In response to an article today in the Times of London, blogger Jeralyn at TalkLeft writes that she doesn’t feel comfortable with what she knows about Barack Obama, and that if he wins the Democratic nomination, she’ll “be voting for him with [her] fingers crossed”. (My own response to the Times article is here.)
Here on TMV, our own Holly has similarly given voice to concerns, and even gone so far as to write that if Obama is the nominee, she’ll be voting for McCain.
I understand both of these positions. They’re not irrational, nor should they be judged merely by the candidates they support (or don’t). It’s correct to question; concern should be present when we elect a president.
In fact, every time I’ve voted in a presidential election, bar none, I’ve crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. There’s simply no way to predict with certainty how an individual will respond real-time in the presidential pressure-cooker.
In 2000, nobody asked George Bush how he’d respond to planes flying into the Pentagon and the WTC. In 1980, was Ronald Reagan pondering his response to an attack on a marine barracks in Beirut? And while I admit that I could have missed it, I don’t recall campaign questions for Bill Clinton about what his plans were for Kosovo.
Until someone is actually called upon to respond in a crisis, there’s really no way to know what they will do… and that applies to John McCain every bit as much as it does Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
And all of this is why Hillary’s latest ad in Texas doesn’t resonate with me… and why Obama’s response does. Even if Obama had said nothing about Iraq in 2002, Clinton and McCain’s poor judgment would still be a factor. It’s disengenous to say, as McCain has, that Obama’s only looking backward. He’s not — but he is pointing out one of the very few measures we can take.
As it happens, Barack Obama’s foreign policy approach, from his willingness to talk to the enemy to his calls for more help from our NATO allies, appeals directly to my own thinking. While that doesn’t necessarily tell me how he will handle a serious crisis, it gives me an idea of how he will set the stage.
In an uncertain world, that’s about the best we can hope for.
We can never be certain. There are no crystal balls. It’s always just a bit of a crapshoot.