Extreme ways

Since Gary Younge states, "Obama knows that at any moment he could be outed by anything from a preacher to a fist bump or a magazine cover," it is surprising that more has not been made of McCain's affiliation with Rod Parsley.



This extreme preacher spoke of America's "historical conflict with Islam" and has said that, "America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed." McCain has referred to this man as his mentor and has not severed his ties with him, yet where's the fuss in the media? Although Jeremiah Wright possesses the same furor as Parsley, his delusions seem trifling by comparison.

The Guardian maintains that the Bush administration "has moved away from the idea of a 'war on terror'" and that McCain alone is locked into a "monolithic view of an ultimate military victory that others have rightly discarded." This assertion makes McCain and Palin, who actually voices what Bush is thinking, even scarier. Consider Bush's speech at the UN, which, like his 2002 speech, outlines the progress made against terror and simplifies history: although Petraeus has distanced himself from the War on Terror, Bush seems very much to be still there. We need to gain some perspective; the world, which as Stuart McLean recently noted, "is a good place ... full of good people." If McCain is elected, North America and much of the world will not gain this perspective. I hope Obama can find the assertiveness and clarity he possessed in the 2004 debate to establish this fact: