I happened to tune into Sean Hannity for a few moments yesterday --just in time for a terrific interview with Fred Thompson. I'll loosely transcribe some things he said about Obama for you, and you can listen --the link should last a little while longer at least--
here (look for "free audio of the day" and don't worry, it's not about Veep choices after the first sentence). Thompson is asked about Obama's world tour:
I've been wanting to try to give him the benefit of the doubt. You know, one of these two gentlemen is going to be the President of the United States. It's my country, and it's going to be my kids' and grandkids' country.
But these last few days.... I've always known in my own mind that Obama was naive and inexperienced and somewhat of an elitist. But now he's so obviously intellectually dishonest. This may be the first time in American history where a presidential candidate is in opposition to a successful military operation. Now think about that.
He's then asked if he agrees with McCain's statement that Obama seems willing to lose a war to win an election.
Well... yeah. He is so vested in American defeat in Iraq. Here we are on the verge --because of an issue on which he was wrong-- and he has to acknowledge all the success we've had there, he talks about the Sunni changing, he talks about Sadr being negated, he talks about the violence going down. He has to acknowledge, even he has to acknowledge, those things.
But right at a point when it looks like we're turning the corner, all he can talk about is Afghanistan. Because that's where America and the things that America believes in still have a major problem. Anywhere where we're showing success, he either opposes or wants to turn our attention away from, and our funding away from. He says he would not support the surge even though he now knows it was a success, because those resources could be used those troops could be in another place, those resources could be used in America, etc. etc. I mean, it's remarkable. I think it's the only time in history when a presidential candidate has been in opposition to a succesful -- what is known now to be-- a successful military operation.
That does distill it remarkably well. (Remember Spengler's
observation about another Obama "first"
?) The rest of the interview is worth listening to as well. He really doesn't think highly of Obama, and he has smart things to say about energy policy as well.
