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The American Presidency: Getting strong now
Elki
get busyModerator, ClubPA Mod Emeritus
get busyModerator, ClubPA Mod Emeritus
Words you are unlikely to see me post in the next pages of this thread: "X is off-topic," because I'm just going to warn you here. This thread is a bitch to keep up with and mod when it's on-topic, and impossible when people use it as a dumping ground for any political news story. If it's not directly related to Obama v. McCain don't post it.
Think it's really important, and still want to post it?
If you quote a youtube video, throwing a spoiler around it would be appreciated.
AND NO BLUE DOTTING!
OK? Glad we got that cleared up.
here's some stickers for you guys:
Sig:
Av:
They should be transparent so you can actually stick them on things (see my av)
Larison wrote:There seems to be an emerging consensus that Biden said something that was both obviously true and supposedly very politically damaging when he warned/predicted/promised that there would be a serious international testing of Obama once he becomes President. Via Ben Smith, Biden said:It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.â€
“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,†Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you - not financially to help him - we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.â€
At first glance, this seems wholly unremarkable, as there are several places around the world where such a crisis might occur (e.g., Pakistan, Iraq, etc.), and several others where an opportunistic foreign government or terrorist group might think it has a window of opportunity to take advantage of the transfer of power (e.g., North Korea, FARC in Colombia, etc.). New administrations in the recent past have had to face serious crises within the first six to twelve months of taking office. Within three months of becoming President, Mr. Bush had been faced with a serious international incident with the Chinese, and by the end of the year the administration was responding to the 9/11 attacks and organizing the military and diplomatic response. Obviously, the massive security failures that made the 9/11 attacks possible do not inspire confidence in government competence generally, but it is unremarkable to say that there will be a crisis or even a “generated crisis.†What is a “generated crisis†after all if not another regime or group trying to take advantage of what it sees as an opportunity to gain one of its objectives?
So why is this supposed to be something Biden shouldn’t say? From what I have seen, Biden’s remarks are supposed to be damaging because they focus the public’s mind on national security, which is still officially McCain’s preferred ground, and because this is supposed to sow doubts in the minds of voters about whether Obama is, in fact, a safe choice and someone capable of handling such a crisis. This is an odd thing to worry about, since his relatively more measured, sane responses to both the war in Georgia and the financial crisis and his successful handling of foreign policy questions in the debates seem to have removed the doubts from most persuadable voters, while McCain’s bellicose response to Russian actions and his ridiculous flailing in September made clear to most people why they don’t want McCain leading the response in any crisis, generated or not. So Biden’s gaffe seems “epic†to those who thought that the “surge†was a winning issue for McCain, but not to anyone else.
Another way of interpreting the remarks is to imagine what might have happened if they had been uttered in a parallel universe. Here’s Ambinder:If the economy weren’t collapsing, if Barack Obama’s national security credentials were still suspect, if the conflict in Russia and South Osettia had yet to be resolved, then one can envision a scenario where Biden’s comments would be given a gloss a la Gerald Ford’s freeing Eastern Europe.
So…in a world where everything is different from the real world, Biden’s comments might have caused the Obama campaign a lot of grief. Possibly. But why should it matter in electoral terms in this world?
What is remarkable about what Biden was saying as he addressed a crowd of Seattle Obama fans is that he was telling a progressive crowd bluntly that a President Obama is probably going to use military force in the early months in response to a crisis or foreign conflict. Biden was telling them that it is going to seem completely unnecessary and contrary to everything Obama voters think they are getting when they elect him. What could he have meant when he says that the administration is going to need the help of these Seattle progressives (and others like them) “in the community� My guess is that he was saying that all of the antiwar progressives who have flocked to Obama are going to be deeply disillusioned by Obama’s response to said crisis and there is a danger that the administration will become politically isolated as Obama’s core supporters lose confidence in him at a supposedly critical juncture.
Ambinder’s comparison with Ford’s blunder is worth considering a little bit more. The trouble with Ford’s statement about Soviet control of eastern Europe was that it a) was wrong and b) seemed to confirm the worst interpretations of the administration’s actions at the Helsinki Conference. It wasn’t just that Ford slipped up and said the wrong thing, but he vigorously defended his claim in his answer to the follow-up question, as if he believed seriously that the Soviets did not dominate their satellites in Europe. Of course, Ford was attempting to defend the Accords’ language about state sovereignty and territorial integrity and make it seem as if detente did not essentially cede to the Soviets their control over their sphere of influence, when that was, of course, the de facto state of affairs. The purpose of detente policy was to reduce U.S.-Soviet tensions, which the Helsinki Accords did help in doing, but the trouble that Ford had here was that he was defending quite vehemently a polite diplomatic fiction that everyone knew to be largely meaningless in reality. Indeed, Ford’s blunder is almost the exact opposite of what Biden has said–Ford blundered politically by maintaining a (necessary?) diplomatic fiction, while Biden rather undiplomatically stated the obvious reality.
Elki on
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It feels like it's farther away, yet I'm so tired that I wish it was sooner.
However, it probably is legal for the RNC to buy clothing that it allows Sarah Palin to use for a period of time, provided that the RNC clearly maintains ownership of the clothing. At the least, that means she can't keep the wardrobe after the election is over; at most, it might mean that the clothing should be stored on campaign buses rather than in her personal suitcases.
But unless she takes all the clothes back to Alaska come November, there probably isn't reason for the FEC to get involved.
Edit: From a submission to Ambinder:
Then I'm going to the dentist. Go me! We'll see how the lines are in Texas.
GOP stealing talking points from kids, the majority of whom are in the tank.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Edit: Although I guess if he lives in the south he probably has his own gun cabinet and a deer head over his bed.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Pass this on and make sure your friends/family know about the hotline in your state. Information is good!
Where do I find these forums?
http://www.nick.com/mynick/messageboards/viewboard.jhtml?bID=104627
Hahahaha.
hi im kolin im a member on nick my user name is
5koliny please mail me and i think obama is just copying
mcain i dont think obama would be a good presdent
You'll notice pretty much none of it deals with facts on the ground, and all of it boils down to "we've never lost that badly in our traditional red states, therefore we won't."
Obama: First he'll take guns away from children, then teach them how to fuck.
These children are adorable.
Perhaps you didn't read on, but they keep these names in a vault. A vault of voters.
Game over.
I wonder what it's like to raise a little republican.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Do they have The Math?
This machine got GWB elected... twice.
That's got to count for something.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
D'awwwwww.
In both cases, it was a close election with a rather charismatic (or folksy or whatever bullshit you want to use) against a candidate that most people didn't really like.
Say what you want about GWB, but he ran a coherent and on-message campaign. McCain is doing neither...
That machine managed to win 7 out of the last 10 elections.
Admittedly, some of those victories were over weak candidates like McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, and Kerry, but they were victories nonetheless.
Also, Olbermann just played the "cunt/cut" clip.
so much for not being on national tv....
sweet.
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