Saturday, September 27, 2008

More thoughts on the McCain/Obama debate

In lastnight's debate, Obama's comment, that "the first question is whether we should have gone into the war in the first place," really tore open one of the key differences between candidates. Not on a matter of policy, but at the much more fundamental (and crucial) level of logic and problem-solving.

This was McCain's response:

The next president of the United States is not going to have to address the issue as to whether we went into Iraq or not. The next president of the United States is going to have to decide how we leave, when we leave, and what we leave behind. That's the decision of the next president of the United States.

What a genuinely oblivious thing to say. It articulates everything about what's wrong with so many military leaders like McCain: don't worry about what led up to the problem, just fix it. They're quick to tell you what the problem is, and how to solve it, but there's no interest in WHY the problem exists in the first place. Without understanding the WHY of the problem, you can't even begin to talk about a solution. It's like you drop a ball into a maze and you're trying to get the ball through to the other end, without actually looking at the maze.

So, this notion McCain has that the next President doesn't need to think about what went wrong in the first place, he just needs to fix it? Congratulations, jackass. You just demonstrated how all your experience is nullified by someone who knows how to think.

I'm so glad Obama understands this.

1 comment:

Brandon said...

Snap! I feel so out of the shit this election because i actually paid attention in 04. I've just fucked off in '08!