Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

While Obama might have stated agreement more than he should during a debate in which differing points on issues are highlighted, the demeanors of the two candidates reflect that the candidate said to be "unqualified" and "lacking experience" by McCain and his strategists appeared cool, in command of facts, and presidential.

McCain on the other hand smirked, scowled, and never once looked at his opponent, shunning the kind of eye contact that Obama found seemingly easy as well as natural.  Which demeanor, Senator McCain, is better suited to meetings involving individuals  embracing differing ideas?

The important point on behalf of the Obama team is that expectations were met.  McCain and his chain of command emphasized the Arizonan's wide edge in experience and sought to paint Obama as naïve.  While McCain referred condescendingly to Obama as being "naïve" and "unqualified" the comparative performances of the candidates revealed a vastly different story.

The stolid, unsmiling, condescending McCain looked older than time and thoroughly rigid, certainly not because of his actual age of 72, but because he never grew and apparently never elevated himself on a practical or ideological scale beyond the Vietnam War in which he served.

The Dwight Eisenhower that McCain mentioned as someone he admired, while president reacted in a more pragmatic manner devoid of the kind of doctrinal rigidity that McCain displayed last night when he constantly referred to the Iraq War as one where total victory was required.

Eisenhower's military experience and practical instinct told him that the Korean War, which was bleeding Americans body and soul, and had been one of the factors in enabling the demagogic Joseph McCarthy to rise in political influence, needed to be concluded.  President Eisenhower opted for and realized a political settlement.

The Korean War was shorter than the current Iraq War, which is also longer than the Civil War or America's participation in the two world conflicts.  Meanwhile John McCain has said that if it is necessary to remain in Iraq for 100 or even 1,000 years then so be it, failing to recognize that the Iraqi government we installed wants us to leave.

Iraq needs to be resettled by Iraqis following a war launched on the lies of "weapons of mass destruction" to propel Big Oil and the New World Order.  

As Obama recognized and repeatedly expressed, on issues such as the Iraq War, Iran, and North Korea, diplomacy rather than an all-occupying military and saber rattling leadership must be sought.

One candidate on the Oxford, Mississippi stage revealed a realistic grasp of foreign affairs within a diplomatic framework, removed from reckless and endless engagement.  

The other candidate was a rigid time warp from the Vietnam era who never understood what that war was all about, much less how to deal with the emerging challenges at home and abroad that lay beyond it.