It really is refreshing to have an adult as our leader....

[WCGreen]

Instead of garish and childish cartoon figures...

That is all...

[NYC_SKP]

1. Already unrecced, not surprisingly. K and R. n/t

[graywarrior]

2. Recommended!

[NNN0LHI]

3. Recommended for truth

[Arkana]

4. He's making a decision that he knows will piss off a lot of people.

He doesn't act like he made it on the crapper or while playing pinball.

[WCGreen]

10. powerful people at that....

[azmouse]

5. Hear, hear!

:thumbsup:

[Cha]

6. I'm just now getting use

to it and I love it!

[annarbor]

7. Recommended!

I totally agree-

[NNN0LHI]

8. No burps, coke jaw or nothing

[ixion]

9. the only difference is the branding

from what I can see. I don't get how that is 'better'.

[WCGreen]

13. Well, he is explaining his decision process in a thoughtful and articulate manner.

On edit...

I never said "better' I said refreshing.

Obama is speaking after deliberating and he is speaking with a sense of conviction that runs deeper than boorish bravado.

That, to me at least, is how an adult presents a hard decision to those who will be most effected by his choices.

[ixion]

18. and behind that thoughtful, articulate process

is a grist mill of death and destruction. How it is presented means little to nothing, in my opinion. The substance of what is presented is what is important. And the substance of this process is this: a military escalation that will cost billions, kill thousands and ultimately render nothing productive in the end.

[WCGreen]

22. I don't think he for one minute he doesn't know the consequence

of his dcision...

[crazyjoe]

19. don't you mean he is reading his decision process

in a thoughtful and articulate manner?

[WCGreen]

21. No, I distinctly used explaining because to me, at least, he spelled

out why he made his decision.

[POAS]

11. Thanks WCG!!

Needed to be said in a place that is so filled with acrimony lately.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. He is certainly that.

No cartoon figure here...

[grahamhgreen]

14. That's not an adult... It's an imitation of an adult. A TV character. Selling a product.

[Robb]

15. No shit, that's the truth.

I don't know what the hell is going on around here lately. There are complete idiots posting in the "live" thread.

To anyone reading this and wondering if I'm calling them an idiot: if you have to wonder, then yes. Obama is not Bush.

[babylonsister]

16. AMEN! Yes, it is. For those who think this decision was taken lightly,

they are very wrong.

And he's explaining, but there are those who don't care and won't listen.

[Solomon]

17. Solomon says

right on.

[madrchsod]

20. yes he is an adult

and i still disagree with what he is about to do.

[WCGreen]

26. I don't like the fact that he has to take these actions in order to

clean up the mess left behind...

I believe that if we just shut down the process, chaos would erupt and threaten not only Afghanistan and Pakistan but the stability all around the region.

[boobooday]

23. I think he came out and made a case for his position

It's a shitty situation. I respect the way he handled it, even if I'm not sure I agree with his decision.

[WCGreen]

27. I really wish he could be taking alternative measures but the last

Administration sacrificed quick success in Afghanistan in order to wage war in Iraq.

[Algorem]

24. he's not a cartoon.pretty faint praise.

[WCGreen]

25. I think being adult is all that we should require...

Thoughtful, deliberate thinking about goals and consequences and the willing to take responsibility are all adult traits that Obama has embarrassed.

[Algorem]

28. for an adult he's sure acting like he's somebody's boy

[Hekate]

29. Refreshing indeed. Once again, he speaks to his audience like thinking adults capable of holding...

... a reasoned discourse and more than one thought in their heads at a time. Of course, not *everyone* is actually capable of such a thing, but it's refreshing to have him behave as though enough of us are to make a difference.

I know I've said this before, but I voted for him based on his judgment and character as I perceived them to be, rather than a rigid personal agenda. So far I have seldom been disappointed. Barack Obama is solid. He has given this situation (which we all know is a bucket of crap that got handed to him by Bush) his most careful consideration. Judgment ... Character.

Bush the Lesser and his posturing, his dress-up flight suit, his continual photo-ops with *real* soldiers, his coke-jaw, stagger, and bullying bravado, his telling us over and over to be Very Afraid -- that's who got our country into this mess. Sometimes it seems like half the people here don't remember that far back.

Barack Obama is laying out a course of action, but in his speech I also heard him calling us to our better selves, to be the people who show the world By Example what we are all about as a nation.

For instance, from my earliest childhood I was taught that no matter what a tyrant might do with POWs and other prisoners, We Don't Torture, That Is Not Who We Are. Bush-Cheney-Rove took that away from us, and we let them. It sickened me to watch torture become an official policy. We became no better than the tyrants we used to oppose.

I think Barack Obama was not only laying out his instructions for soldierly behavior, in a sense I think he was giving us back to ourselves. That part is important and transcends this particular plan for Afghanistan.

One more thing. No place in this speech did I hear him tell us to be afraid, be very afraid.

Hekate

[WCGreen]

31. Spot on...

You spelled out exactly what I was thinking...

[jpak]

30. How dare you praise the Warmonger Obama that is no different than Booosh!!!!111

You will be flamed - flamed I say

- for telling the truth!

:thumbsup:

[AVID]

32. K&R