I haven’t commented on politics in a while but recent events have stimulated some thoughts once again.

Barak Obama has launched his exploratory committee paperwork. This isn’t an announcement of his intention to run but it is an increased commitment to that movement. When I look at the Democrats, the two leading almost-candidates are Obama and Hillary Clinton. Clinton strikes me as a professional politician demonstrated by her carpet bagging in New York. So between the two, I preferred Obama. But that’s because I know little of him. NPR is beside themselves with the possibilities of either an Africa-American or a woman running for President. I don’t really care about race or gender, I’m interested in how they intend to lead. NPR compared the two today and my feelings for Obama dipped. He and Hillary have similar voting records and he has been opposed to the war since the beginning. I think those two things are going to aim Obama in a direction I don’t think we need to go. I wonder who the Republicans are going to put forward. I like John McCain. I think.

That brings up another point. America should learn from the 12 years of Republican rule and not give both Congress and president to one party. All that power in one group invites corruption of existing politicos, ingress of money and power hungry people and increased pressure for corruption from lobbying groups. Division of powers makes a lot of sense. I feel trapped having both Houses now in Democratic control. I just hope the Republicans learn from Bush and put forward someone who is electable and not so polarizing.

Speaking of Bush, his ‘new direction’ for Iraq is all ‘stay the course’ without the cute catch phrase. I don’t really think anything has changed there, has it? And it has been a resounding success so far… What we need to do is begin to win the hearts of the people. Lets focus on getting the infrastructure in Baghdad up and running. And lets do it through local Iraqi contractors. Yes, yes I know that the insurgents target anything we do there. But perhaps it will be more difficult to see which we’re doing if we fund Iraqis in those projects. What a mess.

Glad to see Condi trying to get the Middle East Peace Process moving again. That boat stalled and began sinking. Focusing on Israel is really an important part of fixing Iraq. It is part of the reason militant Muslims hate America. They see us in Israel’s hip pocket. Not only that, but Israel is doing some pretty bad things and they need to get some pressure to knock it off.