Any for the brainwashed leftists out there, understand this – just because someone speaks with a definitive tone (which Obama clearly speaks in) doesn’t mean that they are a good speaker! It means that they are confident, yes. But interrupting the free verbal flow of one’s ideas with constant, “iii” and “aaaaahhh” blips is indicative of a speaker who is unsure of the intellectual weight of his words.

As someone who supports this President (and all Presidents, by the way), I really hope that Obama invests some time and resources into practicing how to speak in public. When he stutters and stammers his way through a press conference like he did tonight it does NOT show this country the strong leadership that it voted for during the election.

Oh, and enough of the “I inherited this” crap already. You’ve been President for two months – you’re no longer “inheriting” the initial problem, but you’re now dealing with pieces of the recession that have been created on your watch! And what, exactly, did you create? There is a mess with this AIG thing, right? Hey – didn’t YOUR Treasury Secretary create that mess before you were President? Does that mean that your administration is inheriting its own mistakes? Can you rightly blame that on Bush?

Here’s hoping for more from President Obama and his administration. Where is the change that America voted for?

Iraq has proposed a short-term memorandum of understanding with the United States rather than trying to hammer through a formal agreement on the presence of U.S. forces, the country’s prime minister said Monday.

The Iraqi government proposed the memorandum after widespread Iraqi opposition to U.S. demands emerged during talks on a more formal Status of Forces Agreement. Some type of agreement is needed to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year’s end.

“Now there is a memorandum of understanding replacing the draft agreement,” al-Maliki told several Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates during a meeting Monday.

The proposed memorandum includes a formula for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, said the prime minister — an idea opposed by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Now, why exactly are we telling the Iraqis that we are NOT going to leave their nation? I was 110% for going in there and removing Saddam Hussein. No matter what the leftists want to say, the world is a better, safer place with that man out of power and in the ground. However, now that he is out of power and many lives have been spent setting up a new Iraqi government – give these people control of their own nation!

Does America – or more specifically President Bush – think it is the right course of action to reject a proposed schedule to remove our troops from this sovereign country? Yes, I understand that there needs to be an ordered draw down in forces so that Iraq isn’t thrown into turmoil, but that is included in the Iraqi proposal.

This is an interesting situation and one that I hope resolves itself with the best interests of our troops and the young Iraqi government in mind. But President Bush baffles me. Here is his golden opportunity to join forces with al-Maliki to create a tentative timetable for withdrawal and he is opposing the idea. If Bush could get his head on straight, he’d realize that if went along with al-Maliki, he’d essentially hand the White House over to John McCain. After Obama’s recent gaffe where he was “for a quick withdrawal before he was against it,” if Bush could take this issue away from his platform it would be provide a great benefit to McCain.

Sometimes you have to wonder who is in Bush’s ear these days.