"Nation Rejects US Warmonger"

You heard it here first - Pakistan will be the next big foreign policy challenge for the US. Unlike Iran, Pakistan has an established nuclear arsenal. Unlike Iran, which has a largely cosmopolitan, educated populace but a crackpot government, Pakistan has a cosmopolitan, somewhat rational government, but a population with a high number of crackpots. With Musharaf's exit, the big question will be whether the government can keep a lid on the crazies. It is already failing to do so in the NW frontier.

And the Pakistanis that are the best hope for the future of their country are rejecting The One! Not good, not good at ALL.

WashTimes

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Pakistanis resist global favorite Obama
Jason Motlagh (Contact)

LAHORE, Pakistan | Barack Obama may be winning in the U.S. and most global popularity polls, but he's a loser in Pakistan.

Dozens of students interviewed at two top universities in this country's second-largest city, a cultural melting pot known for its liberal leanings, rejected Mr. Obama as "too aggressive," "irresponsible" and an "enemy of Muslims" whose stated policy toward insurgency-plagued areas would make a bad situation worse.

The anti-Obama sentiment stems from assertions on the campaign trail that the senator from Illinois, if elected president, would authorize U.S. forces to enter Pakistani territory to hunt down Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

That the Democratic nominee is an overwhelming favorite abroad is not lost on the students, nor is the Muslim faith of his grandfather nor his Arabic middle name, Hussein.

But that is not enough to overcome concerns that an Obama administration would target and further destabilize Pakistan.

"The only country he's talking about bombing today is us," said Sher Afghen Malik, a political science major at the University of the Punjab, to the approving nods of classmates. "How could we possibly support him?"

Posters made by an Islamic student group have found their way onto campus walls, showing a map of Pakistan clutched by hairy, red-fanged claws wrapped in the American flag.

Khansa Qamar, a member of the school's model United Nations club, said her peers perceive Mr. Obama "as even more dangerous than George W. Bush" with regard to his stance on Pakistan.

By a show of hands, not one among two dozen students in one class supported the Democratic candidate. A little more than half said they prefer Sen. John McCain of Arizona because the Republican presidential candidate's statements on Pakistan have been less pointed.

Mr. Obama has stressed that he is not calling for an invasion of Pakistan, but restated in the second presidential debate on Oct. 7 that if its government is "unable or unwilling to hunt down [Osama] bin Laden and take him out, then we should."

Mr. Obama has distinguished himself from the Bush administration in words but not in deeds. Since mid-August, the U.S. has launched at least a dozen attacks on Pakistani soil, most by unmanned drones.

Still, the candidate's comments set Pakistan's media machine on spin cycle, hardening the views of many people who otherwise had been supportive of him, said Khalid Butt, a political science instructor at Government College in Lahore.

"This shows what a few misguided statements can do," he said.

Much of the rest of the world has a much more positive view of an Obama presidency.

A recent survey of 24 nations by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found high levels of interest in the U.S. election and widespread optimism that American foreign policy "will change for the better" under an Obama administration.

In all but three of the nations polled, participants said they had more faith in Mr. Obama than Mr. McCain to "do the right thing regarding world affairs."

But most Pakistanis surveyed said they made no distinction between the two candidates. Pakistanis and respondents from three other nations - Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan - collectively anticipated a turn for the worse no matter who wins the U.S. election. All four are large recipients of U.S. military and economic aid.

At a recent daylong seminar on the upcoming U.S. elections, one plucky young woman in a pink shalwar kameez peppered a visiting lecturer with sharp questions about America's "two-faced agenda of ostensible intentions and ulterior motives" that threatens to shatter its "friendship" with Pakistan.

"In my opinion, the word 'friendship' should not be used in international relations," replied the lecturer, Hafeez Malik of Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia. "In the end, a nation will always act in its best interests."

Student Muhammad Altaf said that most Pakistanis think policies are not forged by the U.S. president but by influential Cabinet officials or, in the case of Mr. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney.

"We have no concern for the candidates. We need the right policies," Mr. Altaf said, adding that he would support a president "whose policies support Pakistan."

Some here question whether Mr. Obama's comments on Pakistan are sincere or mere pre-election posturing to win votes and silence critics who argue that he is soft on foreign policy issues.

"I think he's just trying to make the right noises," said Tariq Ali, a student at the University of the Punjab.

"The equation might change once he's in office," said Aziz Numan. "He's not well briefed enough yet."

Another student was also cautiously optimistic.

Mr. Obama's grandfather "was still a Muslim," said Muhammad Akmal, "so we hope that means something for us."

View from Far East on Obama's lost election

I found this story on the Hot Air blog headline listing. It summed up what I have been trying to (unsuccessfully) articulate about the candidates: McCain's choice of Palin is a sign of confidence, Obama's pick of Biden shows weakness.

AsiaTimes

(predicts people would be turned off by weakness of picking Biden, quotes"veterans" who want troops in Afghanistan replaced by civilian aid workers)

Who TF were these veterans? I could make a crack about officers, but this was too much. If we pull the DOD assets out, does anyone believe that the USDA agronomists will be sent in? Are BHO voters really believing this stuff?!

...."More than meets the eye .. ."

Back in the day, that was the slogan for the Transformers. Today it refers to The One.

NY Times (believe it or not!)

June 20, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Two Obamas
By DAVID BROOKS

God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson.

But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.

This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside.
(....)

And Fast Eddie Obama didn’t just sell out the primary cause of his life. He did it with style. He did it with a video so risibly insincere that somewhere down in the shadow world, Lee Atwater is gaping and applauding. Obama blamed the (so far marginal) Republican 527s. He claimed that private donations are really public financing. He made a cut-throat political calculation seem like Mother Teresa’s final steps to sainthood.

The media and the activists won’t care (they were only interested in campaign-finance reform only when the Republicans had more money). Meanwhile, Obama’s money is forever. He’s got an army of small donors and a phalanx of big money bundlers, including, according to The Washington Post, Kenneth Griffin of the Citadel Investment Group; Kirk Wager, a Florida trial lawyer; James Crown, a director of General Dynamics; and Neil Bluhm, a hotel, office and casino developer.

I've been saying this all along - beware the razor blades in the mouth (a reference to the NYC days of my youth). Even my moonbat sister in law doesn't like Obama (but she thinks he's too conservative).