Obama's Qualifications

I thought I'd mention some details on a few of Barack Obama's qualifications that you need to know about.  The list is just about endless, of course, but I've narrowed it down to a few that seem to be the most appropriate for the upcoming election.

Energy
Barack Obama has claimed the Democrat line for himself, saying that we can't drill our way out of current gas prices and energy problems.  This is another example of how inept Obama is when it comes to even the most basic economic understanding.  Rule of thumb: when supply goes up, price goes down.  When we're a big supplier, we pay less for our own product.  Also, other countries will pay us for that black stuff if we have more of it to sell.  Duh.  Drill Here, Drill Now.


History is irrelevant
I believe it was Winston Churchill who said, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."  Barack Obama has a horrendous understanding of history, especially for someone who is seeking to be the leader of the free world.  For example, he totally whiffed on JFK's meeting with Khrushchev while trying to defend his pledge to meet with our enemies.  He has a history of screwing up foreign policy decisions, from opposing free trade agreements to waffling on the Iraq war to showing a clear lack of understanding about the Muslim nations who would like to see America destroyed.  He clearly doesn't get what history teaches us about dealing with enemies, so that explains why he continues to put forward the same failed policies of liberals from the last 50 years.


Winnie the Pooh Foreign Policy

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: "Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security."

He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.

WHAT???  Not only does Barack Obama lack basic historical and economic understanding, but the man he will likely appoint as his National Security Adviser -- this is the person who guides the President's national security policy, mind you -- thinks that Winnie the Pooh is the textbook for security!  Almost as ridiculous is the fact that he thinks terrorists are blowing themselves up because they want to be a hero like Luke Skywalker!  This fundamental lack of understanding is especially disturbing when you consider that he has actually pledged to disarm the United States:

In a message to Caucus 4 Priorities, a liberal pacifist organization, (available on YouTube), the Senator called for major cuts in defense spending, for slowing or suspending the development of future combat systems, for the abolition of spending on the "weaponizing of space" ("Star Wars") and the slashing of investment in our ballistic missile defense program. More broadly he promised to support the group's policies. These include:

reducing the National Missile Defense program to a basic research program; cutting spending on platforms like the F-22 Raptor, the Virginia-class Submarine, the V-22 Osprey airplane/helicopter hybrid, the DDG-1000 destroyer, and the Army's Future Combat System. Also, the group advocates reducing America's force structure by eliminating two Air Force fighter wings and one aircraft carrier battle-group.

This supreme idiocy speaks for itself.  But there's more.  While actively disarming America, he plans to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq through an immediate withdrawal.  Without having visited Iraq in the last two years, he says there is no progress.  Charles Krauthammer points out all the progress Obama is missing (emphasis mine):

1. [T]he Iraqi army [recently went] into Basra. It achieved in a few weeks what the British had failed to do in four years: take the city, drive out the Mahdi Army and seize the ports from Iranian-backed militias.
2. When Mahdi fighters rose up in support of their Basra brethren, the Iraqi army at Maliki's direction confronted them and prevailed in every town -- Najaf, Karbala, Hilla, Kut, Nasiriyah and Diwaniyah -- from Basra to Baghdad.
3. Without any American ground forces, the Iraqi army entered and occupied Sadr City, the Mahdi Army stronghold.
4. Maliki flew to Mosul, directing a joint Iraqi-U.S. offensive against the last redoubt of al-Qaeda, which had already been driven out of Anbar, Baghdad and Diyala provinces.
5. The Iraqi parliament enacted a de-Baathification law, a major Democratic benchmark for political reconciliation.
6. Parliament also passed the other reconciliation benchmarks -- a pension law, an amnesty law, and a provincial elections and powers law. Oil revenues are being distributed to the provinces through the annual budget.
7. With Maliki having demonstrated that he would fight not just Sunni insurgents (e.g., in Mosul) but Shiite militias (e.g., the Mahdi Army), the Sunni parliamentary bloc began negotiations to join the Shiite-led government. (The final sticking point is a squabble over a sixth Cabinet position.)

Barack Obama is naive, uninformed, unwilling to see the facts right in front of him, and dangerously arrogant.  He is a foreign policy nightmare waiting to happen.


Changing America
We hear all about how Barack Obama is going to bring 'hope' and 'change' to America, so Floyd and Mary Beth Brown have identified six specific ways he'll do that.

1. Rampant abortion
Obama received a 100 percent rating from NARAL (a pro-abortion group) in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Why do they hold him in such high esteem? Because he supports every pro-abortion bill that comes along. He wants tax dollars for abortions, he voted against notifying parents of minors about abortions, he supports partial-birth abortion, and he would withhold life-saving measures from babies born after botched abortions.  Obama wants no limits on abortion, ever, but he is completely out of step with the majority of Americans. For example, seven out of 10 are against partial-birth abortion -- which is a brutal procedure in the second or third trimester of pregnancy in which babies are pulled feet-first from the womb, stabbed through the skull with a scissor-like instrument and their brains are sucked out via a strong suction tube. Afterwards the dead baby's collapsed head is removed from the mother. As ugly as it is, and as it sounds, in Obama's America it would be routinely done all the way up to the time of birth.

2. Weak national security
Obama is glaringly weak on national security. He advocates negotiating with terrorists. One week after he told AIPAC, a pro-Israel group, that Jerusalem "must remain undivided," he backpedaled, did a shameless about-face, and now declares that the status of Jerusalem will need to be negotiated in future talks. Obama naively wants to pull our troops out of Iraq without first ensuring stability in the area, which will put all of America at risk.

3. Raise taxes through the roof
Obama will dramatically raise taxes. In response to Bush's 2008 State of the Union address, Obama said he is against tax cuts for Americans. "We heard the president say he wants to make tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent, when we know that at a time of war and economic hardship, the last thing we need is a permanent tax cut for Americans who don't need them and weren't even asking for them."

4. Socialized medicine
"Well, look, I believe in universal health care," Obama said at a presidential debate last February. "Every expert has said that anybody who wants health care under my plan will be able to obtain it." Obama likes to call it "universal health care" because it sounds more palatable than what it is: socialized medicine. [And you will pay for it with higher taxes.]

5. Socialized education
His far-left voting record voices his beliefs about education. In 2003, he cast his vote in Illinois to allow "age appropriate" sex education to be taught in elementary school. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU also supported this legislation. In Illinois, Obama also supported "free" taxpayer funded college tuition for students as long as they maintained a "B" average. This sounds nice, but where does the money come from? You, of course, with higher taxes.

6. End free trade
USA Today wrote about Obama's plans: "Modifying or scrapping NAFTA wouldn't create jobs or more skilled workers. The idea raises false hope and seeks to scapegoat Mexico and Canada." The possibility of a President Obama is making Wall Street nervous and the stock market reflects it.

How does all this grab you?  Sound good?  I hope so, because that's what you'll get if Barack Obama gets elected along with a Democrat majority in Congress.  Personally, this sounds to me like the recipe for the end of America as we now know it.

Some other items of note include the fact that Obama would ban guns almost everywhere, new connections between Obama and terrorists are being found, and he has been chastised by the Iraqi foreign minister because he is so lacking in understanding of what's happening there.  He is worlds apart from JKF, to whom he is often likened.  His initial response at being questioned on anything is that the questioner is wrong or the issue is irrelevant.  He also wants to continue Bill Clinton's policy of fighting the War on Terror in civilian courts rather than on a military battlefield.  If we capture Osama bin Laden under an Obama administration, bin Laden can take America to court to plead his case and potentially be released.  Naturally, Obama says that our current issues were caused by Republicans who were 'distracted' by Iraq.  That suggestion doesn't match with history, though: under Bill Clinton's fight-terrorism-with-litigation policy, the World Trade Center was bombed (the first time), our forces were slaughtered in Somalia, and the U.S.S. Cole was bombed.  After 9/11, with Bush in office...nothing.  Now, you tell me which policy is more effective!

All of this is further proof that Obama just isn't ready to sit at the adult table yet.  Just keep this in mind when November rolls around.

There's my two cents.