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 Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Non sequitur

One point of debate in the current presidential race is which of the candidates is best qualified to get us out of Iraq. Many Obama supporters make the argument that, since their candidate had the best insight on Iraq five years ago -- ie, that it was a dumb war and we never should have embarked on it in the first place -- he therefore also has the best ideas on what to do now after we've been stuck there for five years.

I don't think this follows logically. The teacher who advises the kids not to run with scissors is not necessarily the best qualified to perform first aid when one of them impales himself. The relative who told you you'd be a fool to spend all your savings on that franchise restaurant is not necessarily the one who can best advise you on how to go about liquidating the investment before you lose even more of it. The friend who thought your fiance was a creep and advised you not to marry him is not necessarily the one who will have the best insight six years and two kids later when you're deciding whether to file for divorce.

Obama may or may not be the best qualified to extract us from Iraq, but the fact that he alone among the candidates warned us not to get there in the first place is not an indicator either way.

It is, however, a good indicator that he's best qualified to keep us out of the next damn fool war. And frankly, I think that's even more important.

11:18:46 PM  [permalink]  comment []