military action against Iran , or about the diplomacy of not talking and saber-rattling. He won't be able to say that I haven't been open and straight with the American people, or that I've changed my positions.... More About: Israel , Barack Obama 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |



