If there is any image of the problem with the Republican Party over the last few years it’s John McCain. I know, many thought I meant Bush, but even he was never the darling of the “We want to be popular” sycophants among the party leadership. John McCain has a made a career of bucking his own party’s principles to stand for whatever crackpot liberal idea came down the pike. Support for bailouts, amnesty, carbon credits, global warming, and the unconstitutional McCain Feingold shows part of the picture. The rest comes from his opposition to taxes—remember his opposition to the Bush tax cuts? Had I listed these positions before telling you of whom I was speaking, you would assume I meant a leftist Democrat—and you’d be right. Remember when it became obvious that McCain was going to lose the presidential primary to Bush. There was a big push to recruit him to run on the Democratic ticket. What made this so serious was how well he would have fit on that side of the aisle—he’ been little more than a Democratic mole for years.

Now, after fighting hard to get a conservative in the senate seat so long held by Ted Kennedy, those most responsible for the victory are being sold out by none other than their primary darlings. Senator-elect Brown has recorded phone ads for John McCain and Sarah Palin has announced her support for, and intention to campaign for McCain.

Bill Clinton recently went to North Korea to negotiate for the release of two journalists. Those on the left and the right naturally have differing views about this. The reaction of the right seems to be more based on throwing mud at Bill Clinton before he gets more good press—like there is anything we can ever do to keep the press from fawning over Bubba. Many are saying that this is tantamount to negotiating with terrorists. I would disagree because, though we do not negotiate with terrorists, we have a long standing policy of negotiating with sovereign nations, even terrorist supporting ones. Many on the right are even attacking the two journalists, saying they were foolish and caused their own problems. This also is not a reason to leave them in North Korean custody. One of the things about the US that makes us better than many other countries is that while their government is imprisoning and killing their people we take great strides to protect ours, even at times going to war to protect them.

While the reaction of the right seems churlish, the reaction of the left is naïve. The North very successfully used this and we should admit it. Yes Bill Clinton helped these two women, but that is small in comparison to the world’s condition. The left is using this as a bludgeon against Bush, though he hasn’t been in office for months. They say this shows that diplomacy works, leaving one to assume that diplomacy should have been tried with Iraq and one can only assume with Afghanistan. First of all, we tried diplomacy for years with Iraq. With Afghanistan we acted quickly because they were supporting those who had killed so many of our citizens on 911. Since the Russians had lost to them in the 80’s they assumed we would lose as well. Of course they forgot that we were on their side in the 80’s. Now, while I have always maintained that we should not have entered Iraq when we did, that part of the discussion is over and we have been much more successful in Iraq than the left will ever admit. So let’s look at the scorecard of freed people. Bill Clinton freed two young women who stuck their necks out too far. George Bush freed two nations with populations of millions. While I am no fan of George Bush, you have to give him credit for some things.

Everytime I see Keith Olbermann’s smug face a feeling of having seen him somewhere else comes over me. Yesterday I realized where I remember him from.

Keith enjoyed a huge following on an earlier version of MSNBC (known in the eighties as MTV). Below is a photo of Keith as a younger man.

Of course the earlier Keith was more natural, warm and friendly, but his views were about the same.

Isn’t it nice to live in a warmer, friendlier world? Sorry, I forgot a warmer world was bad—that pesky global warming and all. But at least the world we live in is so much friendlier than when George Bush was in office. I know North Korea is rattling its nukes, Iran has an unchecked nuclear program while in a near civil war and Pakistan is fighting for its life with the Taliban. Regardless of all this, according to a June 22nd article on Military.com we are going to fight a new gentle form of warfare in Afghanistan.

General Stanley McChrystal, commander of international forces in Afghanistan, has made two policy changes that will be sure to get soldiers killed and lengthen the war by years. He has said the new standard for success will not be how many insurgents are killed, but how many civilians are “shielded from violence.” Besides this, he will be issuing orders that troops are to break off fights with the enemy if the enemy are hiding in civilian homes. To have an order that is so blatantly bad from one I can only assume to be a fine, dedicated warrior can only mean it comes from higher up, perhaps the Commander in Chief.

Many of the bleeding hearts out there will be singing the praises of this new order, but I wonder what they say when it turns out to have the opposite effect. It is actually likely to get more civilians hurt because once the enemy knows that civilian homes are a safe place from which to launch attacks they will use more of these tactics. The US is in effect handing the civilians over to the mercy of the insurgents. When you face an enemy who will drive a bomb into a mass of civilians you do not give him a single place of safety. You must be willing to follow him anywhere and root him out. It is true that we want to win the hearts and minds of the population, but if President Karsai wants safety for his people he needs to find a way to strengthen his own army and mobilize them against the enemy.

Is anyone surprised that the military under our current Commander in Chief would limit our ability to win this war? After all liberal democrats are good at getting us into wars that last a long time. People often forget that is was the democrats who got us into Vietnam. I can only hope that our current Liberal in Chief isn’t setting our boys up for another bloody defeat.

This morning as I got to my desk the news was reporting record high opinions of Obama and record lows for Bush. What did they expect? He has made no hard decisions, while people wait with baited breath for the new savior to step in and fix everything. In a society that looks to the federal government for answers is it any surprise that a change of leadership in Washington would produce such a love fest? (more…)