Let’s Hope that Experience and Character Really CountEarlier this week Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Senator Joe Biden, said that Obama, as president, would be ‘faced with an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy during the first 6 months of his presidency,’ he was correct in one respect. He finally identified SECURITY as a primary issue and opened the door to discuss one of the most vital issues facing this country – AMERICA’S SECURITY. It brings into focus the question of who is ready to be commander-in-chief and most able to deal effectively with international and military problems. The following excerpt from McCain the Stalwart by Charles Krauthammer, in TownHall.com on Friday, October 24, provides a necessary response to Biden’s remarks: The case for McCain is straightforward. The financial crisis has made us forget, or just blindly deny, how dangerous the world out there is. We have a generations-long struggle with Islamic jihadism, an apocalyptic soon-to-be-nuclear Iran; a nuclear-armed Pakistan in danger of fragmentation, a rising Russia pushing the limits . . . Who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m.? A man who`s been cramming on these issues for the last year, who`s never had to make an executive decision affecting so much as a city, let alone the world? A foreign policy novice instinctively inclined to the flabbiest, most vaporous multilateralism (e.g., the Berlin Wall came down because of "a world that stands as one"), and who refers to the most deliberate act of war since Pearl Harbor as "the tragedy of 9/11," a term more appropriate for a bus accident? Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious foreign policy thinker in the United States Senate? A man who not only has the best instincts, but has the honor and the courage to, yes, put country first, as when he carried the lonely fight for the surge that turned Iraq from catastrophic defeat into achievable strategic victory? There`s just no comparison. Obama`s own running mate warned this week that Obama`s youth and inexperience will invite a crisis -- indeed a crisis "generated" precisely to test him. Can you be serious about national security and vote on Nov. 4 to invite that test? And how will he pass it? Well, how has he fared on the only two significant foreign policy tests he has faced since he`s been in the Senate? The first was the surge. Obama failed spectacularly. He not only opposed it. He tried to denigrate it, stop it and, finally, deny its success. The second test was Georgia, to which Obama responded instinctively with evenhanded moral equivalence, urging restraint on both sides. McCain did not have to consult his advisers to instantly identify the aggressor. Today’s economic crisis, like every other in our history, will in time pass. But the barbarians will still be at the gates. Whom do you want on the parapet? I`m for the guy who can tell the lion from the lamb. Since the Hitler era the stakes have never been higher. Americans will soon decide if experience with years of international involvement and military expertise are needed in this treacherous world. America’s enemies have proved they will stop at nothing to dominate all of Western Civilization. Let’s hope that on November 4th voters understand the threat and will vote accordingly. - Esther Levens, Founder & CEO, Unity Coalition for Israel, Democracy Under Attack
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