2nd what exactly are OBama’s political Ideas? All I’ve ever heard or seen from him is that Government is the solution for everything. I’m sure you know what Ideaology that is S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-I-M.

I, too, think “dignity promotion” is an inapt phrase, chosen only for its contrast with “democracy promotion”. The sense is more “treat people with dignity”, than “grant them dignity”. Do unto others, love your neighbor as yourself, etc.

On foreign policy, there are definite “rules” about what candidates can and can’t say (”all options on the table”, “don’t want to talk about hypotheticals”), and while they are there for mostly good reasons (you don’t want a candidate essentially pledging American honor to act in a particular way based on extemporaneous rhetoric or white papers cooked up by graduate students volunteering on the campaign). I think Obama has gone much further than most candidates in talking about his reasoning, how he’ll approach crises, what he sees as important, etc. (McCain has done this, too). A key excerpt from the article:

He was attacked from the left and the right for saying three things that should not have been controversial: that if he had actionable intelligence on the whereabouts of al-Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan but no cooperation from the Pakistani government, he would take out the jihadists; that he wouldn’t use nuclear weapons on terrorist training camps; and that he would be willing to meet with leaders of rogue states in his first year as president. “No one [of Obama's critics] had thought through the policy because that was the quote-unquote naïve and weak position, so they said it was a bad position to take,” recalls Ben Rhodes, the adviser who writes Obama’s foreign-policy speeches. “And it was a seminal moment, because Obama himself said, ‘No, I’m right about this!’”

Instead of backing down, Obama asked his foreign-policy team to double down

As a larger point, I think the meme that Obama is about substanceless “hope” is unsupported by the facts. He’s written (himself, not a ghost-writer) two books, one of which is almost exclusively about political ideas. His campaign is stuffed with position papers and policy proposals on every imaginable topic (he is a Democrat, after all). “Hope” and re-engagement with the political system is a framework around which he’s advancing these arguments, but it’s not the argument itself.

My goal isn’t to be snarky here, but rather to request that the candidate move on from a discussion of “Hope” and crap like that to “here’s exactly what I’d do.” I’m sure you’ll have already read MC Cain’s speech on foriegn policy. Since obama has given no such speech that I’ve heard, how are we to compare?

Finally, doesn’t it make you nervous that we are hearing about obama’s team? What the heck is up with that? Let a man apeak for himself.