Barack The-Clinton-Slayer

There's a children's story called Jack the Giant Killer and the current adventures on the 2008 presidential campaign trail remind me of that story. For, improbably, Senator Barack Obama seems to have slain the Clinton beast. For instance, today in the Washington Post there was a mocking story by Dana Milbank depicting the Clinton campaign leaders lashing out at the Washington press corps for favoring Obama while simultaneously trying to sell it on the idea that the Hildebeast was ahead while also affecting a sort of goofy innocence about the latest attempt to smear Obama. (The Somali/Moslem clothes picture) This kind of story would not circulate if the Clintons were going to get back in power as they would be certain to get back at anyone who was other than either loyal or silent. And there are lots of other indications such as being ahead in the polls and in fundraising.

So just as Jack, who was a very improbable but very tenacious hero, did the slay the giant so Senator Obama has became Barack The-Clinton-Slayer.

They say he has no record and only spouts rhetoric but successfully fighting the Clintons for the Democratic nomination suggests to me that he is quite a formidable politician. After all, he had no stolen FBI files, no millions in the bank accrued by lobbying and no spouse who was a former president. And he also had to fight past all the reasons an African-American might have for not trying and then fight past all the prejudices ("he'll never make it") and he did all this while not using the race card and while not using "walking around" money.

I find this very impressive.

But still I'm not going to vote for him because I disagree with him on major issues. Hilary did not disagree with him on major issues and so in a way for Democrats it came down to a Clinton rerun (ugh!!) or someone more hopeful. The Democrats seem to have been so tired of the Clintons and so disgusted by the Democratic Congress that Senator Obama's ideas and convictions affected them like a revival. They were just about dead and suddenly - BAM BAM oBAMa - there was hope (oBAMa) and light at the end of the tunnel (oBAMa) and a chance to get rid of the Clintons while voting their own Democratic convictions BAM BAM o BAMa. No wonder they're emotional. And I like him too. However I'm not revolted by the Republican past and in a state to be born again. The question with me is the issues and the biggest issue is the war on terror.

We can't cut and run from the war on terror. We didn't declare it; Bin Laden declared war on us; we can't stop it by declaring peace. This war won't stop if we huddle in America or give up our weapons. Don't forget a jihadist assassinated Robert Kennedy and tried to kill John Paul II. Don't forget that in 9-11 they tried to kill the financial, political and military leadership of this country - and hoped to get 50,000 citizens too. If we leave Iraq we are merely going back to 9-10 and that will be followed by 9-11 The Sequel just as the first attack on the World Trade Center was followed by the second. And Barack Obama has no idea what to do about it all except meet with jihadi leaders. Well the Israelis are currently trying that "solution" and the jihadists are sending daily rockets into their towns while asking for economic/military handouts at the meetings.

There may be no military solution but that doesn't mean that there is a political solution. At least not today.

We have to stick it out just as the African-Americans stuck out the long night of slavery and segregation without ever succumbing to idea that they were cause of the "race problem". (See the speeches of Martin Luther King). Inequality among human beings enshrined in the legal system was the cause of the "race problem" and similarly the jihadist determination to spread human inequality by terror - women, Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus being on the jihadi terrorists short list of those less equal - is the cause of the struggle now known as the war on terror.

It's called a war on terror as I see it because it isn't a war to stamp out Islam but a war to stamp out Islamic terrorism. If the Islamists began to say: "we have a better religion, come let us reason together", I don't think the West would say "NO, block Youtube, close the gates of thought and innovation" etc.

Senator Obama could lead since he is a natural leader but he seems to think he can talk away terror. He seems to want to lead us to cut and run. He doesn't seem to want to lead us in this fight. He seems to think we have been causing the fight and a few words from him will settle it.

If I were on one of these debates I'd ask this question: "Senator Obama, did you lead a fight against the Clintons? - or did you by talking to them persuade them that 'yes Senator Obama is the better candidate, yes we'll withdraw?' When they suggested that either YOU withdraw or be vice president, did you cut and run?" The point I'd be making would be that I and others think that this country has enemies who can't be talked out of their opposition. They have to be beaten, they have to renounce terror as the best means of spreading the Islamic faith. If Barack The-Clinton-Slayer would lead that struggle - great!

If not, I'm voting Republican.

And the Senator also supports abortion which .... but that as they say is another story for another day.