Obama's Gaff -- The First Of Many?

I'm actually not in the least surprised that Barack Obama made a significant gaff only days into his presidential campaign:

During his first press conference as a presidential candidate at Iowa State University, Obama, discussing his opposition to the Iraq war, said the war "should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged, and on which we've now spent $400 billion, and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.''

Despite a rapid attempt at clarification that was not really an apology as much as a "what I really meant" kind of statement, I believe that Obama's use of the term "wasted" was in keeping with the attitude of the American Left and his own conscience.  The Left simply doesn't believe the Iraq war is worth the sacrifice.  While not as serious or personal as John Kerry's slander of the general intelligence level of U.S. soldiers, Obama's comment reveals much about his attitude toward the Iraq War specifically and the extent to which he would wage the war against Islamic fanaticism generally.

Despite the accolades and media fawning Obama is receiving nationally, it should be remembered that he hasn't really ever won a tough political race, particularly a general election campaign.  He was elected to an open state senate seat in a heavily Democratic area in 1996.  He challenged incumbent Congressman Bobby Rush in the 2000 Democratic primary and was crushed by a vote of 61%-30%.  He was reelected to his state senate seat in 2002.  He won the 2002 Democratic United States Senate primary against one opponent who was derailed by accusations of spousal abuse and another who ran a somewhat lackluster campaign.  He coasted to victory in the general election when his Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, was undone by sordid revelations of sex clubs and bizarre sexual dalliances for which he tried to involve his then wife, actress Jeri Ryan.  After Ryan withdrew from the race, the Illinois Republican Party made the unfortunate decision to import Maryland resident Alan Keyes who elected to run a highly eccentric, downright weird campaign.

All in all, Obama is a very intelligent and gentlemanly fellow, but he is not a seasoned, experienced campaigner.  He hasn't been through the gauntlet.  Mistakes will be made.  We've already seen the first.   

Comments

[annette]

Do you mean he made a mistake by telling what he thinks rather than what some people may wish to hear?
I think the invasion was wrong and the current mess is telling me I was right.
This slogan is from 1964, it was right then and I feel is till true}
"Fighting for peace is like f_*ing for virginity"= it doesn't work!

Shouldn't we have used the money spent on the war to foster industries that do not use fossil fuel?

[Coffeespy]

Nonsense. If Obama thinks troops lives were wasted in service to their country, then he has no business leading said troops anywhere. A life spent in service to the nation is not a waste no matter where it ends up being spent.

As for your 40+ year old sound-bite, it makes sense to first year college students or someone who doesn't read news, enter global political discussions, or have an original thought past the party line. Beyond an "action/state" parallel, it doesn't hold water. To whit: Fighting for peace is like washing for cleanliness. Action effects state, action effects state. Still sounds like it's viable.

Besides, do you know what a life of passifism gets you? Murdered, just like Ghandi. I'm not sure what you think we're going to do with all our new clean fuels while planes are being flown into buildings, Islamo-fascism shores up strength in the Middle East, and the world sees it's okay to be a terrorist.