Former Democrat VP nominee says McCain, Palin ready to lead, but Obama is not

NOTE: I’m scheduled to be on the Glenn Beck Show tonight on CNN Headline News at 7pm, 9pm and midnight eastern to discuss Sen. Obama and foreign policy. Check back for updates.

ORIGINAL POST: What a remarkable sight. We’ve never seen anything like it, and I don’t know that we ever will again. But there was Sen. Joe Lieberman — a lifelong Democrat, the Democrats’ Vice Presidential nominee in 2000, a man who with Al Gore earned some 51 million votes running against George Bush and Dick Cheney — at a Republican convention to say without hesitation that Sen. John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin have more experience, better judgment and more qualifications to lead America than Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Wow. In such a high stakes election, such a full throated endorsement for the full ticket — Governor Palin notably included — by a man t of Lieberman’s character and stature might make all the difference. Everytime an Obama advocate attacks Governor Palin’s “readiness,” all Republicans have to say now is, “Lieberman thinks she’s ready, and Obama isn’t. Case closed.”

It’s not really “case-closed,” of course. Governor Palin has to prove she’s ready. And tonight, she has a huge opportunity to make that case and reassure her party and her country. I hope she talks about what it’s like to manage the largest state in the country, a state bigger than California, Texas and Montana combined. I hope she talks about what it is like to run the second-largest oil producing state in the nation. And how she passed a bill to build a $26 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline that will carry natural gas from the North Slope through Canada to the Lower 48 States to make us more energy independent (after all, Alaska has some 35 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves). She should tell us what it’s like to oversee a $40 billion economy, and create jobs, and cut taxes, and attack government waste and corruption. I want to hear some of the decisions she has had to make as commander of Alaska’s National Guard, what it was like to visit our troops in the Middle East, and what it is like to prepare to send your own son into battle to fight for our country. And i want to hear what it’s like do all that while being a happily married woman and mother of five. I think this could be an amazing speech tonight. I certainly hope so.

But for the moment, I’m still savoring the Lieberman speech, and marveling at McCain’s life story which was presented so powerfully by Sen. Fred Thompson (whom I suspect has a very bright future in national leadership).

Excerpts from Sen. Lieberman’s address:

“I’ve had the privilege of serving with John for almost 20 years and the honor of becoming a dear friend of his. I’ve personally seen him over and over again bringing people together from both parties to tackle our toughest problems, for example, to reform our campaign finance laws, our lobbying and ethics laws, to create the independent 9/11 Commission after that great…unnatural disaster caused by the terrorists, and then to work to pass the national security reforms that have made every American safer since then. And then he worked together to end the partisan paralysis over nominations to the Supreme Court and other federal courts. This is the record….

“Senator Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who I think can do great things for our country in the years ahead, but, my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record, not in these tough times for America. In the Senate, during the three-and-a-half years that Senator Obama has been a member, he has not reached across party lines to get accomplish anything significant, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done.

“And I’d just ask you to contrast that with John McCain’s record of independence and bipartisanship, but let me go one further. And this may make history here at this Republican convention. Let me contrast Barack Obama’s record to the record of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who stood up to some of those same Democratic interest groups, worked with Republicans, and got some important things done, like welfare reform, free trade agreements, and a balanced budget.

“Now, I’m honored to say just a word about the great lady that John McCain has selected as his running mate. Governor Palin, like John McCain, is a reformer. She’s taken on the special interests and the political power-brokers in Alaska and reached across party lines to get things done. The truth is, she is a leader we can count on to help John shake up Washington….that’s why I sincerely believe that the real ticket for change this year is the McCain-Palin ticket….

“We are a nation at war. We need a president we can count on to fight for what’s right for our country, not only when it’s easy, but when it’s hard. And I was there, so I can tell you, when others were silent about the war in Iraq, John McCain had the guts and the judgment to sound the alarm about the mistakes we were making in Iraq. You know, when others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, which would have been a disaster for the USA, when colleagues like Barack Obama were voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield…John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion, advocate the surge, support the surge, and, because of that today, America’s troops are coming home, thousands of them, and they’re coming home in honor….”

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U.S. Marine Maj. Gen John Kelly, the top U.S. commander in Anbar Province, left, and Anbar Governor Maamoun Sami Rashid, center, sign papers during a handover ceremony at the government headquarters in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, in Iraq Monday, Sept. 1, 2008

Iraq

More good news from Iraq: the “surge” continues to show dramatic successes. Despite all of the carping and naysaying we have heard from left-wing politicians and commentators for the last several years, U.S., Iraqi and coalition forces really are winning. I had reported dramatic security progress in February when I had the opportunity to spend nine days on the ground in Iraq with no Humvees, no air support, no military escort and no armed guards. Not everyone believed me. But it was true then, and it is even more true today. The U.S. military just handed over the responsibility for security of the once-extremely deadly Anbar Province in the West to the Iraqi military. Iraqi forces now maintain security in 11 of the country’s 18 provinces. The Associated Press called the development “a sign of the stunning reversal of fortunes since local Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq.” The Christian Science Monitor called it a “significant milestone,” noting that “Anbar was the deadliest Iraqi province for US troops, with nearly 1 in every 3 Americans killed there. It was once the symbol of Sunni resistance, the base of operations for Al Qaeda, and home to two major US military offensives and the most intense urban combat of the war. But in the past two years, Anbar has emerged as the symbol of a turnaround as Sunni sheikhs formed ‘Awakening Councils,’ ousted Al Qaeda, and created community police forces.” They’re right. This is a tremendous tribute to the heroic and patient work of American military forces fighting al Qaeda directly as well as working closely with their Iraqi counterparts to get them trained and battle-tested. It is also a tribute to the leadership of General Petraeus who did not “betray us” as the Left alleged, but rather acted with great honor and wisdom in the face of enormous challenges. Job well done, sir. Job well done.

Israel, like the Gulf Coast, is preparing for disaster

Our prayers are with the brave Americans who live in the Gulf Coast region as they prepare for Hurricane Gustav, a potentially catastrophic storm about to devastate the lives of 4.5 million people, destroy 59,953 homes and overwhelm 170 hospitals and more than 1,110 police and fire stations in its path, according to the latest FEMA computer projections.

All of us at The Joshua Fund are eager to bless Americans impacted by the storm and we are encouraging people to give generously to organizations that focus on U.S. disaster relief, including Samaritan’s Purse, Convoy of Hope, and the Red Cross. 

At the same time, an Israeli journalist has an interesting article today in Ha’aretz, noting that as Americans prepare for the impact of Hurricane Gustav, Israelis are preparing for the impact of Hurricane Mahmoud.

“In Israel as in New Orleans, there is a palpable sense of simchat hayim, a profound joy in being alive, alongside a constant and no less palpable knowledge that serial, unimaginable catastrophe is not only possible, but inevitable,” writes columnist Bradley Burston. “There is, regarding government in both places, an assumption of corruption, a habituation to ineptitude, a feeling that the very officials whose job is to serve you and protect you, will, when the chips are down, fail you. There is also the sense, in New Orleans vis a vis the rest of the United States, and in Israel, vis a vis the rest of the Jewish world, that while your people elsewhere truly love you, when push comes to shove, you’re on your own. True, we have no hurricanes here. But we have Iran. And that’s more than enough. The Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become Israel’s hurricane threat, the serial menace who orders his vassals in the West Bank to send us suicide bombers, his vassals in the Gaza Strip to send us Qassams, his vassals in Lebanon to send us Katyushas, his vassals over the next ridge from our house to try to burn us out in an arson fire. In the back of our minds, is Hurricane Mahmoud at Category 5: drawing strength from the warm waters of radical Islam and western inaction and covert western complicity and demonstrated western weakness, the Iranian regime unleashes ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads. In the back of our minds, shadowing our future, is the threat that Hurricane Mahmoud has made explicit: erasure from this earth. In the back of our minds is the knowledge and the half-security, half-fear, that when it comes down to it, your friends and family are the only people you can really count on.”

The Joshua Fund is working around the clock to bless Israelis and Palestinians who could be severely impacted by the coming Iranian storm, one that by all accounts seems increasingly imminent. Though we continue to pray for peace, we are also continuing to prepare for war. We have just rented office space in Jerusalem to set up an operations center to coordinate our efforts. We are currently negotiating to secure warehouse space to store $1 million worth of relief supplies. We are acquiring vehicles to transport those supplies. We are interviewing people we may need to bring on staff soon. Meanwhile, we continue to help believers in Israel stockpile 400 tons of food in a warehouse in the North ahead of the coming war, in addition to our on-going projects to care for Israelis who are homeless, widows, Holocaust victims, and otherwise in need, as well as caring for embattled Palestinian Christians who face the constant threat of persecution and death. In November, just after the U.S. elections, my colleagues and I will travel to Israel to meet with government officials and relief organization leaders and assess the preparations we have been able make by then. We would be deeply grateful for your prayers that the Lord would give us wisdom and discernment to know best how to invest limited time and resources to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus as effectively as possible. If you would like to help us financially as we stockpile relief supplies in Israel, please click here. Thanks so much and may the Lord bless you greatly.