First, he briefly explains how the Republicans have fucked up in the past few years, bringing us to the brink of electing the most liberal candidate since George McGovern. Then he articulates many of the fears many of us have of an Obama presidency. These are many of the same themes I’ve touched on here. The professional vs. non-professional comparison is left as an exercise for the reader.

Hanson also touches on the racial double-think going on among Obama supporters:

So now we are in this Orwellian paradox of seeing Obama’s base turn out in record numbers on the basis apparently of race, but on the other hand the implied warning that if anyone else were likewise to consider that fact, then he would be racialist.

Finally, he touches on the McCain “affair” non-story.

Good reading.

• Cut and run: Let me be very clear right here: We are winning in Iraq. Despite this, the Democrats continue to insist on “bringing the troops as soon as possible”. Does “as soon as possible” mean when the job is done or now? My money is on the latter, and it will be an unmitigated disaster. Cutting and running in the face of Islamist violence would indeed be a change from the current administration, but not a good one.
• Higher taxes: High taxes on interest, dividends, and capital gains discourages savings and investment. The Bush “tax cuts for the wealthy” recognized this by cutting these taxes. Isn’t the building of wealth a good thing? I suppose not, since the Democrats will be looking to raise these taxes again.
• Wealth redistribution: Along with higher taxes will be even more social programs to “help the poor”. What this really amounts to is taking money from people who work hard (higher income taxes) and save diligently (higher investment taxes), and giving it to people who neither work nor save (welfare). This has the effect of encouraging people to not work. What kind of change will happen when enough people stop working because they can collect a check from the government? The societal-collapsing kind, that’s what.
• Department of Medical Visitations: If you think your insurance company’s bureaucracy is bad, just wait until you get the government involved! Do you really want to consult the Department of Medical Visitations when you need surgery? Do you really want to stifle life-saving innovations through draconian price controls? Obviously there needs to be some changes in medicine, but there’s the Good kind of change and the Bad kind of change. Socialized medicine is the Bad kind.
• Further energy dependence: Conservation is good, but as long as we continue refusing to develop our domestic energy resources, we will continue to be dependent on others for our energy needs. I suppose this isn’t really a change, but simply a continuation of current foolishness.
• Enabling criminals: Democrats don’t explicitly set out to increase crime, but that is the practical effect of changes they like to implement, like more gun control.

That’s just what I’ve come up with off the top of my head. Maybe change isn’t such a good thing after all.

The major problem in Iraq is back in the United States. There, many politicians either don’t bother, or don’t want to believe, what is actually happening, and has happened, in Iraq. In a way, that makes sense. Because what is going on in Iraq is so totally alien to the experience of American politicians. Moreover, many Americans take a purely partisan, party line, attitude towards Iraq. So logic and fact has nothing to do with their assessments of the situation.

More…

Now, this is the critical thing that many Americans don’t understand, or even know. When Saddam was deposed in 2003, most (well, many) Sunni Arabs believed they would only be out of power temporarily. This sort of thing you can pick up on the Internet (OK, mostly on Arab language message boards, but it’s out there). Saddam’s followers (the Baath Party) and al Qaeda believed a few years of terror would subdue the Shia, scare away the Americans, and the Sunni Arabs would return to their natural state as the rulers of Iraq.

Read the whole thing.

I would just like to add: Most of the opposition I’ve seen to the war lies purely along partisan lines. The Left hates George Bush with such a passion that anything he does is Automatically and Obviously Bad and Evil. Their hatred of the man makes them utterly incapable of rational thought when it comes to his policies. This is incredibly harmful to the country.

I know of what I speak because I saw my side of the aisle do the exact same thing to President Clinton. Both instances rose well beyond mere partisanship to the point of derangement.

Update: This lead at the Washington Times illustrates my point nicely:

Dems already dismissing Iraq war report

By S.A. Miller
September 6, 2007

Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can’t be trusted.

If there’s good news coming out of Iraq, the Democrats aren’t interested in hearing it. It might make the President look good. They would prefer defeat and national disaster just so they can tear down the President they loathe.

Fucking traitors.

“I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country,” she said.

Is is just me, or does it seem that Clinton has little credibility to make such a remark?

“The idea that we are going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.” — Howard Dean, DNC chairman

What happened to the spirit of “cooperation”? Oh, I know: Bolton isn’t a judicial nominee, therefore the agreement doesn’t apply to him! How could I be so foolish?

• Republicans are “not very friendly to different kinds of people”
• “they are a pretty monolithic party … it’s pretty much a white, Christian party”
• Republicans “never made an honest living in their lives”
• etc. ad nauseum

(A great response from one of those white Christians is here.)

Dean’s rhetoric might fire up the Looney Left Democratic “base”, but he is alienating a lot of moderates, even within his party, and that is doing incalculable damage to the Democrats. The sooner the Democrats wise up to this, the better off they’ll be.

The country needs a strong, reasoned Democratic Party.