The choice is clear

Do you favor belligerence or diplomacy? The choice is clear. Barack Obama is not naive about international affairs. Neither has he lived a sheltered, insulated life of privilege. He has seen the way the world regards the USA, and he is bold enough to take on all who oppose us – yet he knows that the surest way to lose influence is to become a bully.

President Bush was wrong about the reasons we should invade Iraq, he was wrong when he said “Mission Accomplished,” and he is wrong to try to handcuff his successor’s choices, evidently being as unfamiliar with the realities of being a lame duck as he is with the concept of negotiation. Having only lately thought to try his hand at diplomacy instead of sabre-rattling and misinterpreting intelligence data, he lacks the experience, and hence the credibility, to comment on the rectitude of this long-practiced method, let alone to liken any modern statesman to those who appeased Adolph Hitler.

We have had a man who reflexively seeks to prove might makes right answering the phone at 3 a.m., and it has not gone well for us these past 7+ years. Bush had his chance to build a legacy in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and he squandered it. In electing Barack Obama we turn the page, and empower a statesman to lead our country back from the precipice that the misbegotten policies of the current administration have run toward recklessly.