I was afraid of this...

The New York Post has an interesting story regarding Obama's trip to Iraq. I will be interested to hear the Obama camp respond to this. If it is true, and Obama denies it, if he wins his White House bid things could get really ugly in US/Iraqi relations. If Obama is as popular 'around the world' as we hear, why would they make this up? Here are some excerpts from the article:

" WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence."

...

""He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion.""

...

"Though Obama claims the US presence is "illegal," he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the "weakened Bush administration," Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate."

I have always feared something like this was happening behind closed doors, in the secret halls of democrat strategy... But only time will tell if this is a true and correct story.

Economic Policies - What's the Difference?

People want to know the difference between Sen Obama's and Sen McCain's economic policies. Well, we have case studies to look at that gives us insight into the future...

Click on the link for a great article from the Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt of it:

The rewards for success were huge. Texas gained 1.7 million net new jobs, Florida gained 1.4 million and Arizona gained 600,000. While the U.S. average job growth percentage was 9.9%, Texas, Florida and Arizona had job growth of 18.5%, 21.4% and 28.9%, respectively.

Remarkably, a third of all the jobs in the U.S. in the last 10 years were created in these three states. While the population of the three highest-performing states grew twice as fast as the national average, per-capita real income still grew by $6,563 or 21.4% in Texas, Florida and Arizona. That's a $26,252 increase for a typical family of four.

By comparison, Illinois gained only 122,000 jobs, Ohio lost 62,900 and Michigan lost 318,000. Population growth in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois was only 4.2%, a third the national average, and real income per capita rose by only $3,466, just 58% of the national average. Workers in the three least successful states had to contend with a quarter-million fewer jobs rather than taking their pick of the 3.7 million new jobs that were available in the three fastest-growing states.