". . . the wizened old warrior, obsessed with finding enemies . . . "

[irish.lambchop]

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/a-reformer-who-knows-how-to-toe-the-party-line-1474112.html

Travelling in Europe this week, I've been asked repeatedly by close followers of US politics if it can really be true that Barack Obama might not win. Thoughtful people cannot get their head around the idea that Mr Obama, exciting new pilot of change, supported by Joseph Biden, experienced navigator of the swamplands of Washington politics, could possibly be defeated.

They look upon John McCain and Sarah Palin and see something out of hag-ridden history: the wizened old warrior, obsessed with finding enemies in every corner of the globe, marching in lockstep with the crackpot, mooseburger-chomping mother from the wilds of Alaska, rifle in one hand, Bible in the other, smiting caribou and conventional science as she goes.

[shadowknows69]

1. Yeah if we fuck up this one I doubt a "We're sorry world" website will cut it

The rest of the powers are moving their chess pieces to put an end to the American Empire if they discern that we will have more of the McSame.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Don't know who wrote this, but he seems pretty right-wing!

'He has the most solidly left-wing voting history in the Senate. .....

Speechmaker Obama talks a lot about finding ways to move beyond the bloody battlegrounds of the "culture wars" in America; the urgent need to establish consensus on the emotive issue of abortion.

Politician Obama's support for abortion rights is the most extreme of any Democratic senator. In the Illinois legislature he refused to join Democrats and Republicans in supporting a Bill that would require doctors to provide medical care for babies who survived abortions. No one in the Senate -- not the arch feminist Hillary Clinton nor the superliberal Edward Kennedy -- opposed this same humane measure.

Here's the real problem with Mr Obama: the jarring gap between his promises of change and his status quo performance.'

From what I can gather, he is liberal but NOT the 'most solidly left-wing' person in the Senate; and I suspect the abortion story is a canard - probably the bill had lots of other (anti-abortion) things in it besides that one.

And what would be wrong if he WERE the most solidly left-wing person in the Senate? My concern about him - about any candidate - is quite the opposite: that whoever becomes president, they will not be permitted to be left-wing by my standards. That no American president would be allowed to be as progressive on most issues as a moderate Europaean Conservative, a Macmillan or a Heath, a Giscard or a Chirac. Even if he wished to. I give my ardent backseat support to Obama, not because I think he'd be able to enact so many truly left-wing measures, and not even because he represents 'change', but because (a) he is intelligent and his opponent is a fool; and (b) even more importantly, because he is a bulwark against the forces of the extreme right. And the extreme right must be defeated for the sake of the whole world!

What is weird is that this is not an American newspaper but an Irish one. I would not have thought that Irish writers would be preoccupied with the evils of the American 'left'.

[irish.lambchop]

3. Am not familiar with the writer either,

but thought it would be of interest to post. Obama does not receive balanced press here overall and, while I do not agree with much of what the writer states, it was one of the more 'positive' pieces I've read.