Obama Makes the 3 a.m. Call

August 23, 2008 by Pelikan
Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Foreign Policy, Presidential Campaign 2008 

All of our attention here at C&C has been focused on the presidential race and Ohio politics this week. From time to time I scanned an article or two about Russia’s ongoing aggression against Georgia and found that it seemed to be Groundhog Day for about a week. A typical headline read over the past week: ‘Despite Cease Fire Russians Not Budging.’

Well, today they seem to be moving more of their forces north although some Russian checkpoints persist in Georgia. If you want to read one great article on the situation, read this from today’s New York Times.

Americans who are frustrated by U.S. incompetence in handling this situation over the first vital weekend of the crisis and our ensuing incompetence in having any positive effect on the outcome of the situation, should look forward to November.

I’ll leave it to the historians, but living in these times it seems that there has never been a presidential administration that has weakened America’s standing in the world more than the tag team of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Bush, with his incurious nature and lack of awareness has allowed Cheney’s dark, paranoid view of the world to overly influence policy and make the U.S. the new Evil Empire to many.

There has been no strategy for the long-term in Bush-Cheney foreign policy. Their short-term strategies have been ill-thought and unfounded and executed poorly on the tactical level. Diplomacy has taken a back seat at every turn.

If you are inclined to vote for Sen. Barack Obama this November – or still on the fence – you should take heart in the candidate’s choice for running mate. Sen. Joe Biden brings decades of foreign policy experience to the ticket and is seen by Democrats and Republicans in Washington as highly educated and clear thinking on America’s role in the world. For those who have criticized Obama for ‘lacking experience’ – we don’t hire a president to micro-manage. We hire a president to make decisions. George Bush famously referred to himself as “The Decider,” only his decisions have been shown to very often not really be his own and those decisions have had disastrous consequences for our economy and security.

Obama, today at 3 a.m. did not answer “the call.” He made it. Today at 3 p.m., he will formally introduce the world to the O-Biden ticket. I’m hopeful again already.

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Comments

2 Comments on Obama Makes the 3 a.m. Call

  1. CKA in Red State USA on Sat, 23rd Aug 2008 1:28 pm

    2. You’re hopeful because Barack/Barry SoetorObamaDunham made a phone call at 3 a.m.–and to a very limited audience, at that?

    Each to his own opinion.

    But if you can derive hope from that staged event, then you really are a political alchemist, among other things.

    And, going out on a limb here, what he did can hardly be compared to the 3 a.m. call for which Hillary Clinton rightly nailed him.

    It takes no experience and, frankly, misguided strategery to do what he did. But to answer THE call? Well, even Biden said some time ago that the White House is not a place for OJT during international distress.

    I’m just guessing here, but I’d bet lots and lots of the Americans, including potential voters, will view BBSOD’s cutesy announcement as just one more way that he’s out of touch. And arrogant.

    But, again, IMO.

  2. OhioVoter on Sun, 24th Aug 2008 1:55 pm

    3. I got the Obama/Biden text message around 3AM, and I’ve talked to people who got the text message a lot earlier or later. I’m guessing that with the large number of people who signed up to get that announcement, it took several hours for the system to send that many messages. When I send one text message to 10 people, my phone treats it as 10 separate messages and it takes about 30 seconds to send them all.
    So I don’t think we should all read too much into the fact that many of us got the message at 3AM.
    Overall I think this whole project was a really smart strategy - with all the buzz about the VP pick, it was a great opportunity to get huge numbers of people to give the campaign their cell phone numbers. Now the campaign can send a GOTV message to those people on election day, etc.

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