Sarah Palin deserves respect

Sarah Palin is a phenomenon. She is plucky and, in a winsome way, in your face. Referring to middle class America as Joe-Six-Pack and to herself as a hockey mom, she debated last week with veteran Senator Joe Biden, who has served in the Senate for 36 years and knows his way around Washington. I have never met Governor Palin. I have known Joe Biden for many years. I really like Joe and share his positions on most issues.

I admire Sarah Pain's spunkiness and feel she has not been treated fairly by the media which has tried to make her look foolish and provincial. When she was interviewed by Charles Gibson and asked the question, "Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?" I thought it unfair. Why? I consider myself to be knowledgeable on foreign affairs and I did not know what the Bush Doctrine referred to until later when it was described as support for preemptive military action. However, that term -- Bush Doctrine -- has also been applied to other policies of the administration. I certainly do believe in the right to take preemptive action to thwart an enemy's attack upon us. Sarah Palin later explained when she learned what the Bush Doctrine stood for, that she did too.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (23)

Campaigning for the Obama-Biden ticket

On Sunday, I flew to Florida at the request of the Obama-Biden Democratic campaign for the purpose of speaking on their behalf in the Jewish condo community. Four years ago, in the last presidential campaign, I had flown to Florida at the request of the Bush-Cheney Republican campaign to rally support for that ticket. 

I had announced back in 2004 that I did not agree with President Bush on a single domestic issue, but that I concluded that of the two men running for president representing the two major parties - Republican and Democratic - Bush understood the danger to Western civilization of international Islamic terrorism and John Kerry, in my opinion, did not; and that Bush was willing to take on Islamic terrorism, no matter the cost, while Kerry, in my opinion, did not treat confronting Islamic terrorism as a priority. The danger to Western civilization included the danger to Israel, located in a sea of Muslim states intent on destroying it as an outpost of Western civilization.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (45)

US safer in Obama's hands

The time has come to declare whom I will be voting for.

When I made my decision four years ago and supported the reelection of George W. Bush, I said at the time the overwhelming issue for me was international Islamic terrorism, including al-Qaida. The goal of Islamic terrorists was and still is to reestablish the Caliphate encompassing most of the Muslims living in a host of nations from Spain to Indonesia and placing them under a single religious leader with full authority over the civil affairs of the countries, in the style of Iran. That goal includes the deaths or forced conversions of Christians and Jews as infidels or the payment by them of tribute, and the elimination of the State of Israel.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (54)

The right to abortion

For those interested, I will be making my choice for president public next week.  The candidates, we now know, are Barack Obama and Joe Biden for the Democrats and John McCain and Sarah Palin for the Republicans. My choice will be made next week, so nothing I write here should be perceived as an endorsement of either ticket.

The newly announced vice presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, is at this point the only unknown personality. If McCain wins the election on November 4th, his choice of Palin will be praised as a stroke of genius. However, if he loses, he will be viewed as a dope who shot himself in the foot by selecting Palin and assured his own defeat.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (72)

Obama's mistake

Last week, I wrote of the recent successes of Senator Barack Obama -- his trip abroad to Iraq and Europe and his reception in Germany where 200,000 people came to hear him speak and cheer him. I compared Obama with Julius Caesar, evoking Caesar's boast of "Veni, Vidi, Vici."

But Caesar also made his share of mistakes. This week, I'm writing about a gaffe by Senator Obama, in which he appeared to be playing what has come to be known as "the race card."

On August 1st The New York Times summed up the situation: "Senator John McCain's campaign accused Senator Barack Obama on Thursday of playing 'the race card,' citing his remarks that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he 'doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.'" The Times went on to state, "The exchange injected racial politics front and center into the general election campaign for the first time, after it became a subtext in the primary between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton."

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (13)

McCain was handed a gift

A February 21st New York Times article examined the relationship between Senator John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

The article created a firestorm by asserting, "Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself."  

The Times quoting John Weaver, a friend and adviser to McCain reported, "He [Weaver] had "warned Ms. Iseman away [in 1999] because of 'what she had told people'  that had 'made its way back' to the McCain campaign."  According to the Daily News, McCain, when 'asked directly if he ever had a romantic relationship with Iseman, replied, 'No.'  He added that if aides were concerned about the possibility of such a relationship, as the [Times] article said, "They didn't communicate it to me."

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (2)

The final three

The three remaining serious candidates for president - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain - are all qualified for the job. The fourth candidate - Mike Huckabee, who flip-flops on accepting the theory of evolution - is not. How, in the modern age, can we have a president who wavers on basic biology?

So, the ultimate choice will be between three widely different candidates. Hillary claims experience and a steady hand with moderate balanced solutions to the myriad of problems facing the US Barack claims energy, vision for a new beginning, and the ability to reach out to others. McCain, a moderate conservative, claims a lock on straight talk, war hero status and willingness to seek a military victory in Iraq. He understands the perils we face worldwide.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (19)