Read up, Communicate, and stand by your Principles

Obama is an open communicator who is not opposed to open discussion and diplomacy with people with whom he vehemently disagrees, be it foreign leaders who are “enemies” of the United States, or those who represent opposing views to his own. He is a listener, which would be a huge change from the current administration. Bush didn’t read intelligence reports, he would have people summarize them for him and go with his gut feeling. He would not listen to the other side’s argument. Obama does exactly the opposite. Many senators caught up in the patriotism rush that overwhelmed us after 9/11 (either you’re with us or against us) jumped on board with whatever Bush said because they feared for their political life. Many, including Senator Clinton acted just like Bush out of political fear and voted to give him authorization to go to war WITHOUT READING THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE. Here’s a breakdown of who DID read it. At that same time, Senator Obama was running for his senate seat. He took the principled stand and objected to the war and STILL won his seat.