Hope and change, and that's about it

Barack Obama sure likes to criticize people from the sidelines, but when it comes to presenting his own plans, he consistently comes up short.

Today's example: In this article, Obama savages John McCain's and George Bush's foreign policies, especially the ones regarding one Osama bin Laden, who Obama intimates would be made into a martyr if the current administation were to capture him. When a reporter sensibly asks how he would approach the issue, this is about all that Obama can come up with:

"It does not make sense for me to speculate in terms of what the best approach would be in trying him and bringing him to justice," Obama said.

Yeah, I guess it wouldn't make sense to ask someone running for President, and who is so on the prod concerning the current President's policies for, oh, some concrete thoughts of his own on the subject. Nope, all the peasants need to know is that Obama will somehow apply "hope" and "change", to the situation, and everything will magically turn out just fine.

In other news, the same piece reports that Obama has tapped some "seasoned hands" from the former Clinton Administration to advise him on foreign and national security matters. These "hands" include such luminaries as Madeleine Albright, who after dancing with murderous North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and calling him "charming" extracted several promises from him to stop developing nuclear weapons, all which he promptly broke; Warren Christopher, who helped the Chinese army obtain critical satellite and space technology (and who I didn't realize was still alive, as he must be in his late eighties by now); and the real prize, former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, who

"championed the pardon of millionaire fugitive Marc Rich. Holder pushed the pardon past the normal channels and put it directly on the desk of Bill Clinton, who signed off, sending Rich a free "get out of jail" card."

What an all-star lineup. Obama can't miss with that group. Wait a minute - whatever happened to getting rid of Washington insiders, part of that whole "change" theme? I guess that's gone the way of his deciding to not accept public funding for his campaign after promising in writing that he would do so:

"Last year, Obama filled out a questionnaire where he vowed to "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." But since clinching the Democratic nomination earlier this month, Obama has not broached the subject with McCain. The only discussion occurred about two weeks ago between Obama's and McCain's lawyers."

Obama sure loves to change his mind on those questionnaires, doesn't he? Maybe they don't count, as they're only practice, or something to that effect.

I'm no fan of John McCain, and I believe that certain of his legislative achievements have been, shall we say, freedom-sapping. Having said that, he is light-years better than Obama, who doesn't even try to hide his outright lies, or attempt to cover up his lack of knowledge or opinion on many vitally important subjects.

Nope, not much of a choice at all. For me, it's probably going to have to be a flawed but experienced man over a Chicago street hustler.