Leadership and Experience

McCain has made a big deal of suspending his campaign to concentrate on our financial woes (well, mostly, his campaign manager went ahead with a fundraising dinner, apparently). But what kind of impact did McCain make?

Largely a negative one, according to a post at the New York Times.

So McCain "suspends" his campaign--he didn't, really--and equivocates about whether to debate because the financial emergency is so crucial--a week after he said the fundamentals of the economy were sound--and he flies to Washington where:

1. The House Republicans blow up a rare, and necessary, moment of true bipartisanship to make it look like McCain, who has no expertise in this area, has come to the rescue.

2. McCain sits mute in the White House summit arranged for his benefit. He doesn't even ask Paulson what he thinks of the House Republican plan.

3. He refuses to take a stand, one way or another, on the Republican plan.

Gosh, thanks, Senator McCain. But maybe you should go ahead and get back on the campaign trail.

Damn Liberal Media!

Here are the comments of Joe Klein, the most liberal columnist at Time magazine, at a breakfast sponsored by HBO and the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Well they won't if their message is that they hate America -- which is what has been the message of the liberal wing of the party for the past twenty years."

I'm sure you noted how Klein shielded his liberal buddies. Yeah he acknowledged something we all know, Liberal Democrats hate America. But that is so obvious he probably felt he had to admit that.

But what he failed to note was that Liberals don't just hate America. They are actively working to destroy America. Why did Mr. Klein, the most liberal columnist at Time magazine leave out that part? Well maybe he's still, in a typical liberal deceit, trying to hide the truth. Too bad that the American people are able to see through your lies, eh, Mr. Klein?

Thank Goodness the Adults are In Charge

Joe Klein has written an article for Time this week. It's a recit of the Bush Administration's failures in persuing the Iraq war as well as the difficulties they face and would not be remarkable save for the lucid writing style of Mr. Klein.

At any rate, for those of you who want to believe the Bush Adminsitration, being Republican, will automatically wage war more effectively than the hated Democrats, you might want to skip it. Frankly, it's filled with passages like this.

It is no secret that General Tommy Franks didn't want to hang around Iraq very long. As Franks led the U.S. assault on Baghdad in April 2003, his goal--and that of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld--was to get to the capital as quickly as possible with a minimal number of troops. Franks succeeded brilliantly at that task. But military-intelligence officers contend that he did not seem interested in what would come next. "He never once asked us for a briefing about what happened once we got to Baghdad," says a former Army intelligence officer attached to the invasion force. "He said, 'It's not my job.' We figured all he wanted to do was get in, get out and write his book." (Franks, through a spokesman, declined to comment for this article.)

The rush to Baghdad, critics say, laid the groundwork for trouble to come. In one prewar briefing, for example, Lieut. General David McKiernan--who commanded the land component of the coalition forces--asked Franks what should be done if his troops found Iraqi arms caches on the way to Baghdad. "Just put a lock on 'em and go, Dave," Franks replied, according to a former U.S. Central Command (Centcom) officer. Of course, you couldn't simply put a lock on ammunition dumps that stretched for several square miles--dumps that would soon be stripped and provide a steady source of weaponry for the insurgency.

Something to think about. Still it's lucky we don't have Kerry in there; he might have really messed things up.