Questioning the Candidates

WARNING: blatant criticism of Presidential Candidate to follow

Though I think Obama means well and really does believe in people, I honestly don't feel his time as a state senator in Illinois or the U.S. Congress was extraordinary or even compelling reason enough to qualify him as President.

I was totally shocked to read this interview between Obama and Katie Couric. Couric calls Obama ON THE CARPET about his stance on the surge in Iraq and progress in the region. Read the interview and tell me if you think he is totally contradicting himself from question to question. . . .in one breath he talks about things in the region being more stable while in the next he is questioning the surge at all. I did not follow his line of thinking and came to the conclusion that he has decided or been advised to criticize all tactics of Bush even when the facts clearly show that things are on the up and up there--violence and deaths have dramatically dropped.

Obama has said that even knowing what he knows now he still wouldn't have supported the surge-- instead he would have had Americans 'negotiate' their way past the violence to put an end to terror in the region. Maybe that would have worked-- much better than the surge?- though, as Obama says, it is all hypothetical. He declares that the money spent in Iraq puts Americans at further risk because the troops haven't spent as much time in Afghanistan. Hey, maybe he's right, maybe if we had just left Iraq two years ago and leveled Afghanistan's mountains, we'd have gotten rid of the terrorists. Although, as Obama says, it is all hypothetical, and the terrorists might have fled right back into Iraq!

I am increasingly concerned with Obama's ability to think for himself instead of taking the direct opposite stance of Bush, McCain, or Republicans-- even if they have a good idea (I'm certainly not saying all their ideas are good either).