If al-Qaeda and militant Islamism did not exist, I would be much more comfortable with Barack Obama

Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO has an interesting interview with Debra Burlingame.

Missing at Ole Miss
Debra Burlingame scores the first debate.

‘If al-Qaeda and militant Islamism did not exist, I would be much more comfortable with Barack Obama,” explains Debra Burlingame. Burlingame, a former attorney, is the sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, who was murdered on September 11, 2001, when the plane he was piloting, American Airlines flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon. She has been a frequent commentator on the war and spoke to National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez Saturday morning about Friday night’s first presidential debate.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Who won that first debate?

Debra Burlingame:
I thought John McCain won, easily. I realize that Americans who come at
the economy with a “what are you going to do for me” posture might be
more attracted to what they heard from Barack Obama. He said the
feel-good words about protecting the little guy. But he’s going to
raise taxes on the job providers. I think McCain did a very good job of
showing that Obama is a typical tax-and-spend Democrat. When he was
pressed, more than once, to name the programs he would cut, he named
the ones he wouldn’t cut, and then added couple more he’d
create. Does anyone believe Obama would wrestle the budget to the floor
and win? Obama could point to no record of rolling up his sleeves and
doing the tough job of hammering out a work product that mediates
competing interests. On foreign policy, it was like watching the wise
old man take an opinionated college debater to school. McCain exposed
him.

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