Riverwood Presbyterian Church

Not Ready for Prime Time?

by Clay Staggs

I’ve recently been debating the candidacy of Barack Obama for President with a friend, whose identity I’ll leave anonymous unless he sees this and elects to comment.

The latest flare up has been over Obama’s statement about the use of nuclear weapons. When asked by an reporter whether as President he’d ever use nuclear weapons, Obama responded:

“I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance,” Obama said, with a pause, “involving civilians.” Then he quickly added, “Let me scratch that. There’s been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That’s not on the table.”

My view is that holding such an opinion about the non-use of nuclear weapons is sufficient to disqualify one from being president. I find it to be naive in the extreme, especially with the qualifier about civilians, because, given the blast radius of a nuke, they all, by definition, involve civilians. Moreover, if any of this country’s enemies (e.g., al Qaeda) ever got a nuke, with Obama in the oval office, they’d know with certainty that they could use them on us without fear of any response in kind.

My correspondent did not necessarily believe this veiwpoint regarding nukes to be a disqualifier from being president.

Interestingly, if not predictably, the Senator’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, wasted no time in responding:

“Presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons,” Clinton said. “Presidents since the Cold War have used nuclear deterrence to keep the peace. And I don’t believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons.”

I’d be curious to hear any thoughts anyone has on this issue. Does Obama’s statement on this issue show him to be not ready for prime time?