Admiral Fallon for VP?
Sun May 11, 2008 at 09:41:23 PM PDT
Although I posted this earlier on a VP open thread, it scrolled off before I could finish so I thought I'd repost the comment as a diary, especially since the post was titled "5 p.m. PDT Daily Open Obama V.P. Thread #2: Mother's Day Edition (w/poll)" and was subtitled an "all woman," post, and I am not one of those. Anyway, apologies for having posted an unintentionally unfeeling comment in your diary, ourprez08.
I read an interesting post today at Counterpunch written by David Michael Green. The entire article is entertaining and deals primarily with the fact that Obama has it pretty well wrapped up, but what I found interesting was his suggestion for Obama's VP. It was Admiral William Fallon. This is what Mr. Green had to say;
What Obama needs – especially going up against a Republican, especially in wartime, and especially a John McCain – is some serious national security gravitas. In this respect, I might be tempted to draft Admiral William Fallon for a running mate. Maybe the guy has bad politics, and maybe he would be a bad politician – though he’s spent a lot of time at a much related task, doing diplomacy in the Pacific and the Middle East. I don’t know.
What I do know is that he opposed the surge. That he wanted to draw down forces in Iraq and redeploy to Afghanistan. That he supposedly (Fallon apparently denies it) called General Petraeus an "ass-kissing little chickenshit" for carrying the administration's water by selling its Iraq policy at home. And that he just got fired from his job as top American military commander in the Central Command (Middle East), probably because he overtly opposed a US attack on Iran, and could be counted on to do so again on D-Day.
Who else could instantly give Obama national security bona fides while simultaneously eviscerating McCain’s advantage in that domain? Who else could speak with credibility against an October attack on Iran, and save the Democratic bid for the White House in 2008, if BushCo tries such a ploy? Americans hate Bush and they hate his war and they don’t want a third one. All they need to make the leap is some Colin Powell-like dude to give them permission to think for themselves. Since we know Powell won’t be providing that particular service in this lifetime, perhaps Fallon could. McCain would look pretty silly arguing for more stupidity in Iraq against a guy who was the actual commander of the theater. And McCain’s own raison d'être – the politician who was once a war hero – would also be slashed in significance up against another cat who also flew naval combat sorties in Vietnam and elsewhere. Obama could do lots worse than Fallon.
If nothing else, I thought it was reasonable, and would add a lot of gravitas to Obama's campaign. And that Fallon was fired by Bush makes it even better.
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