Sen. Joe Biden speaking to Democratic donors in Seattle has revealed a major secret that Sen. Barack Obama didn't want revealed.

Biden warned supporters that our enemies would very likely  test  Obama  within the first six months if he is elected president, much like Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev tested newly elected president John Kennedy.  Biden also warned that Obama might not handle it well.   Obama's "gonna need your help to use your influence within the community to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

For those unfamiliar with the Kennedy administration, Khrushchev decided he could take advantage of the young president because Kennedy appeared weak at a summit meeting and had mishandled an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.  Khrushchev  responded by constructing the Berlin Wall and preparing to place missiles in Cuba.  Khrushchev eventually pulled the missiles out of Cuba after moving to the brink of nuclear war, but he got what he wanted with  a guarantee of a communist regime headed by  Fidel Castro in Cuba.  The Berlin Wall remained until 1989.

The pro-Obama New York Times attempted to minimize the significance of the remarks by quoting Obama's efforts at damage control.  

“A period of transition in a new administration is always one where we have to be vigilant, we have to be careful,” Mr. Obama said. “We have to be mindful that as we pass the baton in this democracy that others don’t take advantage of it - that’s true whether it’s myself or Senator McCain.”

One likely test of Obama would come from Osama bin Laden.  Obama said in the second debate:  "And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out."

If Obama is elected, bin Laden may  challenge  Obama by saying "here I am. Come and get me."  He will know Obama's statement saying he will order Pakistan to turn over bin Laden will prevent the Pakistani government from moving against him.

Obama doesn't understand that the government of the nation of 145 million people  will not give in to any  American ultimatum like it were some tiny Latin American country.  Pakistan has nuclear weapons and can easily destroy any attacking force.   Any Pakistani government foolish enough to appear to be taking orders from the U.S., which many Muslims refer to as "The Great Satan", would be overthrown by radicals.  Many of these radicals would be willing to take a chance on a nuclear war with the U.S. because they would not mind dying to further their "jihad" to help radical Islam take over the world.

If Obama were foolish enough to attack Pakistan by attacking bin Laden, Pakistan might feel it had no choice but to destroy the base that launched the attack or even declare war on the U.S.   Pakistan might even  secretly provide al Qaeda with one or more nuclear weapons.

If Obama backed down from his threat, bin Laden would portray it as a sign of weakness and  use it to increase  recruitment and plan for terror attacks against the U.S..  Bin Laden  might  also be able to use Obama's apparent weakness to increase recruitment for new operations in Iraq.

Norm Crosby suggested during the Jerry Lewis Telethon that this may be the election when voters "hope that nobody wins."   He might be right. 

Sen. Barack Obama has suggested that Sen. John McCain  would be a continuation of the Bush administration.  I wish that I thought  one of the presidential candidates would be as effective a president as George W. Bush, but I don't.  The current set of major party candidates may be the worst since the 19th Century.

 I would rather have four more years of George W. Bush or Bill Clinton than have four years of either Barack Obama or John McCain.  I would rather bring back Jimmy Carter or George H. W. Bush, in spite of their ages, than have four years of Barack Obama.

Neither George W. Bush nor Bill Clinton will be considered a great president,  but both are likely to look good compared to which ever of the major party candidates  wins  this year's election.

The only ability Obama seems to have is the ability to con people into thinking he can handle the presidency.    He has never  handled any executive  position and doesn't understand  the War on Terror or the current economic  situation.  There is more to being president than just looking good on television.  Fred Thompson knows how to act like a president on television, but I wouldn't have voted for him either. 

Obama is less experienced than the 20th Century's least experienced president Warren G. Harding.  Obama shares  Harding's tendency to associate with corrupt individuals.  Unlike Harding, Obama may himself be corrupt considering that he attempted to earmark a million dollars to his wife's employer after the employer more than doubled her salary  Providing government benefits after receiving money  is usually consider bribery.  

He cannot understand that regardless of whether or not the U.S. should have invaded Iraq, the country has  become a battleground in the War on Terror.  If we leave before the Iraqis are able to  keep al  Qaeda from taking over, Osama bin Laden (OBL), or another al Qaeda leader, will move to Iraq and use its oil revenue to fund al Qaeda's operations.
 
Obama doesn't understand that if OBL is hiding in Pakistan, OBL is doing so because even if the U.S. kills him there, his successors might be able to use the action to  either take over Pakistan or at least gain access to some of its nuclear weapons.   Sending troops into Pakistan, as Obama wants to do, could spark a full scale war with Pakistan  which not only has nuclear weapons, but also a population nearly as large as the combined populations of  World War II Germany and Japan.  

OBL is not a Hitler type leader who wants power for himself.  OBL  believes he  is pursuing a cause  that is bigger than he is. He believes he might benefit in the afterlife if he became a martyr to that cause. 

Obama's comments about the current economic situation  are just simplistic partisan nonsense.  He fails to recognize that the sitaution results from global economic problems rather than the policies of President Bush.  

The basic problem began with a boom during the Clinton administration.  Historically, economic  booms fuel greed and encourage  those with money to feel they cannot lose regardless of the risk. Booms may also encourage politicians to believe that busts are a thing of the past.   The boom could have gone bust with the double shock of 9/11 and the Enron collapse, but Bush helped prevent that outcome.       

McCain isn't much better on economic matters than  Obama, but he does recognize the dangers of tax increases in a bust situation.  If I remember standard economic theory taxes should be increased during growth periods to prevent a boom situation and pay off any debts and reduced during recessions to stimulate the economy.  Reducing taxes is less expensive than sending out economic stimulous checks. 

As an experienced executive McCain won't be distracted by having to learn how to be in charge of an organization.  McCain has a better understanding of what can go wrong because of his experience during the savings and loan crisis in the late 80's.

McCain understands the War on Terror and recognizes the need to win on all battlefields.   He is unlikely to  make the mistake of starting a war with Pakistan.

McCain's weakness is that he doesn't come across as a strong enough leader.  I don't expect him to  be another Roosevelt (TR or FDR), but  he could exhibit the fiestiness  of Harry S. Truman.  McCain was too laid back during the debates which is one way he is like George W. Bush.

Obama also  shares a trait with Bush.  Obama decided to follow Bush's example and choose an older vice president who could tell him how to handle foreign policy.  If Obama really were as intelligent as his supporters claimed he would have selected a woman for his vice president. 

I'm not a fan of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, but I would concede that she would have been a better choice for vice president than either Sen . Joe Biden or Gov. Sarah Palin.  She would have been a better choice for President than Obama or McCain.     

Obama's foolish decision to choose Biden allowed McCain to select Palin as his running mate.  She's the only bright spot in this dismal election.  She is better prepared to be president than Obama.  Like Vice  President  Calvin Coolidge, who became president after Warren G. Harding died,. she was selected for the vice presidency during her first term as governor.    

Theodore Roosevelt, who like Palin was 42 at the time he was selected as vice president, was also in his first term as governor.  However, he had also briefly been an under secretary of the navy as well as an army colonel (the army equivalent of the rank achieved by McCain in the navy).    It's too early to say Palin is another TR, but she has a similar enthusiasm.  TR may have been the ultimate presidential maverick.

I'll be glad when these media events dopey journalists  call "debates" are over.  A real debate involves an extended discussion of issues, such as was done during the debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.

The media events of today only give the participants sufficient time to repeat political cliches and other sound bites.   This approach favors politicians like  Sen. Joe Biden who  lack the intelligence to understand the complexity of the real world.

For example, Biden seems incapable of understanding that wars cannot be conducted according to strict timetables because the enemy and the weather only follow the script in Hollywood.  It isn't even possible to set a strict time table for Sunday football games which is why CBS "60 Minutes"  doesn't  start  at the same time every Sunday in fall on the  east coast.

On the subject of climate change Biden supported the primitive belief that humans control climate because carbon dioxide has a magical power to control air temperature. Gov. Sarah Palin recognizes that climate is more complex, although unfortunately she supports the general myth that CO2  affects temperature.

She failed to mention that the warming in the Arctic is part of the normal cyclic change of the region.  The Arctic experienced similar warming in the 1920's as well as more extensive warming in the distant past.   The current warming in the Arctic, which may be ending considering lower than normal temperatures in Anchorage this summer, is due to the phases of the Arctic Oscillation and the Northern Pacific Oscillation.  These cycles  moved warmer waters and air  into the Arctic, especially from the Northern Pacific.

If humans are impacting the situation, the impact takes the form of black soot from Asia.    The soot becomes mixed with snow after which it is heated by the sun and melts the snow.  Otherwise the snow would reflect sunlight back into space with only limited melting.

The debates cannot resolve disputes on issues because the comments are too short. 

The debates are more useful for demonstrating the personalities of the candidates.  Palin clearly has a more desirable personality for a vice president than Biden.  Palin was more animated and has an energizing personality and a contagious enthusiasm. 

Palin might  be the best thing that could happen to Washington since Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman were selected as vice presidents.