People ask me what an American presidential candidate needs to say about Ukraine for me to approve.
Minimally, I’d like to hear something like, “We support Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity and welcome Ukrainians among civilized, democratic countries.” This would show a specific, non-vague knowledge of what is taking place in Ukraine and what Ukrainians are trying to achieve. And it’s not like it’s such a hard thing to squeeze out, is it?
Of course, there’s a way to make the statement even better by adding something like, “Ukrainians have demonstrated that they cherish and promote the most important, beautiful values of our Western Civilization. Ukraine is Europe. Ukraine is the West.” Whatever you might think about it, it matters to Ukrainians to hear this.
And in an ideal world which doesn’t exist, the candidate would say, “We know that we have let Ukrainians down and did not fulfill our obligations under the Budapest agreement. But we want you to know: we will never recognize the Crimea or the Donbass as part of any country but Ukraine.”
Again, I don’t hope for the ideal scenario, I’m just fantasizing. But how hard is it to recognize the Revolution of Dignity and the values it defended?
Clarissa's Blog 
Been a while. Hope all is well 🙂 Was too good of a time to not chime in. Was out and about for the debates yesterday and heard MANY conservatives vociferously argue obama had been to weak on syria/iraq, isis, AND Ukraine. I know you don’t like the conservatives much, but they have more or less agreed with you on Ukraine. For the cherry on top.. heard Santorum speak in person and specifically mentioned the lack of support for Ukraine … hoping that doesn’t explode your brain too much 🙂 Not a santorum fan, but just making the point that if you want that type of moral clarity and strong leadership you will NOT find it in the modern democratic party. I despise the two party system, but it is clear there is only one party that is ready to be strong on defense. Yes they bloviate a lot, but fundamentally they belive in reagan’s “peace through strength” (at least many do) and that is the only way to get the likes of Russia and Iran to back down, with our shows of force
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Hi Matt, good to see you here. Yes, Obama has been weak on Ukraine, that goes without saying. He walked in the footsteps of W. Bush and coddled Putin way too much. And that makes me angry.
The only candidate right now that Putin fears is Hillary. Of course, if John McCain were to run, then Putin would be really terrified. But McCain isn’t running, so the next best thing to enrage Putin is Hillary.
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Hmm.. you don’t think that putin would fear a republican? Especially the likes of a walker or rubio (i like rubio.. not walker for what its worth). I mean, part of rubio’s schtick is that his parents were persecuted by fidel in cuba… i think he would be exceedingly tough on putin. I will agree that clinton would be tougher than obama, but honestly that is not hard. Obama really is my generations jimmy carter i think.. and the iran parallels are eerie
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Putin had a beautiful relationship with George W. Remember how George W. said that he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw a good soul?
“I will agree that clinton would be tougher than obama, but honestly that is not hard.”
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