Obama is a GREAT speaker.

Obama has shown remarkable political skill and deft.

And Obama has a fundamental belief that scares that crap out of me.

The left hates GW with a near mental sickness passion.  In their zeal to get him out of office (despite the rather important fact that he is NOT RUNNING) they are searching for a rallying point in fear that HRC can actually LOSE the general election. In that, it is now possible, the left could vacate Hillary in favor of the newly adopted son of the Kennedy clan.

Obama is (because Clinton is not) the sole "anti-war" candidate who can win the election. He has made it clear he will seek a total withdrawl of US troops from Iraq within 16 months of becoming PUSA.

Many voting on the left believe strongly he will do this.  When it's likely he will not.

Obama has built an "out" in his anti-war stance in that he has also stated that while he will "withdraw the troops within 16 months" he will also... listen to the Generals on the ground.... and... if they say no, then... well maybe we will revisit that whole "withdraw the troops in 16 months" thing.

The economy has surged to the #1 issue - AT THE MOMENT - but it is key to remember the economy is directly tied to terrorism.  Terrorism is the top element in the future footing of the American economic engine.

Another major attack and the US could (likely will) suffer massive long term economic damage.  A damage that would make the current hysteria over the sub-prime fiasco look like pennies on the thousands of dollars.

Obama as Commander-in-Chief is the issue.  He could surprise us and be a resilient, strong and reasoned leader of the U.S. Military. His rhetoric about expanding the base of U.S. forces aside, it is his stance on Iraq that needs to be addressed.

Back to GW and the position he will put the next PUSA in.

Bush's poll ratings are a disaster in great part because he has moved so far LEFT on so many issues that Republicans now have fled from him. Bush has molded into a liberal on way too many key issues. His love affair with Mexico and his failure (and more importantly his unwillingness) to secure the southern border is a "thumb-in-your-eye" to conservatives.  His big-government pro-liberal massive spending is an outright "stick that up your.." to the GOP base.

And then there is Iraq.  Bush opted for this war and all of us (the nation supported the war on the order of 90% at the time of 'shock and awe') bought into it.

One serious issue the mental-added anti-Bush left can't see to save their lives is that whether or not we should have gone in Iraq doesn't mean... ANYTHING!

If GW lied about it (strongly debateable) but if he did... SO WHAT?

Seriously. Who Cares?  Oh the haters care because they care more about revenge on GW than they do about what the future of the mid-east is.  Bush will have to deal with that in his legacy but how GW is remembered is not what's important, not in the least.

Let's suppose BO is right.  He lives up to his word about withdrawing U.S. troops within 16 months come hell or high water.  Of course that is the same bag that Pelosi and Reid handed to the Democratic faithful and to (at my own risk) quote Dr. Phil "Hey anti-war left, that withdrawl the troops now congress-type people you voted for, how's that working out for you?"

If Obama is right, what then?  If Iraq stabilizes and the region retreats to its old internal battles then BO is canonized and rightly so.  If it goes the other way, well then the haters will blame Bush.  Fine, whatever.  But at that point it will not be about blame, it will be about other much more disastrous things.

Millions of lives lost in what could amount to a genocide that includes, but is not limited too.

- Turkey's army in all all-out invasion of the Kurds in northern Iraq
- A Shia-Sunni civil war that erupts
- Iran massing it's army and invading from the east into Iraq
- Al-Queda launching attacks, first on Saudia Arabia and then to Europe and the United States
- Israel reacting by bombing Iran

A 'date certain' withdrawal of U.S. troops could well ignite a true World War III.

The anti-war left is beating the drum loudly that the choice go into Iraq was the biggest U.S. foreign policy disaster of all time. What I, and you, should hope and pray now is that GW's foreign policy disaster is the worst that comes out of it.

If BO is elected PUSA then his ardent anti-war backers are in for a shock. He will not withdraw the U.S. troops on a date-certain. Because, Like Pelosi and Reid, he simply can't. Furthermore, the U.S. will have a significant troop presence in Iraq for the next 50-60 years (along the lines of Germany, Japan, Korea, et al).

So what scares me then?

That this reved-up pep rally of an Obama train gets so far off the tracks that he is beholden to the Bush haters and ignores the advice given to him.  He then compounds exactly what Bush did and triggers a massive war.

Iraq is a quagmire alright.  We are unfortunately stuck there at a tremendous price in blood and treasure to us.  Staying the course is profoundly sad, but it is for the next generation possibly the only option.

So Obama supporters grab your pom-poms and repeat the chant after me.

"Can we stay in Iraq!"... "Yes we can!"