Wait a second here. Weren't the conservative commenters here all up in arms just a few weeks ago when Obama was touring Europe, complaining about how showy he was, and who does he think he is (after all, he's not the president), and what do we care about what Europe thinks anyway? Bithead, you in particular were clearly pejorative about his whole trip.

So, you honestly don't see a substantial difference between the two?

Clue: Making speeches to rock concert goers does not in my view, constitute demonstration of foriegn policy mettle. Sorry.

We should not mock the visually challenged.

Snoop is clearly representative of the sort of short-sighted moron that got Bush elected twice and will unerringly vote for McCain to continue the travesty.

Can we really afford another 8 years of looking tough and messing up, because the way McCain is acting suggests that's exactly what we'll get if we make him President.

Yeah, I much prefer the way Obama shows his presidential timbre by drinking from a coconut in Waikiki. Ready to lead, indeed!

The right whined up a storm when Obama visited the middle east. Now that he is on vacation, they whine. Guess whining is the object of the exercise...

Yeah, I much prefer the way Obama shows his presidential timbre by drinking from a coconut in Waikiki. Ready to lead, indeed!

If McCain has really been talking to Saakashvili "daily," what advice has McCain been giving him? Did he reinforce the urgent advice of the State Department and the White House that Saakashvili avoid allowing himself to be provoked into giving the Russians a pretext for invasion, or was McCain encouraging the imprudence that handed Putin the victory we and the Georgians are now trying to recover from?

GOOD one, Sam! Yeah, that Obama sure is smart. That's exactly how his silence will be interpreted.

A real-world international crises right in the middle of his presidential campaign and he's smart enough to ignore it and stay on vacation in Hawaii. Very savy...

THAT'LL show 'em!

Russia is already an enormous country, with enormous power either way. Will that really change depending on whether or not they take Ossetia? Will the oil keep flowing same as before? It isn't like it made any difference to Russia whether or not the US completed the Gadsden Purchase. If a majority of Ossetians want to be a part of Russia, who I am to say no? I'm willing to have it explained to me why I should care, but there seems to be an awful lot of jumping to conclusions. I do accept the notion that no matter what the "right answer" is for the border there that Russia should not have resorted to the force it used. Too bad the US has blown its moral authority in that area (although it wouldn't have mattered anyway).

Reality check to McFull-of-it- What about when the United States invaded Iraq?

And didn't old fount of wisdom vote to authorize that invasion?

It's a wonder his teeth don't fall out with all the lying vitriol that comes out of his mouth. Wait-maybe they have-I don't know.

But I do know that McCain is a dangerous ego case that wants to play soldier for the rest of his old life with our young soldiers lives and untold millions of other innocent people around the world. We can't let this happen. Vote no to more aggression.

your notions about Ossetia are interesting no doubt, but obsolete.

They're OBE at this point but, certainly, the international community recognized SE and Abkhazia as part of Georgia before their conquest by Russia.

McCain's policy prescriptions re: Georgia are indistinguishable from if Georgia were paying *him*.

They're also indistinguishable from the Bush Administration's and to the left of Bill Kristol and his other neocon advisers.

As for Georgia's confidence:

(1) They obviously weren't that smart.

(2) They paid big bucks to their D.C. pals, from which they presumably thought they were getting something of value.

(3) McCain's policy prescriptions re: Georgia are indistinguishable from if Georgia were paying *him*.

Investigation seems pretty appropriate to me.

Where the hell did Georgia get such a notion?

You really think Georgia was going to put their confidence in some advisor to a guy with maybe a 40 percent chance of becoming president five months from now? Isn't the more plausible answer the sitting President of the United States' firm insistence on offering Georgia NATO membership?

And Georgia can't exactly attack itself. South Ossetia is part of their sovereign territory and recognized as such by everybody but Russia.

"Certainly"?

Russia had been pulling Georgia's chain for some time, but Georgia stepped over the line to military attack on Ossetia, evidently under the impression that the U.S. would support Georgia.

Where the hell did Georgia get such a notion?

Perhaps from their highly-placed lobbyists?

If we had real journalists, their # 1 question in all this would be, what advice did Georgia get from persons linked to the McCain campaign --and what advice are those same persons giving McCain?