Barry, We Hardly Knew Ye

I admire Barack Obama , although I disagree with many of his policy positions. His humble-beginnings life story, his communication abilities, and his intelligence resonate with the American people and make his the freshest face of all politicians running for President. But it looks like he jumped the shark (peaked) with his comment that a President Obama would invade Pakistan, without permission of the host government, in the pursuit of terrorists.

So he wouldn’t have toppled Saddam Hussein, who violated United Nations resolutions and invaded another country, but would invade Pakistan, which is our ally in the war against extreme Islamists?

So the war in Iraq was too risky, but attacking Pakistan, a nuclear-armed (no dispute about WMD’s here) power with five times as many people as Iraq, is an acceptable gamble?

So he’d personally talk with the likes of Fidel Castro, Kim Jong Il, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but give the back of his hand to Pervez Musharraf, the target of repeated assassination attempts because of his cooperation with the United States?

I understand people with a consistent philosophy, be it Wilsonian internationalism, realism, isolationism, or pacifism, but Barack Obama seems all over the map.

The greatest leaders, of course, have a degree of unpredictability, but normally we grant them increasing authority over many years as their puzzling actions pan out. (A few examples from different walks of life: Steve Jobs of Apple, 49er coach Bill Walsh, director Steven Spielberg, and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.) They see what others don’t see, their results prove that they’re smarter than the rest of us, and eventually we trust them enough to turn over the keys and go along for the ride.

Barack Obama hasn’t earned that level of trust, and, as he continues to open his mouth, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever get that chance. © 2007 Stephen Yuen