It was a very good debate last night. Jim Leher did what a moderator should and did not become the story. The VRWC is claiming that the above clip shows Obama doesn't know the name of the soldier whose bracelet with the name, rank and serial number on it. It looked like that to me but he recovered so quickly its plausibly deniable and he could have been searching for the mother's name.
I want to focus on something else. Henry Kissinger. When I was a boy (and had a metal bracelet with a POW's name on it that I've forgotten, Henry Kissinger was the first word in foreign policy. I admired him greatly but grew less admiring as I found out what detente actually was. And this is the key. Henry Kissinger is a hate figure for the Left and the Right. The lefties don't like that he backed Pinocet and helped him prevent communist take over of Chile. They also claim he was skuldugerous on Vietnam. The Right does not like his realpolitic view of balance of power. The Right saw the Cold War as an ideological struggle. Kissinger and his acolytes (Scowcraft etc..) saw it as a classic balance of power, sphere of influence duel and had no care as to the ideas animating our foes. There is in his statecraft no care as to whether a country is free or slave, only where it stands in the balance of power.
So why are these two guys, neither of them Kissingerites so worried about what he has to say?Obama does not care about tyrranny or losing wars, but he does have the soft, feckless concern for human rights that substitutes for actual deeds on the Left (Darfur! Darfur!, Tibet!, Tibet!) and he actually ridiculed the very Kissingerite policy of backing dicatators in the debate as "20th century" (an epithet in Obama speak). McCain loathes Kissingerite pettifogging.
Henry the K had his charms but the only Secretary of State worth a damn in 25 years was Schultz, and maybe Powell.
1 comment:
I also thought it was a relatively good debate, more substantive than most. I thought that McCain's handlers had clearly drilled into him "get the last word ... no matter what subject make sure that you GET THE LAST WORD." Damned if he didn't.
I thought that may have worked against Obama, and there were times that I just wanted him to shove McCain's straw man arguments down his throat. But while pundits have been predictably mixed (shock: Republicans think McCain won! Dems think Obama won! film at 11) Every report that I've seen or read about (CNN, CBS and even FOX) all indicate that their focus groups went to Obama as the winner. He seemed more polite, dignified and in command while McCain came across as belligerent, belittling and condescending.
Dang - Obama may just be smarter than me. Well done, and on McCain's home turf, too.
JCC
PS: Obama was right on the strategy/tactics distinction, btw.
JCC
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