Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, October 30, 2008 12:51:35 PM
The best defense is a good offense, so the proverb instructs, but in
John McCain’s case, it may be the opposite. After having hammered
Barack Obama on economic philosophy for the last two weeks, McCain raised national security as a campaign theme in Tampa this morning
Obama surrogate General Scott Stratton responded that Obama had pledged
to increase ground forces and “invest” in 21st-century capabilities.
He did? That would be a major shift from Obama’s position in the
primaries
Obama specifically says he will stop investments in “unproven”
missile defense systems, which have proven quite successful and
promising over the same period of time as the presidential campaign.
Missile defense would certainly qualify as a 21st-century capability,
but Obama wants to unilaterally stop investing in it. And he doesn’t
stop at missile defense, either. He promises in that clip to end
spending on a wide range of military systems; his running mate, Joe
Biden, has specified the F-22 as one program that will get the axe even
while the US struggles to maintain its aging fighter inventory.
Obama operates from a disarmament mindset, a bad philosophy in the
best of times and borderline insane in the middle of a war. Biden
acknowledges that our enemies will rush to “test” the inexperienced
Obama if he wins the election. If Obama’s busily defunding military
investments, what kind of an answer will he be able to give?
Meanwhile, his Congressional colleagues envision an Obama victory as a
mandate to cut defense spending by 25% — which will hardly help “invest in 21st-century capabilities”.
Polling shows that McCain enjoys a significant lead in national
security over Barack Obama. With the financial collapse quiet for the
moment, this may be a good time to leverage that into a final-week push
to convince undecideds that Obama simply isn’t ready to adequately
defend the nation.