Israel, Financial Crisis and Energy Independence

The one issue the candidates and their vice presidential selections can always agree on is the topic of Israel. Biden, Palin, Obama and McCain are all friends of the State of Israel. McCain and Obama during the debates have gone out of their way to stress strong support for Israel, the strongest American ally and a stronghold of democracy in a dangerous neighborhood that doesn’t seem to like America very much. The candidates have also all supported Israel's right to defend itself against Iran’s nuclear threat posed by Iran. Voting for a certain candidate because of their strengths on Israel is ridiculous. Both candidates will take good care of the country and look out for its best interests. In the past few years there has been a migration of Jews from the Democratic Party to the GOP. This was in large part from George W. Bush’s strong stance on the State of Israel. However, in this election people should vote on the issues that matter to them, these candidates will look out for the lone Jewish state and help defend it. Barack Obama has ignored Jimmy Carter’s endorsement because of the former president’s views and his association with Israel and the Democratic National Convention also refused the controversial president a speaking role in Denver. What should trouble Jewish voters is the Green Party’s selection for President, Cynthia McKinney who’s supporters blame Jews and Israel for 9/11 and believe in an international Jewish conspiracy. There is not enough chatter in Jewish circles about McKinney’s campaign, this is the candidate Jews should be worried about, not Obama.

            With the emergence of new superpowers like India, China and the European Union and the looming financial crisis, the next president will have the task of keeping America a superpower. If the next administration is smart, it will let the markets clear, let the recession take its course, and preserve our financial system. America needs to remain a superpower anything short of that is failure, and by doing this they need to be foreign policy savvy. They must work with the international world but not heavily rely on it. America must once again lead the world in technological advancements and improve its education standards in math and science. The education of this nation’s young people is vital to American supremacy and livelihood in the world. We spend the most money on education, but do perform poorly from K-12 in all science and math proficiency exams. We lag every first world country. During the Cold War, Americans stressed math and science because we feared that the better-educated Soviet children would be able to overtake us in the arms and space race. Today we must stress this importance in education like we did fifty years ago.

Again, last night, in the final debate, McCain attacked Obama and Biden’s foreign policy credentials attacking Obama’s NAFTA proposal. McCain painted Biden wrong for not supporting the Gulf War and protecting our oil interests. On that note, for America to be truly dominant and independent, they must lose their dependency on foreign oil. Senator Obama thinks we can realistically do this in 10 years. I think for this country to remain the superpower it has been for decades, we must shed our oil ties. Reintroducing multilateralism to American foreign affairs, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the international financial crisis and the energy crisis are the most important and daunting foreign policy issues for the next president.