Backyard Buddies, you are as skilled a writer as you are knowledgeable.
I'll attempt to respond on a few points.
On Palin:
In my opinion the ability to lead is not directly related to one's academic achievements.
Many of the greatest world leaders, business people, & inventors have had minimal
educations. Palin inspires people, as does Obama, and appears to be a natural leader.
Obama does not appear the same. He's an academic, a lawyer, and a politician from
Illinois, all things that tell me nothing about his ability to lead this country. In fact his
background in IL and some of the people he has associated with make me question
his judgement and honesty. I'm falling into the trap of comparing Palin to Obama
rather than Palin to Biden. The truth is I know very little about Biden other than I like
the guy. Many people love Palin for her being normal and disconnected from D.C..
How many of us have any trust for D.C.?
On the buyouts:
I agree with your concerns on the bank buyouts. We are seeing the creation of nothing
short of monopolies. Having 4 big money banks in this country is downright scary.
I'm not sure where any of this is going to take us.
On a third party:
I wish.
On Deficits:
Deficits are a mystery to most people. Reagan created huge deficits in order to keep
up with the Soviet Union. He gambled and won. Bush Sr took over during a recession
therefore had reduced tax revenues. GW, well history will tell. As for Clinton I've had
the debate with many of my liberal friends. They all love to say how great the economy
was under Clinton. The economy of the 90's and the tax revenues that flowed, were a
product of decades of history that materialized into a very unique economy. Clinton,
who I liked, was smart enough to keep his hands off the economy.
I would like to say that Clinton, like Reagan, was a true leader. He made people feel
positive about their country. This is something I see in Palin. Unfortunately, while I
will vote for McCain, do not find him inspiring.
On the Iraq War:
I supported the war and still do. I view it as a military operation, not a war.
Here are my reasons:
1-Saddam was a destabilizing force to the region. Like it or not the Middle East
fuels most of the world. Yes, I would like to see that changed and know how we can.
2-Saddam was in violation of multiple UN resolutions.
3-Sadaam butchered his own people and was a cruel and evil dictator.
4-Sadaam was sitting on top of one of the largest known oil reserves(See #1).
5-Should I even mention WMDs? Think some of them when over the Syrian border?
6-The U.S. needed to show the world what we are capable of militarily.
7-Iran
8-By entering Iraq we put thousands or terrorist cells on the defensive, not because
they were in Iraq, but because they would enter Iraq to fight us. We brought the
fight to them.
9-We learned what works and what doesn't in what wars of the 21st century would
look like. Call it a learning experience.
Is it expensive? Yes. Is the world a safer place because of it? I believe so.
Thanks for the intellectual excercise. It helped my headache.