OK, I'm a little confused.

Ever since 9/11, a select group of far left liberals (read: NOT mainstream Democrats) has demanded that we were the reason 9/11 happened...and that other countries hate us because of our hegemonic tendencies. And while mainstream Democrats weren't among the sandwich board kooks shouting on main street, they certainly didn't raise much of a protest while the fringies stood on their soapboxes.

Now today I read about presidential hopeful John Edwards' plan to educate impoverished children around the globe. Again, no shouts of protest from the Democractic faithful.

Why is it when the GOP meddles in foreign affairs, it's hegemony, and when the DNC does it, it is compassion?

The truth is, we don't have the resources to educate the globe. India needs to take care of India's affairs, China needs to take care of China's affairs. While it may make for good rhetoric, why is it that presidential hopefuls are focusing their energies on other countries, and not on US affairs?

Could it be that they actually understand what conservatives have been saying all along: that while true poverty may not be completely eradicated in the United States, incidents of it are so few and far between as to render it almost an anachronism? Or could it be something else, the ear tickling ramblings of politicians trying to give their far left loonies what they want to bring them back into the fold?

At either rate, I think we would be well advised to note these comments and bring them back to the surface. After all, if we can't manage the affairs of our own country without running massive deficits, how are we going to manage the affairs of a globe with a population twenty times our size? And will we want to live in the quagmire that results?