Reply #15: Unfortunately [View All]

the challenge does get subtle. I was disappointed in the untimely strong talk earlier in the campaign by edwards against Iran- which also played into Bush's hands. For me it is the conviction that Hillary would not cope with Iran very well is a growing certainty and that she is getting more intricately roped into either Bush policy or total failure on a kinder tack. edwards or Obama would be a departure from Bush but not the whole ME. So how will THEY be engaged, or try to be, in this massive fiasco, this unnamed war crime setting?

Given all the statements and stances I would say it boils down to how you trust each candidate might respond or succeed or face reality or not get duped into the fiasco traps. Even Kucinich cannot envision how it all must work out with diplomatic success or grim retreat from that whole scene. Simple isolationism can. But this is about NOW, the only test available for future choices by the voter or the next president. The commitments and challenges now mean something very important and in that context this a good challenge to the Bush next step to a new horror. If Hillary lets that go on a pass what does that say about her future dealings in the region? After she lets Bush have his way with it with no effective opposition? Will anyone make much of her presidential clout or respectability later? Not likely in the ME and with poor results certainly not in America.

Dodd has set the candidate benchmark for an active Senator in standing up for the Constitution. More bencharks being added by genuine challenges to each candidate to stand up and do or say something about the unfaced crises over which they would preside. The time for sloughing off controversy to coast to a coronation never existed for today's Dems however devoutly and strategically they may have planned for one. Time to engage a real campaign. Way past time.