Advisors tell the real story

When we are deciding who to elect for our next president, just look at the senior advisers to get some perspective:

John McCain has surrounded himself with all the foreign policy hawks like Graham, Leiberman, Kyle, and General Keane. Some commentators have even speculated that Joe Leiberman would be his Secretary of State so McCain can claim bi-partisan leadership. If you tuned in for Lieberman's speech at the Republican convention, it was anything but bi-partisan. Lieberman has been on the forefront of the fight for military action against Iran and blindly supports the Israeli government no matter what it does. I for one would be seriously disappointed with Lieberman at the helm of State. However, if you look at how McCain selected his running mate, one should not be surprised if he shot from the hip with a Leiberman pick. An even scarier thought is Phil Graham as Treasury Secretary. He has been sidelined for now since his comments about the economic problems as a figment of our imagination, but don't be surprised to see him show up at the inaugural ball if McCain is elected. Then there is General Keane, the former Army Vice-Chief of Staff. Along with the neocon think tank crowd led by his pal, Fred Kagan, they were the architects of the Bush "surge" which has been passed off as an overwhelming success. The facts are that the reduction in violence in Iraq is much more related to the "Sunni Awakening" which simply is a program to pay every Sunni militiaman $300 bucks per month not to shoot at the Americans. (PS, we pay while Iraq draws interest on its $79 billion budget surplus sitting in NY banks.) We could have paid them off back when Pro-Counsel Jerry Bremmer was in charge and saved a lot of lives and been out of there by now if he hadn't summarily fired the Iraqi Army and banned Sunnis from participating in the government. This doesn't take away from the brave American soldiers and Marines who have been risking their lives, but they are not the ones who make the strategy. Back to advisers, another economic advisor on the McCain staff is Carly Fiorina, the fired CEO from HP who collected millions on her way out the door. Is this really someone who we want as senior advisor? She has also been benched for comments about Gov. Palin and subsequently McCain not being capable of running a company like HP. So how are they supposed to run the country? Then look at the raft of lobbyists on the McCain staff. From his campaign manager, Rick Davis, who until last month was a paid lobbyist for Freddie Mac ($15,000 per month since 2005), his senior foreign policy advisor who was a paid lobbyist for the country of Georgia, and the infamous Charlie Black who is a well known lobbyist for a variety of organization and foreign interests. These are not people that I would like to see running America. Despite the rhetoric, they have no intention of putting America First.

Now lets look at Obama's team: His economic advisers includes Laura Tyson former chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisor for President Clinton whose economic policies were largely judged as successful. He also has two former Treasury Secretaries, Robert Rubin who help orchestrate the successful rescue for the Mexican government and Larry Summers, both of who managed the economy to produce the only budget surpluses in recent memory. His foreign policy advisers include the former National Security Advisor, Zbignew Brzezinski, Madeline Albright, and Susan Rice. While I don't agree with all their policy position, particularly on the membership for Georgia and other former Soviet states into NATO, they on balance take a more measured approach to foreign policy with an emphasis on diplomacy instead of military action. We can no longer afford to be the world's policeman and run around the globe doing nation-building. Although I don't favor isolation, we sorely need to do some nation-building right here in America.

So before you cast your vote, think about these advisers. They will be in the key positions after the election. Check my facts. If you disagree with my analysis, post a comment. If you agree, you can post a comment too.