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The Judgment of Barack Obama

by Bob Betzen

ObamaBarack_1.jpgExperience is overrated. Politicians who like to crow about their experience tend to believe that they have all the answers. We live in a rapidly changing world. Relying on cold war solutions to deal with new challenges is leading us down a dead end street. Our country should spend more time supporting burgeoning democracies and less time picking fights with poor countries.

Dick Cheney had plenty of experience when he became Vice President. He had previously served our country in Congress, as White House Chief of Staff and as the Secretary of Defense. All of this experience seems to have left him with a shoot first, ask questions later mentality.

In 2002, Vice President Cheney told America that there was no doubt that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Actually, contrary to Cheney’s assertions, Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction in 2002. In early 2003, Cheney ridiculed weapons inspectors who failed to find any such weapons. So Iraq posed no threat to the United States when we invaded. Cheney’s “experience” hasn’t helped our country.

America needs a president who exercises good judgment in critical situations. Barack Obama made the correct judgment when he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning. Obama also has a smarter plan for dealing with Iran.

Unlike the bellicose Rudy Giuliani and the feckless Hillary Clinton, Obama recognizes that not everyone in the Middle East is hell bent on our destruction. Iran is no friend of the Taliban or Al Qaeda. For once we should try diplomacy before we launch a military invasion. Do we really want to start a third war in this region? I’ll take Obama’s judgment over Hillary’s experience any day.

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5 Responses to “The Judgment of Barack Obama”

  1. Doug Robertson Says:

    Of the front-runners, Obama has certainly become my candidate of choice. Hillary has disappointed, because I do like her. So Obama it is (at least for now.) I would like to see some Kucinich lovin’, but I doubt it that’s gonna happen any time soon.

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About Radical Avenue

If you want to find criticism of our government here in America, you won’t need to look far. When it comes to politics, it seems that everyone has a grievance. Radical Avenue on the other hand, takes a solutions oriented approach to public policy. It’s radical because I’m proposing fundamental changes to the structure of our government, like transferring commander in chief responsibilities to a small elected group. My philosophy is: Everyone knows we’ve got problems, so what are we going to do about it?

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