NO REALLY. IS HE KIDDING?

Last night, between my niece's birthday celebration and hanging out with a visiting distant relative, I was able to catch bits and pieces of the first Presidential "debate" of 08'. Less of a debate and more of a job interview conducted by Rick Warren of Purpose Driven Life fame, it was a pretty good opener to the campaign season. I'm not a big fan of Warren's, or his follow-up free approach to the questions he asked, but he probably did as well as could be expected for someone masquerading as an evangelical.

Being the kind of guy I am, I was trying to give Obama the benefit of the doubt and in the back of my mind I was actually hoping that he would say something that would calm my fears that he is totally clueless. I think I was hoping he could give me something to hold onto in the event that he actually wins the Whitehouse. Right out of the gate, I realized that there is no virtue in giving this man the benefit of any doubt...he truly is clueless.

Warren asked Obama if he believes in evil, and if so, how to deal with it. This is how our favorite "hope-monger" decided to answer the question.

Obama: “The one thing that I think is very important is for us to have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil, but you know a lot of evil has been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil,” Obama added. “Just because we think our intentions are good doesn't always mean that we’re going to be doing good.”

Humility? Is he kidding? Are we supposed to bow our heads or ask permission before defending our nation? Was Patton humble? Were we humble when we stormed the beaches at Normandy? Are our enemies humble when they ram our planes into office buildings?

"Claim that we are trying to confront evil"? Would he say that to a Marine who just walked off the battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan?

His defeatist answer to Warren's question explains why he didn't take the time to visit with the wounded soldiers in Germany a few weeks back. After being given the opportunity to at least look like someone who would be capable of protecting America from the terrorist threat, Obama decided to give the USA yet another verbal kick to the crotch.

He went on to cite Darfur and inner-city crime as examples of evil in our time. Not Al-Queda. Not the Taliban. Not Hammas. I suppose it was too much for Obama to actually throw our troops a bone for once by acknowledging that the monsters they battle for us every day might actually be evil after all.

I'm actually glad that I was not able to focus on the debate because I'm sure that me putting my boot through my father-in-law's television would have been quite the mood killer for my niece's birthday party.