Diatribune

If ever there was a doubt about who would best lead our country and defeat the incompetent and evil Republicans next year, all that was shattered during the latest Democratic debate.

Barack Obama was on game, to the point, and not afraid to take a hard stance while Hillary Clinton seemed uncharacteristically lost trying to attack Obama.

Obama was not afraid to tell the truth about diplomacy during the debate. Instead of telling us how he'll never talk with world leaders we don't like (like, for example, those of Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea), Obama pointed out how sometimes it is necessary to do such.

Obama accurately pointed out how Reagan talked to the Soviets while calling that country "the evil empire," but there is another case I remember about an American leader who was one of the biggest commie-haters of all time who wound up reaching to Mao Zedong's China during the early 1970s as well as the USSR-- Richard Nixon, like Reagan a Republican.

This was not a picture of a vacillating politician who would give away the ranch to our adversaries as Clinton's campaign as well as Republicans tried to suggest (Remember these are the same Republicans who for six years blindly defended the fatally-flawed and ill-conceived Bush-Cheney foreign policy which brings me to this conclusion-- For Republicans to be attacking Obama's position is like Bart Simpson trying to give advise on how to pass the fifth grade). This, instead, was a well-versed and intelligent leader with the vision to see that America's foreign policy interests do sometimes require negotiations with adversaries.

Barack Obama has shown himself to be a visionary throughout this campaign. Whether it was speaking before a solidly Republican church congregation in Orange County or his debate performance earlier this week, Obama has shown a genius for standing up for principles, strongly defending himself against opposition attacks, and providing a vision of how he plans to lead our country for the next four years.

Clinton has also showed herself to be a strong campaigner during this process, but her failure to admit wrong in her vote to authorize the Iraq war continues to trouble me.

I also like John Edwards' passion for those less fortunate, but I can't get past his lack of effectiveness as John Kerry's running mate in 2004 (In all fairness, the Kerry campaign as a whole was a poorly-run fiasco that did more to wrest defeat out of the jaws of victory than any campaign I've seen in my lifetime, and Edwards' role, or lack thereof, was part of it).

In the end, however, Obama has demonstrated himself to be the stronger leader and candidate, and he will be every bit as strong in combating the GOP disinformation machine during the general election.

To borrow a 1968 campaign slogan, Barack Obama's definitely the one in 2008.

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