Archive for November, 2008

Terrorism in the Subcontinent

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Perhaps you are burned out from the 24/7 coverage of the assault on Mumbai but here is a great overview of the incident with more details than you would ordinarily get from the main stream media.

 

Analysis: Mumbai attack differs from past terror strikes

By Bill Roggio

November 28, 2008 12:31 AM

Almost two days after terrorists attacked the Indian financial hub of Mumbai, the military is still working to root out the remnants of the assault teams at two hotels and a Jewish center. More than 125 people, including six foreigners, have been killed and 327 more have been wounded. The number is expected to go up, as Indian commandos have recovered an additional 30 dead at the Taj Mahal hotel as fighting has resumed.

The Mumbai attack is unique from past terror strikes carried out by Islamic terrorists. Instead of one or more bombings at distinct sites, the Mumbai attackers struck throughout the city using military tactics. Instead of one or more bombings carried out over a short period of time, Mumbai I entering its third day of crisis.

An attack of this nature cannot be thrown together overnight. It requires planned, scouting, financing, training, and a support network to aid the fighters. Initial reports indicate the attacks originated from Pakistan, the hub of jihadi activity in South Asia. Few local terror groups have the capacity to pull of an attack such as this.

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Debating the Demise of 20th Century Liberalism

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Recently I received a conservative article about the impact of Jimmy Carter on the events that have unfolded during the past thirty years or so. As we experience the return of liberalism from nearly a quarter century of dormancy, I felt it was time to set the record straight and re-examine the blame. The following is the article followed by my retort.

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 4:20 PM 
Jimmy Carter became our 39th president at the young age of 52. He was a one-term governor from Plains, GA, where he managed the family peanut farm and taught Sunday school. He was also a graduate of the Naval Academy and served seven years in the Navy, leaving as a lieutenant.
He came to power in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the resignation of President Nixon. The public wanted change and someone new, and Carter was an ambitious, hands-on politician who promised better days. As good as his intentions were, however, the things he tried were not successful. In fact, he created far more serious problems than he ever solved.
The centerpiece of Carter’s foreign policy was human rights, and he did achieve one noble success a peace treaty between Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin.
Unfortunately, that later led to Sadat’s assassination at the hands of Muslim radicals.
Many people felt Carter was a good man who worked hard and meant well.  But he was naive and incompetent in handling the enormous burdens and complex challenges of being president.
He wrongly believed Americans had an ‘inordinate fear of communism,’ so he lifted travel bans to Cuba, North Vietnam and Cambodia and pardoned draft evaders. He also stopped B-1 bomber production and gave away our strategically located Panama Canal.
His most damaging miscalculation was the withdrawal of U.S. Support for the Shah of Iran, a strong and longtime military ally. Carter objected to the Shah’s alleged mistreatment of imprisoned Soviet spies who were working to overthrow Iran’s government. He thought the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, being a religious man, would make a fairer leader.
Having lost U.S. Support, the Shah was overthrown, the Ayatollah returned, Iran was declared an Islamic nation and Palestinian hit men were hired to eliminate opposition.
The Ayatollah then introduced the idea of suicide bombers to the Palestine Liberation Organization, paying $35,000 to PLO families whose young people were brainwashed to kill as many Israelis as possible by blowing themselves up in crowded shopping areas.
Next, the Ayatollah used Iran’s oil wealth to create, train and finance a new terrorist organization, Hezbollah, which later would attack Israel in 2006.
In November 1979, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Not until six months into the ordeal did Carter attempt a rescue. But the mission, using just six Navy helicopters, was poorly executed. Three of20the copters were disabled or lost in sand storms. (Pilots weren’t allowed to meet with weather forecasters because someone in authority worried about security..) Five airmen and three Marines lost their lives.
So, due to overconfidence, inexperience and poor judgment, Carter undermined and lost a strong ally, Iran, that today aggressively threatens the U.S., Israel and the rest of the world with nuclear weapons.
But that’s not all.. After Carter met for the first time with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the USSR promptly invaded Afghanistan. Carter, ever the naive appeaser, was shocked. ‘I can’t believe the Russians lied to me,’ he said.
The invasion attracted a 23-year-old Saudi named Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan to recruit Muslim fighters and raise money for an anti-Soviet jihad. Part of that group eventually became al-Qaida, a terrorist organization that would declare war on America several times between 1996 and 1998 before attacking us on 9/11, killing more Americans than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
On Carter’s watch, the Soviet Union went on an unrestrained rampage in which it took over not only Afghanistan, but also Ethiopia, South Yemen, Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, Grenada and Nicaragua.
In spite of this, Carter’s last defense budget proposed spending 45% below pre-Vietnam levels for fighter aircraft, 75% for ships, 83% for attack submarines and 90% for helicopters.
Years later, as a civilian, Carter negotiated a peace agreement with North Korea to keep that communist country from developing nuclear weapons. He also convinced President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to go along with it. But the signed piece of paper proved worthless. The North Koreans deceived Carter and instead used our money, incentives and technical equipment to build nuclear weapons and pose the threat we face today.
Thus did Carter unwittingly become our Neville Chamberlain, creating with his well-intended but inept, unrealistic and gullible actions the very conditions that led to the three most dangerous security threats we face today: Iran, al-Qaida and North Korea.
On the domestic side, Carter gave us inflation of 15%, the highest in 34 years; interest rates of 21%, the highest in 115 years; and a severe energy crisis with lines around the block at gas stations nationwide.
In 1977, Carter, along with a Democrat Congress, created a worthy project with noble intentions-the Community Reinvestment Act. Over strong industry objections, it mandated that all banks meet the credit needs of their entire communities.
In 1995, President Clinton imposed even stronger regulations and performance tests that coerced banks to substantially increase loans to low-income, poverty-area borrowers or face fines or possible restrictions on expansion. These revisions allowed for securitization of CRA loans containing subprime mortgages.
By 1997, good loans were bundled wit h poor ones and sold as prime packages to institutions here and abroad. That shifted risk from the loan originators, freeing banks to begin pyramiding and make more of these profitable subprime products.
Under two young, well-intended presidents, therefore, big-government plans and mandates played a significant role in the current subprime mortgage mess and its catastrophic consequences for the U.S. and international economies.
Hardest-hit by the mortgage foreclosures have been the citizens that Democrats always claim to help most-inner-city residents who fell victim to low or no down payment schemes, unexpected adjustable rates, deceptive loan applications and commission-hungry salespeople.
Now we’re having to bail out at huge cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the very agencies that were supposed to stabilize the system. In time, this should improve the situation. But the party of Carter and Clinton that midwifes our mortgage mess now wants to be trusted to take over and have the government run our entire system of health care!
And everyone is blaming Bush for our current problems.

 

RESPONSE:

There are so many inaccuracies in this article I don’t know where to begin. Let’s start first with the premise. To understand Carter’s Presidency one must first remember what the political and national climate was like in the mid-70s. Don’t forget that Jimmy Carter took office a short two years after the end of the Vietnam War. The nation was still in shock after the loss of the Vietnam War and Watergate. No one elected in 1976 could have maintained our military prowess. The military was worn out and suffering from moral decay (does anyone remember the drug abuse in the military in the waning years of the Vietnam War?). Carter inherited a post war military that required downsizing. He also inherited a post war economy. The war had fueled an economic boom in the 60s. The economic woes that shadowed Carter were a direct result of the ending of the war.  Many think Reagan saved the economy. In reality he did something that we are still feeling today, he simply lowered taxes and put the deficit on the nation’s credit card.

The author of this article implies that Carter should have continued to support the Shah of Iran. What he fails to point out is the Shah was a brutal king who waged a climate of fear within his country similar to what Hussein did in Iraq. The weapons he used to perpetrate his policies were US weapons. The author also failed to point out the US, in a CIA directed coup, overthrew the democratically elected Mossedeq in the 1950s in order to prop up the Shah because a king is much easier to control than a democratically elected leader who represents his people. Why did we do this?…oil. So when the Islamic revolution began in 1979, the militants went directly to the US Embassy to ensure another coup would not be forthcoming from the US. Why did they go to the US Embassy? Because in the 50s the CIA carried out their coup from the basement of that very embassy.

The author also points out the Ayatollah supported attacks by Hezbollah against the Israelis. The simple point is how do attacks on Israel affect American security? Our support of Israel has been a detriment to our foreign policy. The single most significant driving force behind the attacks on the World Trade Center was our continued unquestionable support of Israel and the resentment this causes in the region. Can anyone tell me what advantage we gain for supporting Israel? In fact our support of Israel has been a hindrance in solving serious issues in the region. For example, when we called on the Sunni states in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf to assist us in Iraq most didn’t come to our aid, claiming that our policy in Israel was preventing them from assisting us in dealing with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq in 2003-04.

The author speaks of the Soviets during the Carter Administration going on a “rampage” (whatever that means) by seizing the countries of Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Yemen, Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, Grenada and Nicaragua. The author is not very astute if he thinks the Soviets seized Grenada and Nicaragua. And what strategic significance were the other nations to US national security? Don’t forget it was Nicaragua that got Reagan in a lot of hot water over weapons and money transfers between the dreaded Islamic state of Iran and the Contras in Nicaragua. The author insinuates that Carter could have prevented the Soviets from invading their neighbor Afghanistan. The Soviets invaded because they saw their southern neighbor was having a negative affect on the Soviet Muslim republics. Nothing Carter could have done would have prevented the Soviets from invading Afghanistan. Later, it was Reagan’s support of the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan which led to the rise of a little known jihadist named Osama Bin Laden not Carter’s policies. There are about 3000 Americans not living who probably would have preferred the Soviets win that war.

I’m not a huge fan of Jimmy Carter but his most significant foreign policy achievement was the peace treaty that secured an enduring peace between Israel and Egypt and opened the door for a similar deal between the Jewish state and Jordan and let’s not forget that this accomplishment ended the vicious cycle of wars between Israel’s neighbors and Israel. It is almost laughable the author postscripts this achievement by saying Anwar Sadat was assassinated as a result of the deal as if it wasn’t worth the price paid by the heroic sacrifice made by Sadat. The real interesting point to be made about Sadat’s assassination is that it was carried out by a group who included Zayman Al-Zawahiri, the number two man in Al-Qaida.

The author also brings up North Korea. North Korea obtained their nuclear program from A.Q. Khan, a Pakistani scientist. When it was revealed in the early 2000s that Khan was the mastermind behind N. Korea gaining the bomb he was placed on house arrest. Bush would not pressure the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, to punish the scientist further because Bush needed Musharraf as an ally to fight Al-Qaeda. The question of dealing with the North Korean nuclear situation revolved around one fact, and one fact only. There is but one nation that has any leverage at all in North Korea and that is China. Was the US willing to go to war with China over North Korea’s nuclear program? This was the only way short of diplomacy that could have halted their program. To call Carter a Neville Chamberlain over North Korea is absolutely ridiculous. Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler ended up giving Hitler leverage to seize Czechoslovakia and eventually the courage to invade Poland which resulted in the a war of immeasurable carnage. The North Korean nuclear program has had negligible impact.

Finally, the author states we should not blame Bush for the current situation. If an approval rating in the upper 20s (the lowest rating since the statistic has been measured) is not convincing enough then perhaps a few facts will convince you. Bush is the first President in history to wage a war and not tax the people to pay for it. In fact, his poor leadership skills failed to make the Americans sacrifice at all. After 9-11 he told Americans to just go out and shop. And spend we did. In 2006 the American savings rate was the lowest it had been since the Great Depression (and during the 1930s people distrusted the banks so much that even if they were the lucky ones to have any money in savings many simply stashed it in a coffee can). The national debt has doubled since Bush took office. Running as a conservative Bush grew the government to unprecedented levels. He created a whole new department (Homeland Security) and initiated the funding of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act which will have a price tag of over $500 billion in the next ten years.  Bush and his Republicans engaged in a war against the middle class. Through their economic policies the uneven distribution of wealth is at levels not seen since before the Great Depression. And then there is Bush’s baby: the Iraq War. A war waged on trumped up intelligence (do a google search on the Bush Administration’s signature source of Iraqi intelligence; Curveball) and against an enemy that had been contained. An enemy that held in check the very nation  the author of the article blamed Carter for empowering, Iran. Iran now is the unchallenged power in the region and has armed Shia insurgents in Iraq that have led to the deaths of US soldiers. Iraq has caused the US to take its eye off the ball in Afghanistan and our most important task, the capture or killing of Bin Laden and the destruction of Al-Qaida. The US military is now significantly worn down at a time when we need them most to renew the “real” war in Afghanistan which is rapidly deteriorating. Bush in eight years has turned the world from showing enthusiastic support and sympathy for us following 9-11 to believing America is no longer the bastion of the principles our founding fathers laid out in the 18th century. Bush, who when the nation is faced with a severe economic crisis, acts like a cuckoo clock and says a few words and retreats back into the White House. George Bush, in the current econoic crisis has become a latter day James Buchanan who did nothing as he watched the southern states succeed from the Union in the secession winter of 1860-61. Jimmy Carter’s mistakes seem minor in comparison. We can only hope that Barack Obama will be our Abraham Lincoln and erase the damage done these last eight years.

Raging Sage 111908

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Why can’t we come to the realization that Americans have lost the ability to make good automobiles? The answer to the current automobile crisis is to chop the head off of the American manufacturers and replace them with Japanese. If this sounds radical, well, it is but if these companies were run by our friends in the East we would see a revolution in American automobiles. Let’s face it, Honda and Toyota produce superior vehicles. Year after year they appear at the top of the ratings. Let the fat cat CEOs fly their Lier Jets into the sunset and lets get this sector of manufacturing moving again.

_____________________________________________

So the number two Al-Qaida leader Zayman Al-Zawahiri called our newly elected President a “house Negro”, but he really called him a “house slave” (in Arabic: Abd al-bait).  It was an insult which he gathered from Malcolm X, however it is obvious the bearded Egyptian has no concept of the Black experience in America. Calling Obama an Uncle Tom when 96% of African Americans voted for him literally is an insult to Blacks throughout America. Furthermore how can the owner of the plantation be called a “house Negro”? I guess when the “house Negro” drops a bunker buster on his cave, old Zayman will see that change has come to Pakistan also!! Yes we can!

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War and Wisdom on Veteran’s Day

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Ninety years ago today the guns fell silent in Europe. On this day The Great War came to a close after all sides in Western Europe unleashed their remaining artillery stockpiles prior to the time the armistice was to take effect at 11:00 on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. WW I was a senseless war, fought mainly for pride and nationalism and led to the deaths of nine million people. The war was waged in the open fields of Russia, the mountains of Italy, the craggy terrain of Turkey and most conspicuous, the trenches of Western Europe. The “silent episode” of that war occurred in Turkey where Armenian Christians were rounded up and executed by Muslim Turks often referred to as the Armenian Genocide. Adolph Hitler, who had waged war for four years in the trenches on the Western Front would later, as dictator, reference the extermination of the Jews with the events of Turkey on his mind. “Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?”WW I

The impact of WW I is greatly underestimated since there would be no Second World War without the first. There would be no shaping the warrior mind of Adolph Hitler without it nor the conditions that would ultimately lead to a new generation to wage a more brutal war to settle old scores from the first. There would be no Holocaust which would see a race of people nearly wiped out. Without this string of events there would have been no reason for western guilt that led to the creation of the state of Israel as a haven for persecuted Jews. A haven that is seen by all the other occupants of the region as simply a new form of western colonization; one further complicated by religious hostility on both sides.

Without one war and thus the other there would have been no wartime nuclear program nor a Cold War, at least in the form it took after WW II, thus no Korean War nor Vietnam War and certainly no communist revolution in Cuba.

The lesson we should learn is a war of choice never ends in the way its executors envision…never, and WW I was no exception. Wars have a way of taking on a life of their own.

But on this day, Veteran’s Day we salute those who have kept this nation safe.  From the ill clad Patriots who forged this nation with their blood at Brandywine Creek and Saratoga to the naval gunners who blasted through British warships who had sealed off America’s harbors during the War of 1812. bulge1From Zachary Taylor’s boys firing with deadly accuracy their artillery pieces at the hard fought battle of Monterey to Joshua Chamberlain’s master stroke initiated by the 20th Maine at Little Round Top before the small town of Gettysburg. From the gallant doughboys who battled the Jerrys ferociously  in  the Argonne Forest with sure determination in 1918 to the green Marines who waged war against a determined foe in the jungles of Guadalcanal or the determined paratroopers who held their ground around the frozen town of Bastogne despite being cut off in the Christmas of 1944.   From the warriors of the 7th Infantry who held off a massive Chinese army at the Chosin Resevoir in Korea to the dogged determination of the Marines along the Perfume River town of Hue to extract the NVA from the ancient Vietnamese city.iraq__us_troops_bag116 From those who routed Saddam’s army in the Gulf in 1990 to the special units who took on an entire city in the dilapidated hovel that is Mogadishu in Somalia in 1992. From those who fought house to house in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah with a fanatical enemy determined to die to those who walk point in the Korangal River Valley in Afghanistan. To all those who have fought and died to keep our nation prosperous, on this day and every day we honor their sacrifice and hope that the leaders who make the decisions to raise the sword will show as much wisdom as these boys have shown valor.

While the Duck is Lame…

Monday, November 10th, 2008

President-Elect Obama went to see his new digs today. Anyone who sees the video or still images of the two couples meeting can’t help but comprehend the uniqueness of the sight. obama-bush Not only are the visual images of the two Presidents different but could the ideology of the two men be any farther apart? With the economy in shambles, the foreign policy a disaster and the current American leader effectively neutered, is there anyone out there who would just as soon see Obama become President, say, yesterday? I would make a hunch that even those who didn’t vote for Obama would like to see him President sooner rather than later just to get on with it. Gallup issued a poll today that contained the clearest indication of what a folly President Bush’s administration is. In the history of Gallup tracking no President, not Truman and his seemingly endless Korean War, not even Carter following economic woes and the Iran hostage crisis dipped as low as President Bush. President Bush now stands at 27% approval (For some reason Nixon’s favorability rating was not listed on the Gallup poll). As the economy melts down around us we are forced to endure a lame duck period which seems to have gone on for four years now with the exception of Iraq.

We are starting to get a hint at what Obama wishes to do when he becomes President. As is usual, the executive orders that were signed by Bush will be reviewed. obama-bush1 It appears the ban on government funded stem cell research will be ended. We can only hope that science will now be king again. Bush is planning on opening up more areas for drilling, principally areas of Utah with an executive order. Obama will surely shut this down. The crazy Republican chant of “Drill Baby Drill” will go the way of Dick Cheney. Obama has also addressed the possibility of closing Guantanamo as an enemy detention center. As a Constitutional law professor Obama has a unique understanding of the complexities of the situation.

But it is the economy that is dominating the Obama timetable. Usually, winners of Presidential elections take a couple months before they begin filling their cabinets. President-Elect Obama has already begun to fill his. All indications is he plans to hit the road running on January 20th. As a student of history, Obama, by all indications, comprehends the errors made by the Clinton Administration in their early going and will do all he can to avoid similar missteps. For example, Clinton took his time naming his cabinet and quickly became embroiled in the debate over gays in the military while dealing with a changing situation in Somalia that led to poor decisions and withdrawal.

There is little doubt Obama will have one key asset. He will go into office as the most popular President perhaps in the history of the United States in terms of world perception. Even in the US he has a 70% favorability rating. How long it will last is anyone’s guess but with two wars to fight I’m sure some of Obama’s actions as a wartime President will not always jive with the wider world. But Obama has a wonderful opportunity to bring in allies to put pressure on the those who endanger us. As Thomas Friedman eloquently says, Obama must get the world to “show us the money“. Patting the new President on the back and smiling will not be sufficient under the current political global climate. It seems like with all the problems that face our nation and the world there are many that just want to get on with it. Maybe we should ask DSL and Circuit City workers how they feel about the effectiveness of a lame duck period.

Shift in Capitol

Friday, November 7th, 2008

There were some amazing images from Tuesday night. As a liberal I cannot remember a more memorable positive political night than November 4th. The feeling of joy from Chicago, to the White House gate, to my house, to London and beyond were sights I would never forget. It was like waking from the most horrible nightmare to realize I am 10 years old and it is Christmas morning.

The 2008 election was a repudiation of the Bush Presidency and everything it stood for. For a junior Black Senator to win the highest office in the land required a perfect storm. It was no narrow victory, either. Barack Obama won 53% of the vote. Ronald Reagan in 1980 won just under 51% (granted Reagan cleaned up on the electoral college map).  The 2008 electoral map is very revealing. By stretching the playing field Obama was able to seize all but the Deep South, Western Appalachia, the Prairie Midwest (with Missouri being on the fault line), and the underpopulated Mountain States plus Arizona. Is this the result of a poor campaign run by McCain or does it reveal the diminishing support of the Republican party? Only time will tell. The result of the vote, no doubt, was largely influenced by the economy. And finally there is Sarah Palin. That darling of the anti-intellectual right wing so epitomized by Joe the Plumber found a way to spend campaign dough that nearly matched the “Bridge to nowhere” earmark. McCain’s selection of the Alaska Governor was a disaster. Not only was she ill prepared for the job but she didn’t have the political savvy to follow a game plan.

One is seeing in these days what a serious person Obama is. One would think after a grueling campaign that lasted 21 months he would be on some Hawaiian beach somewhere but the President-elect has not slowed down a bit. He is now privy to all the highly classified information that a sitting President receives. After an intelligence briefing he met with key figures to begin working out a way to approach the economic mess he will inherit. As I have always said about voting for Obama, you begin with smarts and you go from there.

A New Day in America

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

       Barack Obama

       President Elect of the United States of America

While the World Holds Its Breath

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

 

 

Tonight Barack Obama spoke in front of a throng of supporters in Manassas, Virginia. There is significant symbolism to both the occasion and the location. Manassas was the site of the first land battle fought during the War Between the States; the most violent conflict in American history and the event that began the long process of creating a society that would better perfect the founding documents; the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The fact that Barack Obama had gathered the night before the election in Virginia speaks volumes about this election. The last time Virginia voted for a Democratic nominee for president was in 1964 for Lyndon Johnson of Texas who would go on to sign the Civil Rights Act that ensured the fracturing of the Democratic Party. Neither Jimmy Carter in 1976 nor Bill Clinton were able to carry the state despite their geographic affiliation. In 2008 a Black man is on the precipice of of taking a state that is the home of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both slave holders and was the location of the capital of the Confederate States of America in Richmond. To look at that huge crowd that had gathered to hear the northern politician speak and understand the historical significance of time and space should make you proud to be an American no matter your party affiliation.

 

 

As you prepare to go to the polls I make one final appeal to assuage your vote; one final attempt to influence you to vote for Obama during this election.

  1. Of the two candidates who is the smartest man to extract us from the problems that face this nation?
  2. Barack Obama is loyal to both his wife and his two children. Those who rightly found Bill Clinton’s dalliances objectionable should look long and hard at the marital history of the two candidates.
  3. The foreign policy problems that face this nation cannot be solved unilaterally. With the world holding its breath in anticipation of a Barack Obama victory, we may be able to hit the reset button on the affection and support this nation experienced following 9-11. Barack Obama will have unprecedented international support to begin his presidency; something that will be greatly needed in the wake of economic woes and ballooning national debt.
  4. Barack Obama’s middle name has been a negative during this campaign but it may be an ace in the hole when dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Since Clinton and his foreign policy team were inches away from drafting a peace deal in the twilight of his administration, perhaps a renewed vigor from an Obama administration can do what no president has been able to do in the region.
  5. Barack Obama’s favorite book is Team of Rivals, a book about Abraham Lincoln and the people who Lincoln surrounded himself with that would go on to help him win the Civil War, people who had once run against him for the presidency. Obama has promised to create a bi-partisan cabinet. I hold him at his word.
  6. Barack Obama has never openly courted the Black vote. He has run an inclusive campaign but anyone who has been paying attention knows the weight African Americans are putting on this election. It is said the Black electorate tomorrow will be off the charts. Obama’s calls for Blacks to take responsibility in their lives and the mere role model he represents will at the very least force the community to take a long hard look at themselves.
  7. Finally, the fact this nation elected a minority as President will send a signal to the world like no other that the America they always loved and admired once again is the beacon of freedom and liberty and not torture and war. Obama will be a symbol of that like no other man we could have elected.

Whatever your preference please get out and vote tomorrow. It is the greatest symbol of love and acknowledgement you can give for the sacrifice of those who have given their all for this great nation and for what it represents.

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I would like all my readers to post who they think will win tomorrow and what the electoral college tally will be. You can go to the following website to play around with the electoral college map:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/pick-your-president/

It should be no surprise that  I predict an Obama victory. My guess is Obama 332, McCain 206. Of the battleground states I think Obama will win Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Nevada. McCain will take Indiana, North Carolina, and Missouri.

Let’s hear what you have to say.