Some Links

Glass Jaw:

Deafening Silence has a manifesto for those remaining behind to fight for America, no matter who wins the election.

My love for this country does not depend on who runs the show. I wouldn't call it 'love' if it did.

Mr. President, I am a product of this nation. I was born here. It has fed my bones and blood. It's most sacred documents tell me that I am required to watch over it, to participate in it, to give it my eternal vigilance.

That is the bargain I was offered in exchange for my citizenship. And I have accepted it.

This nation also feeds the aspirations of thousands who adopt it as their home each year, newcomers who accept the bargain and know that the United State will exist in the bones and blood of their family as well.

I suppose there are some things you could do to drive me out, but they would have to be pretty extreme- things like credible threats to my life and my family. So far, you don't strike me as the type.

Would an Obama victory represent a credible threat to your life? Indirectly, yes... at least, if you listen to Joe Biden.

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you - not financially to help him - we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right."

Sen. Biden raises an excellent point, and it's something I have thought about while preparing to deploy. An Obama victory is likely to result in a new wave of violence in Iraq, as Iranian-backed radicals and Qaeda militants test him. They will think, "Here is a guy who has always wanted to think this war was a mistake and that it couldn't be won. He'll take a bunch of new attacks as proof he was right all along, and the Surge was an illusion. He's got a glass jaw." They'll want to see if they can break it.

That may not be a reason to vote against Sen. Obama if you agree with him on policy, but Sen. Biden is absolutely right that it's something to expect. If Sen. Obama wins the Presidency, all Americans will need to be ready both to show support for the government against foreign aggressors -- but also to hold President Obama's feet to the fire, and not let him back off in Iraq or elsewhere.

That way lies disaster. Joe Biden is right in his diagnosis and proposed treatment.

Of course, the polls are tightening, so it may not be a problem. (Also from Hot Air: do you know that Gov. Palin now meets with the press at length on a near-daily basis, but Obama hasn't taken questions from the traveling press corps since September? How about that "cone of silence"?)