Fox News analyst Howard Wolfson wondered where the Joe Lieberman who spoke last night at the RNC was during the 2000 vice presidential debates with Dick Cheney. I was wondering the same thing, and I think the choice of running mate made the difference in that election. During the 2000 debates, Lieberman was all over the place while Cheney was direct and to the point.
Lieberman was much more to the point last night:
Sen. Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times.
In the Senate he has not reached across party lines to get anything significant done, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party.
Contrast that to John McCain’s record, or the record of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who stood up to some of those same Democratic interest groups and worked with Republicans to get important things done like welfare reform, free-trade agreements, and a balanced budget.
I don’t understand how McCain is suddenly this big dumbass when — right or wrong, agree or disagree — he’s constantly put his neck out there politically to effect change.
As for Obama’s record, Danny Glenn of Greensboro says in an (as-yet unpublished N&R letter to the editor) that “Obama graduated from Harvard Law School with honors and he headed up the Harvard Law Review. He has the intelligence to address the complicated issues of our time.”
Impressive, but hardly a record.
