The elections are over in IMHO. Obama is the president.
More important what will be done in 2009...
I continue mynote on my webpages -- filmplus.org/politics
+ my nonfiction project pages -- Theology of Technology
Folks, who signed up to tthis group, you are welcome to my blog @ myspace.com/anatolant [which I plan to keep for my Personal Poltics notes ].
The conflict between Individual and Society of Communism [our future] is very libertarian, and importnat for me no less than for President Obama, who will have the issues with Citizen Barack.
I do not plan to keep up this blog [cpommander-in-chief].
Congradulations and best of luck.
Anatoly
Dear John:
Amid the misinformation on Senator Obama's positions throughout your speeches you intersperse the occasional plank from your own platform. One point that your supporters seem to love is the promise to cut government. Spending, people, programs all get demonized.
Since the various bipartisan attempts to minimize the damage wrought by financial collapse you have come up with the idea of buying up all those failing mortgages. I won't argue the merits of your plan - because a one-line plan is merely an idea and an idea can not be discounted without analysis.
I will however suggest that in following throught on that idea, you have only two choices:
Most people, even Republicans, would probably agree the first choice is unwise. That leaves the second. Basically do what the banks are doing or should have done. That requires people. People cost money. Your mortgage plan would increase the size and cost of government. It would be a new additional program.
I'm not even going to make you admit it is, at the very least, liberalism in banking, even though I believe it is more like socialism in banking.
But it definitely is opposite to your "less government" pledge.
C'mon, Senator. The path goes left or right. Make up your mind and let us know who you are. Is the real John McCain a laissez-faire conservative or a closet liberal?
The framers of the Constitution set the role of Commander-in-Chief in the Office of the President to guarantee civilian control of the military. Aware of the world of their time, they understood the danger an unfettered military posed to civil society. Civilian control was a brilliant initiative, its wisdom confirmed more than 170 years later when President Eisenhower cautioned against the increasing power of the "military-industrial complex".
Republicans, and conservatives in general, imagine the need of military experience for the Commander-in-Chief role played by the President. Yet, since the creation of the Union some 232 years ago only two people have held the Office who could be considered militarily qualified to be Command-in-Chief: General Washington, commander of the Continental Army and General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in WWII. President Washington chose not to wage war; President Eisenhower chose to successfully end the one he inherited. As qualified Commanders-in-Chief they understood military force is the option of last resort.
Other Presidents have served in the military, many as officers, however, only the first and thirty-fourth were military strategists. Both were 'big-picture' thinkers, concerned not with the imagined insult or perceived injustice of the moment, but with the well-being and future of the Nation as a whole.
A Commander-in-Chief must be a strategic thinker, understanding the world, it's cultures and nuances, and appreciating America's position of power and responsibility as a leader. A Commander-in-Chief must also be aware of America's limitations, financially, militarily and politically.
Those preferring the role of 'maverick' best remain in the more contained tactical arenas where their nature enables them to excel. Mavericks are knee-jerk, narrow focus thinkers. Occasionally heroes of the moment; but unsuited for larger roles where their presence constitutes enormous risk.
Are you still voting "party ticket"? Democrats, Republicans? Now -- eat it! Make Obama a safe choice? How about ObaMcCain? Don't blame the politicians -- you have no guts to vote your hearts, you minds. You turn the election into selection between Pepsi and Coke! Continue to play team football between red and blue, but do not ask -- where is the MAN? Go on, cheer your support group as 50 years ago. So sad to see how you. yes, you all, turning Barack into Mr. President ... and they complain about Bush? How about that for hypocrisy? God bless America? Are you taking God for an idiot to bless people who turn FREE elections into counting chats. Not again, Lord!
A couple links for foreign POV on Obama :
Russians for Obama
How to read the world's preferences for next US president (Obama)?
Symbolic powers -- Is America popular as it was in XX century? "American Century" -- and what is for Century 21? Is it over?
The impact on America and Americans : Vietman War was the turning point...
Does America knows its enimies? No friendship in politics?
Quote for myself :
I somehow doubt that a superpower, however defined (even as a democratic or liberal superpower) can ever practice a "libertarian" foreign policy. Neither the populist nor the elite version of such a system seems to lend itself to limited government. However, it can perhaps be made, with a protracted struggle, to uphold the anti-totalitarian and above all secular values for which it claims to be contending. These are not easy times to be a libertarian, whether civil or social. But the easy time for that will never arrive. It's supposed to be difficult.
Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair. His latest book is A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq (Plume).
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28872.html
"Superpower"? Or maybe just the INERTIA, the track USA should change?
Is America became a superpower by default? Is (indirect) predesposition for it in the US Contitution?
"It's supposed to be difficult (to be an American)"? In the 3rd millennium (globalism) it's for sure.
Many corners of this "one world" live in different centuries, some in 1st millennium?
[collect] LINKS from www.theworldwantsobama.org
Endorsement by US Admirals and Generals 3.12
RSS -- tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com -- ***
Polls -- filmplus.org/politics/obama
...
I have to work on my own "Personal Politics" pages for now.
anatoly.org
Fareed Zakaria
Obama, Foreign Policy Realist
I made NEW group commander-in-chief for foucs on most questioned aspect of Obama's candidacy.
Posting records, statements, concepts [comparing with McCain]
links, references, and etc.