<p>Bedhead, those are completely legitimate points. Believe it or not, many republicans have those concerns. Dismissing the Senator because
“he’s ooooold” is not.</p>
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BZ, I can say with absolute sincerity that I’m stunned with how often I agree with you these days. </p>
<p>In the context, Senator McCain’s comments were not an attack on Senator Obama’s patriotism, but it makes such a great sound bite to say otherwise! Just like the Maliki thing. Twist and spin a little bit, and voila! something not quite true has become the conventional wisdom.</p>
<p>bh - have you seen any signs of “notorious temper issues” lately?</p>
<p>And I’m still hearing about how much energy he has - more than many of those much younger than he is who are traveling w/ him. My goodness, the guy has kept up an absolutely punishing schedule for more than a year now. He has campaigned longer & harder than anyone else in this campaign. Last summer, when he was practically written off as a candidate, he was lugging his own suitcases & hauling himself from town hall to townhall earning his votes a few at a time. He has clawed his way to the top of the heap this time around - and he’s STILL going strong! </p>
<p>If that doesn’t demonstrate that he’s well past being up to the job of POTUS, I don’t know what would!</p>
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<p>This cuts at two levels. For me, the two overriding issues are Iraq and the economy. Tied in with the economy are taxation and deficit issues.</p>
<p>For me, Obama is right on on Iraq: he is a foreign policy realist, not a fay idealist, and he has some great advisors. He thinks Iraq was a major distraction which I agree with and that it hasn’t served our nation’s interests, especially when weighed against our loss of blood and treasure, not to mention the deaths of non-Americans. And, while he is adamant about taking responsibility for a decision to withdraw troops, he will have built in enough flexibility into his position to actually let it adjust a bit to fit realities or recommendations from the military. I don’t want someone locked into one goal, totally fixed, but I want that position to be fixed enough that we could crucify him if he changed his tune on this for weak reasons. Additionally, I don’t want someone who will, as Commander in Chief, hide behind the judgement of people in the military who work for the Commander in Chief. </p>
<p>On the economy, this is two issues to me: 1) McCain is really horribly weak in this area by his own admission. 2) Obama’s plan will move towards closing the deficit more effectively – though both don’t project to be able to do this, but Obama’s plan is more straightforward. Tax breaks for the wealthy as we entered a very costly war was exactly not what the doctor ordered and will cost us dearly for at least a generation. McCain has a very modest plan – that will actually result in a middle class tax cut to redress this issue.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with Obama on FISA. I am not sure I agree with him on health care. I think his statements about gun control were politically convenient.</p>
<p>Regarding, the other way in which this cuts. Obama has the ability to articulate, explain, listen, exert judgement, and be intelligent to be the Commander in Chief that I would like to see lead the nation. Clinton had his personal foibles but he is an incredibly smart man. I don’t know if Obama’s in that league or just has an incredible intelligence of a different kind. But he speaks on his feet, cuts to the core of issues, and especially as far as I’ve been able to see with his statements from his world tour is deliberative, strategic, well-spoken – he is simply presidential. Sometimes he can seem a bit aloof or humorless, but that’s only when he’s issuing statements or giving speeches. I honestly don’t care if the president, furthermore, is someone who I want to have a beer with or be at a bbq with (the refrain heard about Bush). I want someone smart, up to the task</p>
<p>McCain just isn’t for me. He seems tired. Now he seems constrained from being the John McCain that I actually like perhaps because he is in a strait jacket of campaign discipline. I don’t hear the same level of intelligence at all, the ability to nimbly size up situations, encounter new thinking, formulate thoughts around those, and express himself that well – at least not recently. He’s not looking presidential. Now he’s a fine sight better than Bush, but that is saying so little. McCain’s shown real courage at various points in his life, and he has been an exceedingly charming man. This is why I might have voted for him 8 years ago, even though I am really against his position on abortion and a host of other things. But he pandered to the Bush right-wing of the Republican party. He lost his soul. I can’t tell what he thinks for sure about a lot of things, and without his earlier verve, he’s a horse that ought to be moving towards the pasture, IMO.</p>
<p>There is some talk about this race taking on the air of inevitability. I don’t see that. I rhink this will be a fight through November. I still think McCain could pull it out. But this week was a godawful week for McCain. It’s not just that BO aced all his world-beating tests so far. It’s also that McCain made himself look like a chump and a bit out of it. But we’ve got an eternity to go in political time.</p>
<p>“Because that’s just the way I’m doin’ it this year, jack.”</p>
<p>And I’m sure that you’ll have plenty of company.</p>
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<p>so the answer is no? No questions, concerns, disagreements? For you, Senator Obama really is The One? </p>
<p>Seriously, I just can’t imagine a candidate with whom I’d be in perfect agreement on anything, and I do wonder when someone else is because I wonder if the party line is more important, if the person hasn’t really considered the candidate, or if like BedHead, the candidate is just right for the voter.</p>
<p>If you’d like to see liberal democrats that don’t like Obama, head to [Hillary</a> Is 44](<a href=“http://hillaryis44.org/]Hillary”>http://hillaryis44.org/)</p>
<p>BC that’s exactly what I’m NOT asking. I want to hear from my friends here on this site who support Senator Obama if any of them have reservations/disagreements/questions. No interest in what Clinton supporters think.</p>
<p>"For me, Obama is right on on Iraq: he is a foreign policy realist, not a fay idealist, and he has some great advisors. "</p>
<p>Who are his foreign policy advisers now?</p>
<p>My biggest concern in the election is who gets to appoint Supreme Court justices and I don’t want it to be McCain. Other than that, Obama is really not liberal enough for my tastes - neither was Hillary. He is not anti-death penalty or anti-gun control enough for me. Since I have my own business, I have no doubt that McCain will be better for me financially, but call me late to dinner, I have never voted my pocketbook. The economy somehow seems to ebb and flow and right itself, wrong itself no matter who is control. I’m not sure Iraq is fixable by anyone and I think it is capable of sinking a few more political careers in my lifetime.</p>
<p>“I want to hear from my friends here on this site who support Senator Obama if any of them have reservations/disagreements/questions.”</p>
<p>The folks here seem pretty militant and if there is a problem, it gets answered with an attack on someone else. That’s the way politics works. Noone ever admits that they’re wrong or that something is wrong with their candidate. Of course there are many McCain supporters that disagree with him on various issues and they are candid about it here. I usually just see attacks from the Obama supporters.</p>
<p>Well, he has 300. Do you want a full list?</p>
<p>Susan Rice; Tony Lake; former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig; Dennis Ross among others.</p>
<p>[Campaign</a> '08: Obama’s Foreign Policy Advisers | Newsweek The Council on Foreign Relations | Newsweek.com](<a href=“Campaign '08: Obama's Foreign Policy Advisers”>Campaign '08: Obama's Foreign Policy Advisers)</p>
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<p>Are you kidding me? Either that, or you haven’t been reading these threads. The attacks are flying from both ends of the spectrum! It’s not just the big, bad Obama supporters who are throwing flames. :)</p>
<p>Bedhead, haven’t read through all the pages, but wanted to say that I appreciate post (#204). I may not agree with everything you said, but you said it in a well formulated way. </p>
<p>I’m not an Obama supporter, although I do see why many people would be, he is seeming “presidential” in many ways (including the way he sneakily sidesteps answering a direct question with hyperbole). </p>
<p>I also really liked McCain years ago and have been disappointed to see him turn into the wishy-washy candidate that he has become. I wish he’d be more abrasive and meet arguments head on, and answer bluntly some of the ridiculous charges and claims that have been thrown at him. Instead he has become an apologist. Where’s the guy who called a jerk a jerk.</p>
<p>I want David Palmer from 24 to be my next president!!!</p>
<p>Are these two guys the best this country has to offer???</p>
<p>Hindoo, I’ve seen in the last few days a lot more nastiness coming from the left. The age attacks, etc. are just not nice. It’s also, maybe one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen, to object to referring to a public figure by his own initials. THere’s often stuff from both sides, but the left is in a frenzy these days. Here on Cc.</p>
<p>“Are you kidding me? Either that, or you haven’t been reading these threads. The attacks are flying from both ends of the spectrum! It’s not just the big, bad Obama supporters who are throwing flames.”</p>
<p>Please read the context. When one asks the other if they have reservations, doubts and disagreements with their own candidates, they attack. In general, McCain supporters acknowledge their issues with McCain.</p>
<p>So is Senator Obama’s confusion today in Israel about what committees he serves on indicative of impending senility on his part?</p>
<p>Ilsa, perhaps we should make peace? We seem to be sharing a brain?</p>
<p>Zmom:</p>
<p>I am against the death penalty; and I was disappointed that Obama voted to renew FISA. I would like him to have a clearer energy policy.
I was dismayed that the hunt for Al Queda was not pursued more vigorously once it was decided to invade Iraq; I was against the invasion of Iraq.
I also agreed that it is important to negotiate with enemies (that’s why they’re called negotiations), whether in Iran or North Korea as GWB has finally come to realize (it does not mean that we can expect the negotiations to be successful right away).
I think his health care plan has a better chance of passing than more universal plans (read mandatory);
I also think his economic plan will make for a smaller deficit (even though I probably will end up paying higher taxes) and McCain’s economic plan, as one blogger has suggested, is so vague it would not have made it in the Democratic primaries.</p>
<p>Oh, I personally don’t care about BO vs. BHO. And I think McSame and other variations on McCain’s name are childish beyond belief. It reminds me of grade school taunts.</p>
<p>EDIT: It seems that I agree with Bedhead on a lot of issues. I’m not so hung up about McCain’s age or some of the verbal gaffes he’s made. However, his rendering of the relationship between the surge and the Sunni Awakening is not a gaffe–a misspeaking, but illustrative of something more important. Despite what he said, it’s Obama who’s right on that bit of history.</p>
<p>Of course…zmom! </p>
<p>marite: I appreciated your ego vs. narcissism argument, and it was food for thought, but to me Obama too often comes down on the side of narcissism. Exaggerating one’s qualifications is but one symptom.</p>