Senator Obama would have us believe his opposition to the war in Iraq was thoughtful, prescient, insightful and wise; but it was none of those things. He provided his reason for opposing the war in a 2002 speech given at an anti-war rally organized by Chicagoans Against War in Iraq, a far left group. In his speech he said the war was an “attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the medium income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.” Claiming President Bush took the country to war to distract people from domestic economic issues is not a thoughtful geopolitical analysis but simply left wing paranoia. The resolution authorizing the President to use military force against Iraq passed the Senate by a 77 to 23 vote, Among those voting to give the President this authority was none other than Joe Biden, the person Obama says he will turn to for foreign policy advice. Also voting for the resolution were Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Diane Feinstein, Tom Daschle, Tom Harkin, Harry Reid, and Chuck Schumer. Such was the persuasive power of Karl Rove, or perhaps these Senators were also part of a conspiracy to take the public’s attention off domestic economic issues. Senator Obama is no deep thinker. He should be judged on what he actually said, not by what he says he said.