Incompetence Incorporated

I’m always amazed when the mainstream media do something good for the country. Thus I have to give credit to CNN for hosting the Democrats debate on Sunday (moderated by Wolf Blitzer) and to the New York Times for publishing the entire transcript yesterday. It was a public service to expose the flock of incompetents running for president to the nation. Here are a few choice excerpts.

Senator Obama, you get the first question of the night. It has been nearly six years since 9/11. Since that time, we have not suffered any terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Just yesterday, the FBI arrested three men for a terror plot at JFK Airport. Could it be that the Bush administration's effort to thwart terror at home has been a success?

SEN. OBAMA: No. Look, all of us are glad that we haven't had a terrorist attack since 9/11, and I think there are some things that the Bush administration has done well. But the fact of the matter is that we live in a more dangerous world, not a less dangerous world, partly as a consequence of this president's actions.

Senator Edwards, you said the war on terror is a bumper sticker, not a plan. With the news yesterday, this alleged plot at JFK which could have done supposedly horrendous damage and caused incredible number of casualties, do you believe the U.S. is not at war with terrorists?

SEN. EDWARDS: I reject this bumper sticker, Wolf. And that's exactly what it is, it's a bumper sticker.

Senator Clinton, do you agree with Senator Edwards that this war on terror is nothing more than a bumper sticker, at least the way it's been described?

SEN. CLINTON: No, I do not. And I believe we are safer than we were.

When Hillary is the most sensible person on the stage, well… but this was the only smart thing she said.

Sen. Biden, you are on the only person standing on this stage tonight to recently vote to continue funding the troops in Iraq. My question is this: why were Senators Obama, Clinton, Dodd and Congressman Kucinich wrong to vote against the funding?

SEN. BIDEN: I don't want to judge them. I mean, these are my friends.

Senator Clinton, do you regret voting to authorize the president to use force against Saddam Hussein in Iraq without actually reading the National Intelligence Estimate, the classified document laying out the best U.S. intelligence at that time?

SEN. CLINTON: Wolf, I was thoroughly briefed.

Governor Richardson, a question on immigration. Despite your doubts about the immigration bill that's now pending in the U.S. Senate, you support granting legal status to about 12 million people who have entered this country illegally. Why is this not an amnesty program?

GOV. RICHARDSON: I would not support legislation that divided families. I would not support legislation that builds a wall, a Berlin-type wall between two countries.

Senator Biden, you voted last year to support this immigration legislation, including the construction of a 700-mile fence along the border. Governor Richardson doesn't think there needs to be such a fence. Why is he wrong?

SEN. BIDEN: Well, he's not wrong. There doesn't need to be a 700-mile fence, but there does need -- look, we got to start as if we -- we all love this phrase, "Start talking truth to power." I voted for the fence related to drugs.

Candidates, I want you to raise your hand if you believe English should be the official language of the United States. The only hand I see is Senator Gravel.

SEN. OBAMA: This is the kind of question that is designed precisely to divide us.

SEN. CLINTON: The problem is that if it becomes official, instead of recognized as national, which indeed it is, if it becomes official, that means in a place like New York City you can't print ballots in any other language.

Senator Biden, there are still a lot of military commanders out there, including the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, who say keep the current policy. "Don't ask, don't tell" -- it would be demoralizing, it would be bad for military readiness to change that policy and let gays and lesbians serve openly in the U.S. military.

SEN. BIDEN: Peter Pace is flat wrong. I've been to Afghanistan, I've been to Iraq seven times, I've been in the Balkans, I've been in these foxholes with these kids, literally in bunkers with them. Let me tell you something, nobody asked anybody else whether they're gay in those holes -- those foxholes, number one. Number two, our allies -- the British, the French, all our major allies -- gays openly serve.

Our allies –- the French?

Senator Clinton, if you were president of the United States, the question is, what would you do with former President Bill Clinton?

SEN. CLINTON: This is a fascinating question. And when I become president, Bill Clinton, my dear husband (liar, liar, pants on fire) will be one of the people who will be sent around the world as a roving ambassador to make it very clear to the rest of the world that we're back to a policy of reaching out and working and trying to make friends and allies and stopping the alienation of the rest of the world.

Senator Dodd, gas prices are at record-high levels. Americans are frustrated. What would you do to reduce gas prices?

SEN. DODD: Well, this is a major crisis issue, obviously. Energy-related problems, obviously, are problems with global warming; the dependency on the Middle East for so much of our energy supplies. It's a national security issue. It's a health care issue. The problems are profound here and require some very strong answers. Today we have the solar -- polar caps, rather -- melting.

Rep. Kucinich, what would you do to rebuild the military, which seems to be pretty stretched right now?

REP. KUCINICH: Well, the first thing we need to do is cut -- first of all, there's a couple different dimensions to this. One is, we need to cut military spending overall by about 25 percent.

Senator Biden, you're the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. If you got word from the U.S. intelligence community that Ahmadinejad and his government were on the verge of having a nuclear bomb capable of hitting targets in the region on missiles, what would you do?

SEN. BIDEN: Blah, blah, blah.... blah, blah, blah... but at the end of the day, if they posed the missile, stuck it on a pad, I'd take it out.

Congressman Kucinich, if you were president of the United States and the intelligence community said to you, "We know where Osama bin Laden is, he's in Pakistan. We've got a specific target, but he's only going to be there for 20 minutes. You got to give the order, yes or no, to take him out with a HELLFIRE missile, but it's going to kill some innocent civilians at the same time," what would be your decision?

REP. KUCINICH: I don't think that a president of the United States, who believes in peace and who wants to create peace in the world, is going to be using assassination as a tool.

Candidates, please address the crisis in Darfur. At this time as many as 400,000 people have been killed, millions are without food and shelter. If you were elected president, what role do you think the United States should play in addressing this terrible tragedy?

SEN. BIDEN: You know, we have to stop talking about it. In fact, you have in the capital of Sudan the government saying we're not going to allow that to happen. They have forfeited their sovereignty by engaging in genocide. We should impose a no-fly zone. If the U.N. will not move now, we should impose a no-fly zone, and we should commit 25,000 NATO troops. You could take out the Janjawid tomorrow.

All right candidates, raise your hand if you agree with Senator Biden that the United States should use military force to stop the genocide in Darfur.

SEN. CLINTON: Are we talking about a no-fly zone?

SEN. OBAMA: (Inaudible) -- aren't going to work.

GOV. RICHARDSON: At the U.N.

MR. EDWARDS: If you're talking about American troops, I don't agree with that.

SEN. OBAMA: I don't want to raise hands anymore.

GOV. RICHARDSON: No. I got a very fragile cease-fire put together there three months ago, and we made things a little better. I went with the Save Darfur Coalition. This is what I would do. Number one, more U.N. peacekeepers. The government is refusing to make this happen.

SEN. BIDEN: In the meantime, 50,000 are dead.

SEN. DODD: But the idea that you'd go in and stop the Olympics from happening I don't think gets you there.

SEN. EDWARDS: America no longer has the moral authority to lead in the world. Watching a genocide continue has contributed to that, but it is not the only thing. The spread of HIV/AIDS. I think America ought to actually lead an effort to make primary school education available to 100 million children in the world who desperately need it, and including in Africa.

SEN. DODD: I'd like to know what my colleagues would feel about it.

SEN. OBAMA: You want us to raise our hands?

Could you actually vote for one of these bozos for president in the United States?