A little political discourse, if you please. On the Democratic side of the presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton is getting a lot of unintentional, but welcome help from Barack Obama. Thanks to Obama, Hillary continues to widen her lead in the national polls.
Yo momma loves Obama. Obama Girl has a crush on Obama. But, Hillary and Bill - they've gotta be wild about Obama's tongue. Lately, it seems that almost every time Obama opens his mouth on foreign policy, he trips over his own tongue. He's got the fastest tongue in the west - like a Formula 1 race standing start, it gets away well ahead of his brain.
In a recent debate, Obama said that if elected president, he would soon meet with the much hated leaders of Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela, each without preconditions. In one fell swoop, Obama lost the State of Florida by his desire to talk with Castro. He didn't help himself with the Jewish vote either by wanting to talk with Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has vowed to vaporize Israel.
On a later occasion, Obama said he would disengage our troops in Iraq and shift our military focus to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Then comes the zinger - Obama warned General Musharraf, the Pakistani president, that he would order American forces into Pakistan unilaterally if that country failed to act on its own against Islamic extremists. Nevermind that an uninvited incursion would topple our ally Musharraf who is barely hanging onto power against an opposition which may not be friendly to us, or that Pakistan is a nuclear power.
The most recent foreign policy gaffe came when he answered a question about his possible use of nuclear weapons. Obama answered that he would never resort to the use of nuclear arms - and then, after a prolonged pause while his brain slowly caught up to his tongue, he stuttered to add "involving civilians." Hillary then clobbered Obama for telling our enemies they need not fear our nuclear might even though she had previously declared she would not use nuclear weapons either.
Obama has also made notable gaffes on any number of subjects. For instance, complaining to an Iowa farm group about the rise in grocery prices when prices for their crops had not risen, Obama asked, "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Duh. That group of farmers grew corn and soybeans, not arugula, a herb of the mustard family. And to them, Obama didn't make any sense because there is no Whole Foods store anywhere in Iowa and many of those farmers had never heard of arugula before.
His defenders attribute Obama's gaffes to inexperience. To that I would say lack of experience is not the problem - Obama's problem is that he puts his mouth into motion before he puts his brain into gear. Or, he may have a debilitating illness - foot-in-mouth disease.
In just one week of foreign policy statements, Obama went from saying he would sit down with our enemies, to saying he would attack one of our allies, to saying he would take the decades-old nuclear option off the table. His mesmerized supporters, who are hoping for a new beginning from an Obama presidency, will soon awaken to the fact their beloved candidate is more hype than hope.
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