Obama won't go to Iraq

Senator Barack Obama has rejected a joint visit to Iraq with Senator John McCain as a political stunt. While John McCain cintinues to mis-speak about matters of national security, i.e., troop levels are currently below pre-surge levels, McCain is correct when he says the surge is working and things are continuing to improve in Iraq. In fact, US casualties are at their lowest point since 2003. Perhaps Obama does not want to go to Iraq because he will witness improving conditions since the war started thus weakening his argument that the he will withdraw US troops soon after he's elected. Obviously, such a strategy would be catastrophic and only demonstrates the Senator's naivete in matters of national security.

Clinton wins Puerto Rico, loses nomination

Hillary Clinton has won Puerto Rico's primary, but has lost the nomination. However, she hasn't realized it and will continue the fight, perhaps all the way to the convention in August. Claiming that she will have garnered more of the popular vote than Obama, and that she is the only won who can defeat John McCain, Clinton failes to realize that by the end of Tuesday's South Dakota primary, Obama will have reached the magic number of 2,118 delegates and superdelegates. Continuing the fight all the way to the convention will continue to fragment the Democrat Party and possibly cost them the White House in an election where they will pick up seats in both the House and Senate.

League of Democracies

John McCain has endorsed the concept of a new global compact of more than 100 democratic countries to advance shared views and has discussed the idea with French and British leaders. Such a compact called the "League of Democracies" appears to be picking up momentum as a blunt to the Bush administration's neoconservative policies of preemption and unilateralism. As the world has grown weary of Bush's "cowboy diplomacy", McCain's "League" will act where the UN cannot or refuses. As such, this new compact would remain outside of the influence of Moscow and Beijing which both have veto power on the UN Security Council. As such, the League of Democracies could act in places such as Darfur or on important global issues like global warming. Such an idea sounds good on paper but does the world have the stomach for more US-led intiatives?