From the briefing held in advance of the speech, Max, there seems to be much to be pleased about. The briefer made clear that the goal is to “disrupt, dismantle, and eventually defeat al Qaeda and to prevent their return to either Afghanistan or Pakistan,” and this entails stabilizing Pakistan and preventing the Taliban’s overthrow of the Afghan government. Obama will announce a “surge” (yes, they call it that) of 30,000 troops. The briefer did declare that this would be for a “defined period of time.” But conservatives who are wary of endpoints and withdrawal dates may take some comfort in this:
What the President will talk about tonight is a date by which he has given the mission that we will begin to transfer our lead responsibility — that is, the U.S. and NATO lead responsibilities from that operation — to Afghan counterparts. He will not, however, tonight specify the end of that transition process, nor will he specify the pace at which it will proceed. Those variables — pace and end — will be dictated by conditions on the ground.
Again, in the Q & A, the briefer added:
This is the beginning of a process which is not yet defined in terms of the length of the process or the end point. And that’s because the pace of transition from our lead to the Afghan lead, and how long it will take, will be dominated by conditions on the ground, which, because they’re at least 18 months from now, are not possible to foresee with accuracy.
This sounds sober and realistic, like something that could have come out of the mouth of an official in the George W. Bush administration. The process getting here was arduous and frankly damaging to the president’s own standing. If he delivers a compelling speech, he can begin to undo some of that self-inflicted harm.
It’s not a race issue. It was never a race issue. Barack Obama turned it into a racial issue in one of the more impressive political pivots I’ve ever seen.
The issue here is Obama chose to associate himself – indeed, even seek the guidance of – a deranged man who gleefully celebrated 9/11, blames the government for inventing Crack and AIDS with the intent of wiping out African-Americans, believes in Pearl Harbor conspiracy theories, and wrote ” Q: Which country do you think poses the greatest threat to global peace: Iraq or the U.S.?
A: ????” as well as “Q: Did Saddam order the inspectors out of Iraq? A: No”.
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/Iraq-IQ-Test-Wright23feb03.htm
The real question is this: how can we trust the judgement of a man who seeks the friendship of a lunatic? Reverend Wright is not the only embarrassing friend of Obama’s: he also has a relationship with terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
“…she will be crowing that the bottom has fallen out of Obama’s campaign.”
Hillary Clinton will be right—but it won’t really make a bit of difference. The Democrats are stuck with “Barry” Obama. A sizeable number of blacks will stay home one Election Day if Senator Clinton captures the nomination. I suspect that a bare minimum of twenty-five percent will do so. A drop of even ten, however, would likely prove disastrous. The Democrats are in a no-win situation. They can only throw up their hands in frustration and begin feeling sorry for themselves. John McCain will have to do something stupid. He is their last hope. Will McCain self destruct?
In regard to David’s point, I’m a McCain supporter and admire him greatly, but he really isn’t the guy you want playing quarterback when you’re ahead. He is prone to talking . . . a lot . . . and it gets him in trouble.
North Carolina has a large Black population. Black voters there will overwhelmingly vote for the annointed one. Not because they’re racists but because…well, OK. Because they’re racists. Duke La Crosse and the recent murder of a White devil-girl by punks who represent the NC boys next door, ya’ll?
The majority of North Carolinians are definitely NOT racists. They saw Obama try to excuse the inexcusable Reverend Wright and were disgusted by it.
I predict an Obama defeat in that state. Big time. But what do I know. Just because every one of my predictions about the noxious Obama have turned out to be correct doesn’t mean I know what I’m talking about. Only a hopeless racist could criticize Obama Christ Superstar.
John McCain is in Israel defending her right to exist–right frickin’ now, as we fret about the worthless Obama boy.
Why isn’t that news on a website with a Jewish point of view?
I think this speech is an important one; if the reasoning employed by Obama is accepted, it would represent the complete triumph of multiculturalism. We must now excuse and accept hate speech by anyone who is member of a grievance class. It is the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish with radical Islam; if Obama is excused by not speaking out for 20 years against this hate speech, how can we exert pressure on moderates to denounce Islamist radicals?
This represents a real departure from our traditional measure of morality. Now, morality is judged on a sliding scale, where acts and speech by members of grievance classes are judged differently. You seem the same thing happening in Europe, where the left is arguing that Muslims in Europe should be able to be governed by sharia. It is the breakdown of universal morality.