QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 11, 2008 -> 07:37 PM)
Must be a sense of disappointment in the Cuban community about the election...for many years, the conservative/Catholic Cuban vote helped secure the state for Republicans, at least in recent elections.
Now the state has become a richer mixture of Hispanic cultures, and they voted in Obama in most states by 2 to 1 margins, eschewing their church's position (I say this as a Catholic, lol) and favoring the economic over the social/moral (fwiw, peace and social justice issues are perceived as more important to Democrats, it's just that the abortion issue is always paramount...but not in this election year).
Even if they started drilling all over ANWR, it would take many months if not years to see results. That's just a stopgap solution to a long-term, endemic problem that needs to be addressed going forward. I think you will see any bailouts of the auto industry with lots of "green initiatives" imposed in terms of developing alternative energy/hybrid/battery-solar powered cars again.
It's not WHETHER we do something, although even President Clinton admitted that abandoning Rwandans was his biggest mistake...it's HOW we go about doing it. We can be strong/forceful without doing it in a unilateral/militaristic fashion, and we can seek international cooperation and financial assistance without having our troops under UN Command.
Friedman in the NY Times had a very good article about how all the countries in the world that were "free riders" under Bush (Japan, China, Germany, France, Russia, etc.) had to make a commitment to work with the US in the future, to share some of the costs and burdens...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/...amp;oref=slogin
Just interested in your take on that, Cubano. Don't want to get into a discussion better reserved for another page...but, in the new spirit of bi-partisanship, I'm hoping we can have a peaceful/thoughtful exchange of ideas, lol.
You gotta love any Soxtalk post that includes the word eschew.
Way to go Caulfield.