Debate

After watching the Democratic debate tonight, I am left with a few thoughts:

1. Obama is constantly battling not only his opponent in the Democratic race, not only the Republican presumptive nominee, but also the establishment machine. At every turn, when he tries to elevate the discussion, he is pulled back into the morass. For example, when Obama tried to elevate the discussion on Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Stephanopolis asked follow up questions that completely missed Obama's point. Clinton chimed in on the discussion about the "cling" comments, completely missing the substance of what Obama was saying. Are they being willfully ignorant?
2. Clinton tries to have things two ways. First, she wants to be judged separately from her husband and be vetted according to her own record. Then, she wants to take the credit for the policies that worked during her husband's administration. To top it off, she (and her daughter) act thoroughly offended when the questions about her role in her husband's indiscretions is mentioned. What? I am convinced that the election of Clinton will do nothing to change the course of U.S. policies that have been in place since Ronald Reagan.
3. Why does criticism of American policies equate to lack of patriotism? Speak out against the war, you're unpatriotic. Speak about failed policies in the Middle East, you're unpatriotic. make the claim that American policy has caused harm to other parts of the world, you're unpatriotic. Bullshit. The blind faith that is put in the government's policies is dangerous. Is it really that controversial to suggest that American foreign policy in the Middle East resulted in the attacks of 9/11? I despise this "America can do no wrong" attitude. Look, the reality is that, while the language may have been extreme, the gist of Rev. Wright's comments were TRUE! The U.S. has deposed democratically elected governments in favor of friendlier dictatorships. The U.S. ignores democratically elected governments if they don't believe in what the U.S. thinks they should believe in (see Hamas). The idea that we can gloss over these failures to claim "America's moral authority in the world" is asinine. At this point, we have no moral authority. We are a country that invades other countries without provocation, we torture enemies, ignore the rule of law when it doesn't suit us, spy on our own citizens, and cannot fathom why other peoples would dislike us. Ludicrous.