What’s screwed up about US politics these days…
I wasn’t going to blog tonight, but then I hopped over to Thomas Barnett’s blog site & an entry he wrote summed up what’s wrong with today’s politics. Barnett’s blog post breaks down into two categories:
* Bush’s mis-characterization of Iran vis-a-vis current campaign in Iraq (and, broadly speaking, the strategic obtuseness that many have regarding Iran)
* Strategic flaws of both major candidates (Obama & McCain). Regarding McCain:
[War is] what he grew up with as a kid. It’s the environment within which he most comfortably wields power. When he lacks it, he must create it through the anger…
I.e., Barnett is worried that McCain is more likely to see Iran as a threat to be contained (like that’s working well for us) rather than a strategic opportunity to be exploited for our benefit and that of the Iranian people.
Regarding Obama, Barnett bemoans the trade protectionism and general distrust of capitalism. Summing it up:
Between Obama’s trade pandering and McCain’s war pandering, you really have to wonder if America is hell-bent on destroying an international liberal economic order that is our gift to humanity, doing so right at its moment of global apogee.
Tough to disagree with that logic, but partisan politics always finds a way…