Reality Bites!

Been really taking it easy since getting to Florida but I do have to comment on the bounty of positive news in the past few days. I say positive because it all reinforces the positions of Barack Obama and those of us who have spent years calling for a reality check. Looks to me that the check is not only in the mail, but also going to nearly every household in the world - yep, even that house at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue.

1. Dialogue with Iran. The Bush Administration, after 7 1/2 years of ineffectively using the stick, has move to trying carrots with Iran. While they deny it, the discussion they are having are contradictory to what the Bush/McCain doctrine has been for years and lines up pretty closely with the Obama position.

2. Troop withdrawal from Iraq. While the Bush Administration hopes that calling the timeline a "time horizon" will fool people, it is apparent that they are looking to remove troops from Iraq and increase the presence in Afghanistan. Hmmm ... where have I heard that before.

3. Iraqi PM agrees with Obama position. His words: "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes," - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Imagine how the Reds would be jumping on this if Maliki had said "we need troops here indefinitely - please do make any plans to go". He didn't say that.

After 8 (I would say 28) years of falling under the spell of myth making and reality busting politicians - it appears that the American people are breaking free from this hypnotic illusion. The rest of the world, no longer fearing Bush's bombs and sensing the change in the USA (Obama's near nomination having a large part to do with it), are also becoming more free to speak truth to power and more willing to interact with a nation who's people seems to be regaining their sanity.

It is very late in coming - we'll see if it is too late - but I suppose it's better than if it had never come at all.