Quote of the Day - May 21, 2008

“Why shouldn't we have the same courage and confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do. That's what strong presidents do."
- Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) in response to Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) assertion that Obama's judgement is "reckless" and he lacks the experience to be president for wanting to meet with our enemies.

Read the entire CNN article about their flap here.


plez sez: for the past fifty years, the US has looked with disdain at the small tropical island that sits a mere 90 miles off the coast of florida, cuba. fidel castro has grown old and feeble, while the us has gone through nine presidents, the vietnam war, the cold war with the soviet union, the thaw of relations with china, the reconstruction of europe, landing on the moon, and global warming. yet they continue to sit there off the coast of florida, as benign as the day that the island bubbled up in the caribbean.

all those presidents, all those nuclear weapons, all that high priced intelligence, all those billion dollar warships and stealth fighters, all of our money, and the collapse of the soviet union... and they still sit there without a word from the us! fidel is still drawing breath, long after the assassinations of the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King, Jr. he's still there after the death of anwar sadat in egypt, the overthrow of the shah of iran, the fall of the berlin wall, the war in bosnia, the opening of vietnam, the capture of manuel noriega in panama, the loss of the panama canal, the crack epidemic, the death of benazir butto in pakistan, and the hanging of saddam hussein in iraq. the only world leader who has been in power since fidel castro's unlikely ascension in cuba is the queen of england!

mccain says that Obama is naive for suggesting that we talk with fidel's little brother (raul), since he has taken the reins of the country. plezWorld is thinking, "what harm can it do?" cuba is an island, literally and figuratively. the cuban missle crisis was handled with diplomacy over 45 years ago! what can be gained by NOT speaking with them now? what benefit is derived for the large cuban community in south florida that cannot communicate with their relatives?

mccain (as an extension of george w. bush) represents an old, dysfunctional, and failed foreign policy. mccain would do well to highlight areas where he differs from bush, not reinforce what most americans already assume: a mccain presidency will be a continuation of the bush foreign policy debacle. a foreign policy that brought al qaeda and the suicide bombers to the us on september 11, 2001, the foreign policy that cannot find osama bin laden, and the foreign policy that launched an illegal war against the sovereign state of iraq (i still don't understand why he has not been impeached)!

it's time to have a president with the stones to chart a new path, try new strategies, and change our global image. it is time to have a president with a strength of conviction to do what is right, rather than what has always been done. change is difficult and i expect mistakes will be made. but after eight years of blunders by some of the most experienced washington insiders (cheney, powell, rice, rumsfeld, et. al.), i plan to cast my lot with the new guy: Barack Obama.