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The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting operation Iraqi Freedom.

Spc. Carlo E. Alfonso, 23, of Spokane, Wash., died on Aug. 26 of injuries sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Sadr City, Iraq. He was assigned to the 40th Engineer Battalion, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.

NOTE: Alfonso’s wife, Rosemarie, contacted us last week with the news of her husband’s death. Alfonso -pictured on the left above - is scheduled to return home later this week for his funeral and memorial service. Full story on SPC. Alfonso’s death here.

Ronald Reagan stood before a similar before a similarly enthusiastic crowd. John Kennedy addressed such a huge crowd over four decades ago. Each of those men were presidents of the Snited States, not merely a candidate seeking that office who desired to be thought of in the same league.

Barack Obama used the image of the Berlin Wall to evoke recollections of these two popular presidents, presuming to be worthy of joining their company, but they were in Germany with the ability to change the landscape of international relations, and he may never be in that position. His was a campaign stunt.

The appearances of Presidents Kennedy and Reagan were in the role of world class statesmen, if only by virtue of their office. Reagan called on the leader of the Soviet Union to tear down the wall that divided Berlin. Kennedy inspired the Germans, divided by that wall, that the United States stood with them. Kennedy uttered the famous words: “Ich bin ein Berliner” About all Barack Obama is qualified to say is ” Ich bin ein beginner”

Some fundamental questions are raised by Obama’s splendid political theater events. Why, if he wants to be president of the United States, is he brown-nosing the Germans? They aren’t going to vote in November. Why does he think that unlike every other Democrat who ever received his party’s nomination, the importance of his nomination requires, not the convention hall as a venue, and the delegates as the audience for his acceptance speech, but the vastness of an NFL stadium filled with thousands of frenzied fans? It’s pure theater….not substantive political discourse….just the kind of raw mindless emotion usually displayed by screaming teens at the arrival of a rock star.

I concede that Barack Obama has a rare charisma, and he is a gifted orator, but if that’s enough for you, then you’re willing to settle for very little. We’re choosing not only our next president, but the next leader of the free world. We cannot afford to be thrilled with the wrapping, if there’s nothing inside the box. Giddy enthusiasm aside, do you have any idea what’s inside this package?

CBS chief anchor Katie Couric will be live in Jordan with Barack Obama tonight. Wednesday, ABC’s Charles Gibson will present Obama in Israel, and NBC anchor Brian Williams will be in Germany on Thursday with Obama the top story. If there was ever a question about fairness in campaign coverage, this flocking to Obama’s side on the other side of the world clearly lays the matter to rest. NBC, ABC and CBS want Obama elected so badly that they have scuttled all appearances of fairness to help.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has been keeping an eye on the unmitigated major media fawning over Barack Obama,and they have discovered, (to no ones’ surprise), that they have devoted significantly more attention to the Obama in this contest for the presidency.

Executives for the big three networks offer all kinds of bogus reasons for the disparity. such as the continuing story about whether Clinton’s and Obama’s supporters can reconcile. They blame McCain. They actually state with a straight face, that since McCain has been critical of Obama for a lack of foreign policy experience, the Republican raised the stakes for Obama’s trip. How convoluted is that?

Obama, a foreign policy rookie of the first order, travels to Afghanistan and Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England, because he desperately needs to look like he knows something about foreign policy, and the network anchors consider it a “major news event”. They stayed home of course, when McCain, whose experience places him leagues above Obama, made similar recent foreign trips.

Is this type of coverage fair? Is it the role of journalism to be objective, or to prop up a poorly qualified candidate to make him appear like a statesman, so that voters will have a higher regard for him? The big three networks have simply become continuous political advertising for Barack Obama.

Moveon.org produced and is airing this ad, taking on Senator John McCain’s “100 years in Iraq” statement. It’s a pathetic attempt to try and make McCain seem like a heartless man, interested in only war.

McCain has said clearly, while troops could be in Iraq for 100 years, its the actual combat and troop casualties that are the determining factor. (As he points out, we still have troops in Germany. We still have troops in South Korea.)

The joy of this year’s presidential campaign is seeing the spoofs of the candidates, and their messages, on YouTube. Take for instance, this guy’s ad on Senator Barack Obama’s plan to raise some taxes.

To be fair, Obama’s tax increases are very targeted, mostly to the upper-upper class, but you get the point.

What do you think?

The Bush administration is working to persuade the government of Iraq to enable the United States to keep military forces in their country indefinitely. Some Iraqis want us to remain after the country is stabilized, and to establish military bases, while others think a permanent presence of U.S. forces would be like turning Iraq into some kind of American colony. Our supporters in Iraq fear they will be crushed politically and oppressed, if U.S. forces don’t stay to keep the peace, and our detractors want us out as soon as the U.N. Security Council mandate approving their presence expires at the end of the year.

Here at home, the future role of the U.S. military in Iraq is just about as hotly debated, and will be a matter that will drive some voters in the November election. Cynical observers say that President Bush wants a new agreement as soon as possible so that he can declare a military victory in Iraq before he leaves office. Republican presidential candidate John McCain thinks that if our troops remain in Iraq for some time to come, their presence would be similar to the U.S. forces that have remained in Germany and Korea for many decades. He’s taken plenty of flack for that, but the truth is, he isn’t wrong.

I think what’s important to appreciate in this episode, is that whether or not U.S. troops remain in Iraq in the future will be determined by an agreement hammered out between our government and theirs. It isn’t going to be a unilateral decision. We won’t impose bases on Iraq. We are negotiating to establish them, and if that fails, we will depart when our work is done. How many other countries in history have done that, after a military victory?

With commentary on 920 - KXLY, I’m Mike Fitzsimmons