Priceless judgment

Posts like this one make it clear why some get thousands of hits while others get hundreds of tens of hits or so:

I love these Dems - if there is an international crisis at 3 AM Hillary, tastefully turned out in a suit and matching necklace, will answer the bell. Oh, well, she was probably staying up working on ways to improve my life.

Obama's response we have only heard about ten thousand times - if the phone rings at 3 AM we can be sure that he won't invade Iraq in 2003.

My addition won't be as witty but it's still free...Barack reminds me of a businessman cashing in frequent flier miles for a trip to Hawaii, except in his case cashing in his 2002 war stance chit against Hillary. No triangulation--it's doubtful his rhetoric back in 2002 was said with 2008 in mind, he was just trying to get elected in the land of Durban. Providence, or something, visited him when Iraq went to the dogs and he suddenly had a huge but rather sad advantage.

He's publicly admitted (to little fanfare) that Hillary was privy to intelligence he didn't have and things might have been different had he been forced to vote but the buck stops there, it's just too good not to use. In a way he's like a smart-ass liberal message board poster lording his superiority over a conservative rival without paying attention to underlying logic or fact. He knows Hillary doesn't want an extended debate about it.

After all, she fought valiantly to stop him with a clumsily crafted bit of doublespeak designed to suggest her 2002 vote was not about sending troops, but inspectors. And it would have worked had she remained the media darling, but once that cap fell off it was exposure city and CNN's Wolf Blitzer finally unloaded on her in the Los Angeles debates in late Jnauary. "If I only knew then what I know now" disappeared fast into political history, perhaps soon to be followed by its originator. So if Barack wins it'll be thanks in part, in a weird way, to the other Hussein.

My bold prediction is that with nomination in hand Obama will nuance his Iraq position versus McCain, who represents a harder target since he's been a POW and was overtly critical of Rumsfeld and other deficiencies in the pursuit. Should the politics turn for the better Obama might even try to eliminate it from debate sans mention of the "real war" in Afghanistan (the country that didn't provide any 9/11 hijackers or invade any of their neighbors or ever use WMDs). Of course, McCain is on record as vowing to follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell so Barack's advantage there is minimal, if any at all.

As to Iraqi politics, A'jad just met with them in Baghdad today. According to CNN he said,

"visiting Iraq without the dictator is a good thing."

Obama belongs to "any dialogue is good dialogue" club so it'll be hard to bash this trip for what it really was--an in your face flouting of Shi'a grip over a country where they provided roadside bombs and got away with it scot-free. While mainly a hit for Bushitler with a glancing blow to Mr '100 year war' it should also illustrate why talking for talking's sake is not the be-all, end-all when dealing with idiots, charlatans, posers or thugs.

Another reason for silence from Messiah HQ could be this--had US America's Hussein been involved in the 3 am decision-making back in 2003 Sunday's state visit would never have occurred. Iraq-Middle East Hussein would likely still be in power having a grand time harboring terrorists, writing checks to UN members and the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and disallowing inspectors. The sanctions might even be gone by now allowing God knows what to be in motion.

MORE 3/2/08

More shallow logic from the Populist. It sounds so good! But it displays a general misunderstanding of how wars are usually funded, which is to borrow the money. It's part of the huge discretionary spending total, which also includes things like earmarks. Is Obama suggesting we now borrow 12 billion a month and give people jobs leaning on shovels, sort of a 21st Century version of Roosevelt's depression-era work programs?

The word he's avoiding is "consequence". If we haphazardly leave Iraq the price of oil most likely will go up, perhaps concurrent with a regional war left in the wake of our departure or Iranian hegemony of Iraq's oilfields. Might just produce a tad of blowback.

To some it doesn't matter, only change matters, as long as it's not a change to McCain. They're perfectly content with watching Yoda on the stage and have no desire to see Frank Oz struggling beneath the floor operating the rods.