When you loan people money and they are your friends, you escew the big stick of interest payments and the full legal panoply that would otherwise exist if your friend loaned his money from a bank.

Obama seems to think that if only he can cultivate a friendship with Amanie, that Amanie will pay back that friendship.

Reality says differently about human behavior.

“On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”

What struck me more as I listened to that speech was how flat its affect was. This guy is normally a brilliant rhetorician and speaker. (Note I did *not* say brilliant mind!) I found the speech comparitively difficult to listen to. I came away from it thinking: He doesn’t believe a word he’s saying. This is nothing more than a pro-forma recitation, a mouthing of words.

My conclusion is that, for Senator Obama, the speech was a collection of lies that he was compelled to state, solely for political reasons. This man is likely far more anti-military than even Bill Clinton is. I sense a profound hatred and mistrust of the military, a revulsion of the purposes and uses of a military (except for humanitarian relief logistics). Any competent foreign policy team in any country will be able to profile him, and see that he will not employ the military to secure America’s interests. And they will act upon that understanding.

When the military option is known by opponents, in advance, to be off the table, diplomacy and talks of any sort are fruitless. He has guaranteed that his slavish devotion to diplomacy will have little to no effect. “Speak softly and carry a little olive branch” has never worked as a policy, and it won’t ever work. What’s surprising is that he doesn’t realize that he’s as naked before other countries’ advisors as the proverbial Emperor ever was.

Perhaps he is as dumb as his steadily rising accumulation of gaffe’s is making him out to be.

Now that’s silly. Obama hasn’t had and might never have a first year to fail during let alone confess as to doing so. Talk about reaching.

I was in grade school when Kennedy ran against Nixon. My father, an Irish Catholic immigrant, was for Nixon because of his vice presidential experience but, as a ex-WWII infantryman, admired Kennedy’s war record. He used to say Nixon spent the war playing poker.

Year’s later, when I took my turn in the infantry, I finally understood my father’s conflict. There is something so fundamental about the combat experience, not the military experience, the combat experience. For me, it boiled down to one thing; no do-overs.