US President

If you support the ongoing occupation of Iraq, I'm sure you have your reasons and that they're based in hard scientific calculations. But please indulge me for a moment and help me do this little math problem:

All the benefits we've gotten out of invading and occupying Iraq (whatever they may be)…

Actually, let me stop right there. The benefits you have in mind for this calculation should not include the increased price of gas, the killed and wounded U.S. servicemen and women, or the creation of a breeding ground for terrorists in Iraq (that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have made us less safe is the consensus opinion of U.S. intelligence agencies, supported as well by a conservative British think tank). Oh, and please don't factor in the Iraqis' gratitude, since the majority of them believe the invasion and occupation have made them worse off, and they want the U.S. to leave.

As I was saying, all the benefits we've gotten out of invading and occupying Iraq (whatever in the world they may be) have come at a certain financial cost. U.S. taxpayers have shelled out $450 billion thus far. The Congressional Budget Office expects costs to end up over a trillion. And those calculations do not include the costs of providing health care for veterans and rebuilding the military, or the effects on the economy of removing workers to make them soldiers, of increasing the price of oil, of failing to spend the war money on domestic projects (such as infrastructure), etc. Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes estimate a total cost of at least $2 trillion.

Democracy for America is interviewing each of the Presidential candidates. Let me present to you Barak Obama's response to DFA:

Political pollsters need to justify their existence. Chief among them is Rassmusen Reports. The company has turned its efforts at handicapping the 2008 Presidential race.

For the Democrats :

Following Election 2006, the nation can look forward to our first female Speaker of the House. Another woman, Senator Hillary Clinton, is the initial frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. However, another freshman Senator, Barack Obama, is close on her heels.

The first release of the Rasmussen Reports 2008 Presidential Tracking Poll finds Clinton the choice of 29% while Obama has 22%. Former Vice President Al Gore is number three with 13% and the 2004 Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards is also in double digits at 10%. The Democrats' 2004 standard bearer, John Kerry, is the choice of just 4%.

Not only do I find it risible people are thinking seriously about Obama for president; but am actually relieved that only 4% wants Kerry back. John needs a looooong vacation away from the political spotlight. He ought to focus on becoming the next Chuck Schumer.

I insist that Obama is too green to be considered presidential material. I'd rather see the profile of a Gov. Schweitzer raised significantly in the next 2 years. And I'm still looking at both Gore and Edwards independently since I doubt Edwards would want to play second fiddle to anybody this time around.