Quote of the Night

McCain: Well, Katie (ph), thank you.

You know, my hero is a guy named Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt used to say walk softly -- talk softly, but carry a big stick. Sen. Obama likes to talk loudly.

In fact, he said he wants to announce that he's going to attack Pakistan. Remarkable.

You know, if you are a country and you're trying to gain the support of another country, then you want to do everything you can that they would act in a cooperative fashion.

When you announce that you're going to launch an attack into another country, it's pretty obvious that you have the effect that it had in Pakistan: It turns public opinion against us.

Now, let me just go back with you very briefly. We drove the Russians out with -- the Afghan freedom fighters drove the Russians out of Afghanistan, and then we made a most serious mistake. We washed our hands of Afghanistan. The Taliban came back in, Al Qaeda, we then had the situation that required us to conduct the Afghan war.

Now, our relations with Pakistan are critical, because the border areas are being used as safe havens by the Taliban and Al Qaeda and other extremist organizations, and we have to get their support.

Now, General Petraeus had a strategy, the same strategy -- very, very different, because of the conditions and the situation -- but the same fundamental strategy that succeeded in Iraq. And that is to get the support of the people.

We need to help the Pakistani government go into Waziristan, where I visited, a very rough country, and -- and get the support of the people, and get them to work with us and turn against the cruel Taliban and others.

And by working and coordinating our efforts together, not threatening to attack them, but working with them, and where necessary use force, but talk softly, but carry a big stick. - From the CNN Transcript of the debates.

Seriously after last night's debates, I wish we could figure out a way to draft Bill Clinton back into office. Obama didn't do bad, but he didn't do all that great either. And McCain.....dear lord.

I don't know what was more distracting, his weird attempts at humor or his senior shuffle whenever he crossed the stage. And what the fuck happened to that guy's neck?

At any rate, the above quote stood out as my WTF? moment of the evening.

Let's review shall we?

Now, let me just go back with you very briefly. We drove the Russians out with -- the Afghan freedom fighters drove the Russians out of Afghanistan, and then we made a most serious mistake. We washed our hands of Afghanistan. The Taliban came back in, Al Qaeda, we then had the situation that required us to conduct the Afghan war.

Had Obama said that, there'd be fifty attack ads by noon...."Barack Obama calls Osama Bin Laden a Freedom Fighter.....insert your mock outrage here."

I'm also fond of "The Taliban came back in..." comment. 1) The Taliban wasn't even formed while we were training Osama and pals to fight against the Soviet Union (And later us...that was money well spent.), and 2) Many of the future members of the Taliban were the afore-mentioned "Freedom Fighters."

This election season just keeps getting more and more annoying. To paraphrase Green Day...wake me up when November ends.

Tags: presidential debates

Labels: Politics

posted by m/a/z/e  [9:11 PM]   0 comments