There's a misleading blog post by Toby Harnden of the Telegraph that's being floated around here. You kinda get a hint that it's going to be bad when he mispells Barack's name in the title, but it only gets worse:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/01/wobama101.xmlHere's what the post says:
Barack Obama unleashed a blistering attack on his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton yesterday, branding her "just like George W Bush".
Wow. That sounds bad.
Did he actually say that? No.
Not even close. He never even mentioned Clinton. Here's what he actually said:
"We can’t afford a politics that’s all about terrorism and ripping people down rather than lifting a country up," he said. "We can’t afford a politics based on fear that leaves politicians to think the only way they can look tough on national security is to vote and act and talk just like George W Bush."
Not only is it not how Harnden described it, but it's also a great description of where many Democrats have gone wrong on foreign policy. It applies to everyone who went along with the mess in Iraq, which certainly isn't limited to Clinton. The conventional wisdom after 9/11 and leading up to Iraq was that Democrats had to show they were tough in order to win. No matter how stupid the war, you had to go along with it. Some people did go along with (some more willingly than others), but others like Kucinich and Obama did not. They had a different outlook on foreign policy, one that they exhibit to this day. Some of the politicians have learned from their mistakes and now reject a politics based on fear. With others, it's not so clear that they have. This is one of the main things guiding my decision of who to vote for.
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