Friday, January 15, 2010

Trey Pounds Rand On Gitmo

I only caught the part of Trey Grayson's interactive video chat last night that fell after swim practice and before the Social Studies project, but here's my take: he made Dr. Rand Paul look dangerous on the issue of closing Gitmo.

Grayson and Paul are indistinguishable on fiscal issues. As Paul has done all along, Grayson hit hard the need to get "our financial house in order." Grayson also made an interesting point on the national security implications of our enormous deficit; our debt allows us to be held hostage by China or whoever chooses to lend us the money to continue the Democrats' profligate spending.

But where Grayson really shone is on the question of whether President Barack Obama should close Gitmo. Grayson opposes closing Gitmo (and moving its terrorist prisoners to nearby Illinois) in the strongest possible terms.

He ridiculed Paul's assertion that we can deport the "enemy combatants" to whence they came because it would take them "a long time to get back here." Grayson maintains that we cannot allow the people who want to kill us to come back to complete their mission.

National security and foreign policy are issues that reveal the most fundamental differences between Grayson and Paul. There is no doubt that Paul is a fiscal conservative. In this primary -- in this time of our nation's history -- that is necessary, but not sufficient. Paul needs to address the national security issues upon which he would be called to vote. It is time to expand the discussion of issues beyond catch-words like "out of control spending! deficits! career politicians!"

1 comment:

Mike Maggard said...

I heard Trey Grayson on a am590 talk radio with "Kruser" misrepresenting the views of Rand Paul, as you do in your article. The reason the platforms of these two candidates have similarities is because Trey has duplicated some of Rand's views, the ones in which he found the political winds in favor of. The High Deductables on health insurance as an example. This is apparently done to confuse voters, but the debates will tell the true story. May the conservative candidate win