Do Not Send a Boy

By Alan Caruba

It is an old adage. Do not send a boy to do a man’s job.

That appears to be what a lot of Americans intend to do when they vote for Barrack Obama.

Perhaps it is from my vantage point of some seven decades on Earth, but when I listen to or see Obama on television, what I see is a very appealing young man who needs to put some time in, oh say, the U.S. Senate. Barely halfway through his first term, he has spent most of his time running for the highest office in the land. Talk about audacity!

Some might say that the experience he gained as an Illinois legislator counts for something but he mostly voted “present” during that term in office. The job of legislator requires taking a position on weighty issues. Just being “present” suggests a lack of any strong convictions except, perhaps, for wanting to be the President of the United States of America.

Previous “experience” appears to be something called “a community organizer” and he has certainly organized a heck of a campaign. He’s quite skilled at mass rallies and reading speeches from a teleprompter; speeches presumably written by someone else, full of rhetorical grandeur, but devoid of any substance, leaving us at a loss to know what he believes in other than wanting to be the next President.

When one of the leading liberal daily newspapers in the nation, the Washington Post, takes a candidate to task, that candidate should begin to worry. In its Wednesday, July 23 edition, an editorial called into question his assertion that those whom he met in his Iraq tour agreed with his view of a swift withdrawal of troops. They did not.

The Post then took him to task for his rather odd view that Afghanistan is “the central front” of combat in the Middle East when clearly the very oil-rich and centrally located Iraq is. The Post noted that al Qaeda is not in Afghanistan—the Taliban is—and that the U.S. cannot operate militarily in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden is presumably located.

Visiting a whole bunch of nations in a week’s time doesn’t quite strike me as “experience” in foreign affairs. I have a cousin who has traveled all over the world and can tell you what shots to take before going to Africa or India, but I don’t ask him for an opinion on how to resolve long-standing, often intransigent international issue.

Obama’s military “experience” doesn’t exist. All things considered, I have more military experience, having been drafted into the U.S. Army and being honorably discharged with a good conduct ribbon. By comparison, Sen. McCain, a graduate of Annapolis, a Vietnam War fighter pilot, and former prisoner of war leaves young Obama in the dust.

The policies of the Bush administration have resulted in what most people agree is a belated, but successful conclusion to the war in Iraq. The only debate about Iraq is how soon to leave and, as the Washington Post has noted, Obama is increasingly vague, saying he will be guided by our generals there. That’s been Bush’s policy for the last five years! When he fired Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and actually started to listen to them, we began to win.

What we do know about Obama is that he is possibly the most politically liberal candidate since Jimmy Carter to run for the office. If elected, he and the Democrats will introduce every tried and failed “solution” to America’s present problems, making them worse if that is possible. And it is.

These are, after all, the same people who have resisted any drilling or mining for America’s vast natural energy resources. They are the same people still talking about “global warming” a decade into a scientifically certified cooling cycle that began in 1998. They are the same people who see nothing wrong in letting millions of illegal aliens ignore our southern border. These are people who think banning the sale of the incandescent light bulb will save the Earth.

John McCain is always being called “old.” Ronald Reagan was called “old.” Reagan did a pretty good job as a result of having real governing experience and real convictions. Rejecting real experience and the often sage advice that comes with it is something that children do. Ask any parent.

Voting for Barrack Obama because he can sink a basketball and is skilled at contriving a variety of photo opportunities is just not good enough. Obama supporters need to grow up. So does their candidate.