“THIS Is the 3AM Phone Call”
The title of this piece was delivered on-air by John Harwood, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, and currently the chief Washington correspondent for CNBC.
The “3AM phone call” refers to the Hillary Clinton ad that was used to attempt to denigrate Senator Obama’s inexperience during the primary campaign. It was assumed that a terrorist attack or some other type of military action would be the event that would shake the nation’s foundation to the dire degree that the chief executive would have to be awakened in the middle of the night.
Wrong. It turns out that the national game breaker is the ever escalating financial crisis, and thus, Harwood’s brilliantly put “THIS is the 3AM phone call”.
Without a solid economic foundation this nation currently has precious little clout in the foreign policy arena. Look at Putin, correctly perceiving our legs to be wobbly, taking the opportunity to invade Georgia. Look at North Korea, with or without Kim Jon Il, re-activating it’s nuclear weapons program just last night.
The presidential debate coming up this Friday night is ostensibly focused on national security and foreign policy. It’s no stretch at all for Senator Obama to point out that the stability and strength of America’s economy is and always has been a prerequisite to our clout in matters geopolitical, and without it, we’ve got a bunch of nifty hardware and a lot of young kids who no longer have the specter of their mighty Uncle Sam and his wallet to back them up.
If, during Friday night’s debate, the opportunity presents itself, and he can get the timing right, Senator Obama can deliver a knockout punch not unlike the one Lloyd Bentsen delivered to Dan Quayle in the 1988 VP debate when he correctly pointed out to Quayle that “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy”.
McCain is already dazed and confused by the financial crises. Even George Will, the erudite and reasonable conservative, pointed this out in his Washington Post article yesterday.
Friday night presents the opportunity for Obama to put McCain, politically at least, down for the count.
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