Could Senator Biden be warning us that Senator Obama is not prepared to be Commander in Chief of the world superpower’s armed forces? Or, as John Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations put it, “Leaders around the world see Obama as soft, untested, weak and very naïve”….
“Mark my words,' Senator Biden warned ominously, “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.'
'I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,' Biden said at a fund raiser, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. 'And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him.”
'I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,' Biden said at a fund raiser, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. 'And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him.”
And with that, the foot-in-the-mouth Senator from Delaware scored yet another major gaffe (a gaffe is what happens when politicians inadvertently tell the truth): just two weeks before the election, he reminded voters exactly what it is they do not at all like about this young rookie, a newcomer with no military experience who remains untested on the stage of grave world dangers and threats to our country and families.
All over America tonight, citizens are looking at each other and saying, “Oh yeah, that was it…we don't want a rookie like Obama as president of the globe’s mightiest superpower. His well known skittishness in the face of determined and ruthless forces will invite aggression from our enemies, and they will want to know just what America is now willing to do. We need a McCain who our enemies won't dare test. Our enemies did that once – tested a new but tough-minded president - and they won’t make that mistake again,” as they then will reflect on the fact that America has not been attacked since 9/11.
But it should be noted that, in all the previous tests of a new American president who was not tough-minded (Senator Obama – please put down that white flag!), we failed. Think of one who responded by doing nothing (Clinton with Mogadishu or the first World Trade Center attack – it was no surprise that 9/11 would follow), or think of one who courted aggression because of his greenhorn qualities (think of Kennedy, Kruschev and the Cuban Missile Crisis), and you have the scenario that awaits us. The world will want to test this one unknown young man to see how the United States will respond to more dead Americans, and to more shattered American families.
On the other hand, when tough-minded presidents come into office, America’s enemies scatter like cockroaches under a spray of Raid. Think Ronald Reagan and the fact that the Iranian hostages, held for 444 days under the weak-kneed Jimmy Carter, were formally released into United States custody on January 20, 1981, minutes after Reagan was sworn in.
Joe Biden went on to admit, ' Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right. I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?' We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us. There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision'.'
And therein lies another problem. Here Biden openly admits that they probably won’t get it right from the get-go, just as Obama had to try three times to register a proper response to Russia when it barreled into Georgia. Doesn’t inspire much confidence, does it? McCain, very familiar with Russia and how to handle them, responded correctly and appropriately from the moment the crisis began. In fact, the invasion of Georgia highlighted McCain’s leadership and experience in world affairs over Obama by his handling of a foreign crisis. McCain was quick to condemn Russian aggression, saying it was a matter of “urgent moral and strategic importance to the United States…a clear violation of international law,” calling on Russia to “immediately and unconditionally cease operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgia.” At that moment, Obama was still floating ideas about how to respond, as he did over the next three really embarrassing days.
Biden emphasized that the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border is of particular concern, with Osama bin Laden 'alive and well' and Pakistan 'bristling with nuclear weapons.'
'You literally can see what these kids are up against, our kids in that region,' Biden said in recalling when his helicopter was forced down due to a snowstorm there. 'The place is crawling with al Qaeda. And it's real.' Well, we could have told you that, Senator Biden. And based on how your candidate has stated time and again he’d like to deal with al-Qaeda (that is, run in the opposite direction), it does not make us feel safe that you two are on the threshold of a place where you probably should not be.
'You literally can see what these kids are up against, our kids in that region,' Biden said in recalling when his helicopter was forced down due to a snowstorm there. 'The place is crawling with al Qaeda. And it's real.' Well, we could have told you that, Senator Biden. And based on how your candidate has stated time and again he’d like to deal with al-Qaeda (that is, run in the opposite direction), it does not make us feel safe that you two are on the threshold of a place where you probably should not be.
The American people will decide on November 4th whether you should be there, but it is quite possible that, on this day, they will remember that Senator McCain has seen America’s enemies up close and personal, looked them right in the eye, face-to-face, and in so doing, he has been tested over the years as few in this country have. Americans don’t want to be “tested” (read: see more dead American bodies in our homeland) when our economy is in crisis and we are already fighting in two hot wars. We don’t need another American city reduced to chaos and rubble.
This is precisely what people are worried about, and a tested and experienced McCain is much more likely to get it right than an untested ingénue with attitude, who has no understanding of how at risk America is. As Senator Biden himself said of Senator Obama’s candidacy, “This is no time for on-the-job training. Lives will be lost.”
For this reason, we are grateful to Senator Biden for reminding us just what is at stake here. Yes, we have economic woes, but Americans will at least live through that. Another attack on our soil will not guarantee that Americans will live through it, and it will certainly not guarantee that we will respond in a way that will keep America’s enemies further at bay.
- The Editors of FamilySecurityMatters.org
