The first presidential debate will be held next Friday night (so no one will watch it?) in Oxford, Mississippi. The topic with be foreign affairs. This is supposed to be McCain’s strong suit, and polls show that the public has more confidence in John McCain’s experience in foreign affairs than they do in Obama’s.
John McCain doesn’t seem capable of remembering that Czechoslovakia is no longer a country, or that Iran is a Shi’ite nation, or that al-Qaeda is a radically anti-Shiite organization, or that Spain is a part of Europe, a NATO partner, and has troops stationed in Afghanistan (and not on the Iraqi-Pakistan border, either). John McCain has less of a clue about foreign affairs than I do, and I haven’t been in the Senate for 26 years meeting foreign dignitaries and traveling on foreign junkets.
Nonetheless, the foreign affairs debate is supposed to be McCain’s big chance to demonstrate that he, and only he, is up to the job of obliterating Russia, China, Iran, and the very concept of terrorism. In other words, Obama is a heavy underdog. John McCain’s corner-man, Bill Kristol, has some advice:
McCain has a trickier task Friday night. He’ll be tempted to tout his foreign policy experience. But claims of wisdom based on experience alone tend not to impress the American people–(viz. Al Gore in 2000, George H. W. Bush in 1992, Jimmy Carter in 1980, passim). Instead, McCain needs to alarm voters about Obama’s dovishness–reminding them of his opponent’s misjudgment of the surge, for example–and tie around his neck all the stupidities of the woolly-minded Democratic party. He might want to mention in this context Biden’s rich career of misjudgments on foreign policy (against Reagan’s defense buildup, against the first Gulf war, flip-flopping on Iraq, silly talk on Iran–and more!), and cite the tough words uttered not so long ago about Obama’s naïveté and weakness by the woman Obama passed over as his running mate.
Of course McCain will need to lay out his own vision of a tough and principled foreign policy. For each of his 45 minutes of the debate Friday night, McCain will have to (quoting Kipling once again) “fill the unforgiving minute / With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.”
Maybe someone will ask John McCain where Bratislava is, and his head will explode.
…the foreign affairs debate is supposed to be McCain’s big chance to demonstrate that he, and only he, is up to the job of obliterating Russia, China, Iran, and the very concept of terrorism.
add Spain. McCain is continuing the Bush grudge because Spain pulled out of Iraq–a very good reason.
Gallup
“the foreign affairs debate is supposed to be McCain’s big chance to demonstrate that he, and only he, is up to the job of obliterating Russia, China, Iran“
What a marvelous comment on the state of the United States, and the mentality of its people that the ability to obliterate countries is seen as a presidential qualification.
It is things like this that make me feel such despair over where this world is going.
It’s snark.
It’s snark with, perhaps, a little too much truthiness in it.
Doesn’t it at least give you pause that the ability to obliterate nations – and powerful ones at that – is looked on as a positive? Whatever happened to “we are the world”?
It all makes me want to cry!
Don’t cry. We’re all in this together. By the way, where is Bratislava?
Somehow the fact that we are all in this together does not comfort me – nice try though! :o}
Bratislava is in Slovakia.
It’s on the Danube River also. Supposed to be a real nice place.
Never been there, but that whole region has a lot of natural beauty.
Hey man, we are an Empire and this is just part of our imperial policy; you know, obliterating states that we don’t like.
The debates are Obama’s last chance. With whiteness (and some cynicism) going for McCain, the debates are the only path to success for McCain. Even then it will be pure luck. I truly believe that the country is still just too racist to elect a Black president.
How can McCain fail? Some doctor comes out and tells the truth about his cancer prognosis or condition. Or McCain somehow dies during the debates. I can’t see anything else doing in the Republicans, even the Republicans who are so scared of Republicans that they have come over and asked to be saved.
We really need to start talking about America under President Palin. She will obviously need a lot of help.
That is to say, “success for Obama.”