Monday, July 21, 2008

Investor's Business Daily Knocks Obama's Reliance On Lugar

Indiana Daily Insight picks up on a knock in an Investor's Business Daily editorial of Sen. Barack Obama's use of Sen. Richard Lugar in his latest ad to bolster his foreign policy credentials. IDI's Ed Feigenbaum writes, "Investor's Business Daily editorializes negatively about 'The Obama-Lugar 'Coalition', suggesting that U.S. Sen. 'Barack Obama has a curious way of trying to hoodwink voters into believing he is more hawkish than they think — by showing them how pally he is with a leading Republican dove.'" The editorial puts into perspective the non-role Obama has actually played in eliminating Russian nuclear weapons and Lugar's own misjudgments on Iraq:

Obama claims he and Lugar kept Russian nuclear weapons out of the wrong hands. But beyond getting a tour of a junkyard for old warheads in Russia in 2005, and supporting Lugar-sponsored missile legislation, it's actually unclear what Obama did.

Lugar is a poor choice of Republican for Obama to pair up with in feigning foreign policy credibility. The last thing Lugar did of any note was deliver an interminable speech on the Senate floor a year ago. In those remarks, he complained that 'our continuing absorption with military activities in Iraq is limiting our diplomatic assertiveness there and elsewhere in the world.' He called for 'a multifaceted diplomatic offensive' instead of President Bush's military surge.

Lugar's betrayal was described as historic by the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid. Portrayed in much of the media as a foreign-policy wise man, Lugar and his advice proved dead wrong. Had his counsel been followed last year, a chaotic Iraq would be dominated today by al-Qaida and Iran.

Now Lugar is actually being mentioned as a possible cross-party running mate for Obama. The Hoosier claims no interest, but back at the 1980 Republican convention in Detroit the then-little-known senator was almost begging publicly to be placed on the ticket with Ronald Reagan .... Lugar later sowed distrust with Republicans when he suggested selling out Nicaragua's Contra freedom fighters in the 1980s in exchange for a communist Sandinista version of 'free elections.'

Now, in an election year, Lugar describes the assertions in Obama's commercial as 'accurate' — rather than taking the opportunity to blast Obama's naive foreign-policy radicalism."

5 comments:

Vox Populi said...

Lugar's misjudgements on Iraq? Are you kidding me? The surge "worked" in that 40,000 more US troops were there to keep order. But those troops can't stay indefinitely (unless McCain is in charge) and once the drawdown happens, violence will erupt once more.

Gary, do you and your Republican friends propose that if the above happened (US troops begin coming home but Iraq is swarmed by insurgents again), then the US should have another surge?

If the final result will be the same regardless of our actions, why murder more American troops in the process? We already know McCain sees this as a Korea-like committment (50+ years so far) whereas Obama wants out within 16 months of taking office (a timeline the Iraqi government agrees with).

Attacking Lugar isn't going to win you this election, thank god.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Excuse me, but I'm not the one attacking Lugar here; it's the editorial by Investor's Daily Business. I'm irked, however, that Lugar is intentionally allowing Obama to use him to overstate his contribution on reducing Russian nuclear missiles. Lugar knows this is a complete exaggeration of the facts, but he despises John McCain like many of his Republican colleagues in the Senate and so he allows him to do it. Lugar's problems with his GOP colleagues can be traced back to his unsuccessful efforts to win a GOP leadership position. He's been rebuffed a couple of times and he holds grudges against many of his GOP colleagues for not supporting him. Sometimes, Lugar goes out of his way to stick a needle in his GOP colleagues' eyes. This is another example of it.

artfuggins said...

Before everyone speaks for Lugar, maybe we should wait for him to speak. He has been much closer to Obams´s position than the one of George Bush or his clone John McCai.

Jon E. Easter said...

Richard Lugar had no problem being in the ad, and, when asked about it by a local news station, he said the ad was "accurate."

Personally, I think it's sad that conservatives are turning on statesmen like Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel. By the way, Lugar is a solid conservative and his voting record shows it.

guy77money said...

Geez my favorite publication is doing Political news! Yuck they may turn into the Wall Street Journal! VBG Some humor on the blog is a good thing! <: