http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/301162.html
"It's not enough to bemoan this terrible tragedy after the fact," said Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich today. "The American people have every right to demand that the candidates for President be answerable for the war-and-peace decisions they have made over the years and prove that their policies and positions won't plunge this nation and the world into even greater dangers."
Events in Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran may seem far removed, Kucinich said, "but the inability of our leaders to recognize the role that their fatally flawed foreign policies have on the lives and the security of American citizens should disqualify them from serious consideration for the highest office in the land and the most powerful post in the world."
I agree with him. I think in the end, the argument of this campaign is not experience vs. change, but experience vs. judgment. Personally, I come down strongly on the side of judgment. There are certainly additional arguments to consider such as their ability to bring about change, but I think judgment is paramount.
I'm sure some will accuse Kucinich of "politicizing" the tragedy, but the fact is that this was politicized from the very beginning. Hillary Clinton has complained about politicizing the Bhutto assassination, but what she's really complaining about is the criticism of her past judgment. Clinton had no problem politicizing the assassination in terms of it highlighting her experience. This was her initial response to the event:
Stephen Elliott had an interesting take on this at the Huffington Post.
There are parallels between this and what happened in 2004 where Bush and Cheney tried to get the American people to ignore his failure in Iraq by bringing up fears of terrorism. They told us we couldn't risk handing over power to people like Kerry and Edwards when the stakes were so high. Hopefully, we won't get fooled by that again.