Ward posted a very thoughtful commentary on Military.com yesterday that I thought all of you who are fans of the Bossman might like to take a look at… In the last pre-presidential election poll Military.com ran earlier this week, 78 percent of our readers picked John McCain over Barack Obama. In a poll conducted the following day, the leading answer to the question “What issue was the most important to you as you voted for president” was “the economy” (39 percent) even more important than “the wars” (32 percent). Juxtaposing these two polls not only yields one of the answers to how Obama won the election, it also shows the degree to which Americans, even Americans with war fighting experience, are convinced Jihadist elements are no longer an imminent threat. On the morning after the election the pundits sum up the results with the idea that Barack Obama’s victory is one of hope over fear. And assuming that’s true, the ability for a people to carry that out is a luxury that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Contrast this presidential election with the one held four years ago. The year 2004 has faded as a distant memory now, but think back: That the Rovian-style political operatives were able to leverage fear in Americans to win a second term for George W. Bush says more about the fact that Americans were actually scared at that time than it does about the hired guns ability to affect outcomes at will. In 2004 the Iraq War was going poorly. Casualty rates were high. The insurgency was proliferating. Al Qaeda was blooming in new places, and Bin Laden and his confidants were releasing messages at a regular clip. Major European cities were weathering terrorist attacks. America wasn’t scared because Karl Rove told it to be. America was scared because the times were scary to the degree that the majority of voters feared a change at the top. Four years later not only has that fear faded, it is all but gone from the national consciousness.
That fear started fading the minute George W. Bush stopped staying the course. It continued to fade with the removal of Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of Defense (an effort we might forget was championed by John McCain) and the appointment of Gen. David Petraeus as the commander of the multi-national force in Iraq. It faded with the Anbar Awakening and other tribal gains facilitated by counter-insurgency experts and great military figures like Army Col. H. R. McMaster and Marine Capt. Seth Moulton. And it faded with the decision of an obdurate commander-in-chief who elected to “double down” in the face of conventional wisdom and the advice of his military leadership and implement the Surge. And this trend was underwritten by the efforts of the men and women of the U.S. military and their families efforts not just in Iraq but in a refocused Afghanistan mission and in troubled places like the Horn of Africa, the Balkans, the Korean Peninsula, and the all the world’s oceans. Since hostilities began with Operation Enduring Freedom in the fall of 2001, members of the all-volunteer force have repeatedly gone into harm’s way for upwards of 15 months at a time. Their efforts allowed a majority of voting Americans to feel, as Election Day exit polls indicated, that the wars are all but over. And that sense suppressed fear and afforded hope. Let’s allow the pundits their thesis. Hope won over fear this week, and that’s good. We should strive to always be a nation of hope. Hope brings out our better nature as a people and makes us a rightful example to the rest of the world. So here’s to hope the hope of which third-world refugees at gunpoint can only dream. This hope fuels the way forward, a new direction full of promise and buoyed by optimism. But as we fervantly celebrate hope on talk shows, on campuses, in the streets, and on our Facebook pages, let’s be mindful of what it took to create it.
– Ward
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
“Fear”. No. We just didn’t want a empty suit as president. Which is what we got. Putin will eat him alive.
Putin will eat him alive.
Putin’s too busy looming his giant head over Alaska.
What is your view of Palin going into a meeting with Putin? He will have a hell of a team surrounding him to inform him on issues he’s not familiar with..The same reason I voted for Bush the first time around. The differences between the two being Pres Elect having a balanced team of left and right, willing to listen and implement based on the available information, not on what he wants to do or what praying to God told him to do.
If the war had ever been a real issue (even 4 years ago) would we have voted for an AWOL Air National Guard member and a 5-time draft dodger over a decorated Vietnam Vet?
Don’t forget Tricare and how our vets with permanent disability or brain injury are being treated under the republican administration. Nobody deserves better treatment than our heroes.
The rupblicans aren’t pro military – they’re pro war. they’ve had 2 terms to get OBL – give someone else a chance now…
So you wanted a Veep who doesn’t know Africa is a continent, and president who graduated bottom of his class and can’t keep a plane in the air. WOOHOO!
So you wanted a Veep who doesn’t know Africa is a continent, and president who graduated bottom of his class and can’t keep a plane in the air. WOOHOO!
Problem for Putin, other potentially antagonistic foreign leaders or even leaders of nations allied to the U.S. is that the U.S. President has a fair idea of what “cards” they are holding. Its the “cards” that foreign private citizens or organizations are holding that are a little tougher to ascertain.
If the U.S. President were just a 5 year old girl talking across from Putin and Putin tried to bluff and get her to “fold” on some matter, the girl would say: “Look old man, I know you’re holding nothing but your “Joe Stalin.” Check out these “cards” I’ve got: Stealth, pre-eminent conventional forces, and dibs on middle eastern oil.
Then look at the cards I may have under the table: Star Wars and classified Space vehicles and weapons. And to top that off, Eastern Russia is turning in to North China due to all the Chinese, squatter foot-traffic. You know as well as I that you have better things to do don’t you Mr. Putin. “
Putin is out his league now that he has to face a US President who is actually intelligent and has a grasp of world affairs.
Dealing with Bush was like dealing with a ‘special needs’ child…..
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating Obama. Ask Hillary if you want an answer what happens when you do that.
He is a ruthless, cold, calculating politician who came to beat the muck of Chicago then the muck of the Clintons and mopped the floor with the old man and his dingbat lady from Alaska.
Don’t underestimate him. He is a lot more like Putin than he is like Bush. And, I hope I am reight. We will need that cold blood.
The victory for Obama, was a “victory” for political correctness, i.e. a weak America.
(Kantianism, Feminism, Environmentalism, Resentment, and Leftism prevailed at the election day.)
If this “war” of which you speak was so important, why did (1) the President not request a Declaration of War from Congress as provided in the Constitution (2) why was no tax increase imposed to pay for it (3) why was no War Production Board formed with authority to, among other things, limit profit on military contracts (4) why was no Truman Commission formed to investigate war profiteering (5) why was the draft not activated (*).
This really gets tiresome. Are the posters on this board reflective of the real US military, and if so should we assume that another 1993-style mutiny is being planned? Are you even vaguely aware that the United States is NOT a military dictatorship and that it does not exist to maintain and fund a giant military establishment? Not to say that a military establishment might not be needed, but it exists to protect the US not the other way around.
Cranky
(*) Yes, I know the issue of the draft is controversial in the military. The point is that it spreads the pain of war to the entire polity leading to clarity of understanding in the face of “deciders” who would make all “tough decisions” without input from, you know, actual citizens.
President elect Obama is already tested by the world:
(1) Russia and their effort to deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to US missile defense plans.
(2) Iranian president Ahmadinejad welcomes Obama change, e.g. he will go ahead with the Iranian nuclear program in the belief that US wouldn
Ways to aggravate & insult Barack Obama supporters:
“In the name of Barack Obama,come out of him White Devil!!!!!”
“I pray every night to Barack Obama for healing.”
“He helped the lame to walk,he helped the dumb to talk….”
Come on Barack Obama supporters,don’t you really believe that he is god manifested in the flesh?
Accidentally posted in wrong window.
I am just hoping that Obama below was not like I suspect “the real deal” and was instead just being another politician.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRGru2CPC4E&eurl=http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx2PP4pYGno&eurl=http://patdollard.com/2008/10/obama-calls-for-an-american-gestapo/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bueCxeXZAUU&eurl=http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4yFsaxw6L8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdLX3aRNaNk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDTluWDUBEY&eurl=http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jerimya+wright&search_type=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4y9_JtYErI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDTluWDUBEY&eurl=http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYY73RO_egw
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jerimya+wright&search_type=
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=william+ayers&search_type=&aq=f
Yeah I have hope,,, hope that guy above is just another lying politician and not the real deal hardcore that string tells me.
Ways to infuriate people like Roy Smith:
1)Vote for someone they don’t like
2)Blow off their comments as ranting
Demophilus,
Well put my friend.
DC2
Demophilus,
Very well put….nice to hear from someone who actually has a grasp of what is happening beyond the usual rhetoric you hear here….
Uh oh….does that make me an elitist???
Roy Smith, you forgot one:
“Barak Obama will pay my mortgage and fill my gas tank”
google it!
DC2 Jennings and CR are Demophilus’s sock puppets.
Wes….do you actually have a rebuttal or you just want to call us sock puppets?
Intelligent comeback……well done.
Ahhh, yes. I had a wonderful sock puppet back when I was in the Navy. Her name was Lucille……
DC2
I think that Obama’s cabinet will travel down a “centrist’s” path the next four years. I’m still waiting to see how the Senate shakes out,if the Democrats will eventually end up with 60 seats to make a filibuster proof majority. The reality is that,other than shake up conservatives with unfounded fear,Obama will follow the path that Clinton did. Any changes to the military & to the acquisition of new weapons & equipment are changes that would have happened anyway,no matter who the elected president was. All of our enemies under Bush(al Qaeda,Taliban,Hezbollah,Iran,North Korea,Cuba,Venezuela,etc.) will STILL be our enemies under Obama. Barack Obama is just the new face on the same machine that has been running our country for the last 50 years & longers. That’s why I quoted George Wallace(“There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the democrats & the republicans”) earlier.
All of the Leftists & liberals will be just as disappointed with Obama as the conservatives & right wingers were with George W. Bush during his administration. Sure,he’ll find a way to stifle “dissent” with “the Fairness Doctrine”,”Hate Speech Laws”& stiff internet censorship & control(got to protect our kids from those “pedophiles” you know,plus stop the “terrorists” in their tracks),but Bush & McCain were headed in that direction anyway,so whatever Obama does is nothing different than what the Neo-Cons would have done also. I guess that makes Obama a “Neo-Liberal.”
This will rankle a lot of people,but when I think of Obama,I remember a movie that C. Thomas Howell made in the late 80′s early 90′s. The premise was that the only way he could get a scholarship to a prestigious collage was to impersonate a minority. So he took pills that caused his skin to darken so he could pass himself off as a black man. The comedy in it was how he tried to pass himself off as Black by acting according to stereotypes he believed black people were supposed to act like. I can’t remember the name of the movie right now,but when I think of Barack Obama,that movie suddenly comes to mind.
Soul Man
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091991/
@ DC2 and CR:
Don’t go too hard on Wes. I reckon he’s just a kid.
Nice to make your acquaintance.
I love when liberals like demophilus try to explain what Republicans need to do to win. Pure comedy.
Sorry Demo, Obama won for three reasons:
1) The media was his unpaid campaign staff, supressing all information on his past, attacking McCain, skewing the polls etc.
2) He outspent McCain 6 to 1 (thus BREAKING HIS PROMISE to use public funding- but, you will forgive Dear Leader for everything, right?)
3) The Wall Street crisis
Wes,
Though I agree with your points, you can’t ignore what a poor choice and what a fundamentally flawed candidate McCain was. Though I have immense respect for him as a soldier, he is a very poor political candidate. I would never have voted for the guy except for the fact that he was running against a security risk like Obama who needed to be defeated for national defense reasons.
Let’s look at McCain’s political record. Largest attack on 1st Amendment in US history with McCain-Feingold. Opposed both of Bush’s tax-cuts and has a record of opposing tax cuts and proposing big government solutions. Was the Senate’s biggest proponent of amnesty for illegal aliens. Led the gang of 14 to defeat Bush
@ bdwilcox:
I’m liberal, but I’m not a liberal. Truth is, I’m a moderate.
Problem is, folks like you don’t know the difference anymore. That’s how you can spout nonsense like “McCain is a liberal Democrat who wears an R after his name”, and believe it.
That’s also why McCain lost. He was too moderate for folks like you. To keep you and the holy rollers, etc. on board, he had to pitch himself too far to the right to win over moderates.
Moderates were the the swing vote this time around, and the margin wasn’t small. That’s where Obama won.
We can argue about cause and effect ’til the end of time, but at the end of the day, it broke down to two columns of numbers.
A lot of the rest is projection.
We all know who still walks the point. And, we know who won’t come out to play.
WTFO?
“I’m liberal, but I’m not a liberal. Truth is, I’m a moderate.”
-That makes so little sense and attempts to sound so erudite that I suspect you might work for the Obama camp… But what it really means is you lack core beliefs and sway with the wind of public fashion.
“That’s also why McCain lost. He was too moderate for folks like you. To keep you and the holy rollers, etc. on board, he had to pitch himself too far to the right to win over moderates.”
-Dream on. McCain was a liberal and he had to go moderate to get the votes he needed. Obama went farther right than McCain with his constant mantra of tax cuts. When McCain brought a hard-line conservative on-board it’s the ONLY time he approached Obama in the polls.
“Moderates were the the swing vote this time around, and the margin wasn’t small. That’s where Obama won.”
-Obama won because McCain was Obama light. Obama was just slicker, better packaged, and had a propaganda engine in the mainstream press that made Pravda look fair and balanced. People without core beliefs, i.e. moderates like yourself, are easy to manipulate. Alexander Hamilton said it best, “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” You fell for Obama.
@ bdwilcox:
Moderates “lack core beliefs and sway with the wind of public fashion”? McCain’s a liberal? “Obama went farther right than McCain”? The MSM makes “Pravda look fair and balanced”?
All that’s either hyperbole, or solipsism. Either way, it’s got nothing to do with fact.
You must enjoy spouting off like that, but you can’t communicate with someone without common ground, and you’re not anywhere near it.
You’re not making any sense. You might as well be blowing chunks.
If you don’t know what “moderate” means, look it up in the dictionary. If you just need to blow off steam, go ahead, have a ball. I’ve wasted too much time here.
Adios.
I found your blog online and browsed some of your various other posts. I just added you to my personal Google News Reader. Continue the great work. Anticipate reading more from you sometime soon.