This is not a be scared so vote for Obama thread but I have a serious question

[NNN0LHI]

Does it ever concern you knowing that President Obama is in possession of the nuclear launch codes? I mean does it even cross your mind? And like others I wish such a system was not in the possession of anyone. But the fact is it will be with someone. So forget the wishing we had no nuclear weapons.

So, knowing that someone is going to be in possession of this does it bother you that President Obama is the one who has it? For the record it doesn't bother me that he has them, but actually I lost sleep over the mere thought of Bush/Cheney having control of this for 8 years. But now I hardly ever think about it.

What is your opinion on this?

Don

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_football

Nuclear football

The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States of America to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States.

Contents

According to a Washington Post article, the President is always accompanied by a military aide carrying a "football" with launch codes for nuclear weapons.

It is a metallic Zero Halliburton briefcase carried in a black leather "jacket". The package weighs around 45 pounds (20 kilograms). A small antenna protrudes from the bag near the handle.

In his book Breaking Cover, Bill Gulley, the former director of the White House Military Office wrote:

There are four things in the Football. The Black Book containing the retaliatory options, a book listing classified site locations, a manila folder with eight or ten pages stapled together giving a description of procedures for the Emergency Broadcast System, and a three-by-five inch card with authentication codes. The Black Book was about 9 by 12 inches and had 75 loose-leaf pages printed in black and red. The book with classified site locations was about the same size as the Black Book, and was black. It contained information on sites around the country where the president could be taken in an emergency.

[aSpeckofDust]

1. Nope, doesn't scare me in the slightest. Even the President cannot launch missiles by himself.

[CakeGrrl]

7. I'm perfectly fine with President Obama having them. But as Matt Damon pointed out in 2008,

it's the Sarah Palin types that should scare people.

The President has to agree with the Secretary of Defense, if I'm understanding the process. Would a GOP president's Defense Secretary be a stopgap to their crazy, or be in line with it?

[TheKentuckian]

11. I dunno, we should ask Robert Gates.

[drm604]

12. Since the President appoints the defense secretary...

your second choice is a possibility.

[blindpig]

2. No worries

I mean after Raygun, come on....

I feel quite confident in saying that the people who own this country will not let anyone get too close to the presidency who can't follow orders.

Now if the commies are close to grabbing the whole ball of wax, that's a different story. Not something to worry about in the near term, though by and by....

[FarLeftFist]

3. I feel better knowing he probably wouldn't use them and am very worried of the GOPs willingness to

Use them. The GOP is just itching to nuke Iran. which of course would lead to retaliation.

[Romulox]

4. I have doubts that the nuclear arsenal even exists in the magnitude described to us.

I am not saying that we don't have these weapons, merely that much of our Cold War posing has been proven to be bogus, after the fact.

[NNN0LHI]

10. You don't believe we possess 14 Ohio Class submarines?

[Romulox]

13. We were speaking of nuclear missiles, not subs. nt

[backscatter712]

5. I'd be scared seeing the Football in the hands of a fundie like Perry or Bachmann.

I have the vision of Bill Hicks mentioning this thought, rolling his eyes into the back of his head, holding his hand out as if it were over the Button, saying "Tell me when, Lord! Tell me when! Let me be your servant, Lord!"

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I cannot allow myself to worry about everything, and this is a non-issue.

I think that Obama is probably the most level-headed person who has been in the WH for decades, so I am not concerned.

Now if you would have asked me a few years back about this..... :scared:

[JHB]

8. He's the President. "The Football" has has been with them for decades now.

Frankly I'm less concerned about Obama having control of them than any other present (or recent past) contender.

[sharp_stick]

9. He can't just launch them on a whim

there are several fail-safe points that have to be crossed. I started to believe that the fail-safes actually work when we made it through eight years of GWB tantrums without a single launch.

Can you imagine how close we probably came when shrubbo figured out that Darth Cheney was actually calling the shots. His pudgy little hand was probably slamming that button as fast as the neural connections could be made between what remains of his coke and scotch soaked brain and his arm.

[pipi_k]

14. If by being afraid he has it you mean

that he would do something rash, no.

I'm not at all worried.


OTOH, I was absolutely terrified during those 8 Bush years. For real.

Mainly because of Cheney.

[TwilightGardener]

15. I do not worry one bit about Obama. But should a Republican take office, I'd worry--

because let's face it, I never thought a political party would openly and deliberately wreck the economy for political gain. They've gone to extremes already in harming this country--why would they hesitate to launch total destruction against a perceived enemy, especially if God is telling them to?