Obama’s Hollow “Judgment” and Empty Record
By Joseph Wilson on March 2, 2008 at 7:06 PM in Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Foreign affairs, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Iraq, Joseph Wilson
Originally published at Huffington Post. Reprinted here with my express permission.
__________________________
Barack Obama argues that he deserves the Democratic nomination and Hillary Clinton doesn’t because he possesses superior “judgment,” as he calls it, on the key issues we face as a nation. As definitive proof he offers one speech he made in 2002 during a reelection campaign for an Illinois senate seat in the most liberal district in the state, so liberal that no other position would have been viable. When he made that speech, Obama was not privy to the briefings by, among others, Secretary of State Colin Powell, in support of the Authorization of Use of Military Force as a diplomatic tool to push the international community to impose intrusive inspections on Saddam Hussein.
Would Obama have acted differently had he been in Washington or had he had the benefit of the arguments and the intelligence that the administration was offering to the Congress debating that resolution? During the 2002-2003 timeframe, he was a minor local official uninvolved in the national debate on the war so we can only judge from his own statements prior to the 2008 campaign. Obama repeated these points in a whole host of interviews prior to announcing his candidacy. On July 27, 2004, he told the Chicago Tribune on Iraq: “There’s not much of a difference between my position and George Bush’s position at this stage.” In his book, The Audacity of Hope, published in 2006, he wrote, “…on the merits I didn’t consider the case against war to be cut-and- dried.” And, in 2006, he clearly said, “I’m always careful to say that I was not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn’t have the benefit of US intelligence. And for those who did, it might have led to a different set of choices.”
I was involved in that debate in every step of the effort to prevent this senseless war and I profoundly resent Obama’s distortion of George Bush’s folly into Hillary Clinton’s responsibility. …
I was in the middle of the debate in Washington. Obama wasn’t there. I remember what was said and done. In fact, the administration lied in order to secure support for its war of choice, including cooking the intelligence and misleading Congress about the intent of the authorization. Senator Clinton’s position, stated in her floor speech, was in favor of allowing the United Nations weapons inspectors to complete their mission and to build a broad international coalition. Bush rejected her path. It was his war of choice.
There is no credible reason to conclude that Obama would have acted any differently in voting for the authorization had he been in the Senate at that time. Indeed, he has said as much. The supposed intuitive judgment he exercised in his 2002 speech was nothing more than the pander of a local election campaign, just as his current assertions of superior judgment and scurrilous attacks on Hillary Clinton are a pander to those who now retroactively think the war was a mistake without bothering to acknowledge Senator Clinton’s actual position at the time and instead fantasizing that she was nothing but a Bush clone. Obama willfully encourages and plays off this falsehood.
What should we make of Obama’s other judgments in foreign affairs? Take Afghanistan, for example. It has been evident for some time that our efforts there are going badly and that cooperation and support from our NATO allies would be helpful. As chairman of the subcommittee on Senate Foreign Relations responsible for NATO and Europe, Obama could have used his lofty position actually to engage the issue and pressure the administration to take some action to improve our chance of success in that conflict against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Of course, that would have involved holding hearings, questioning administration witnesses, and taking a position and offering alternatives. That is what we expect that from senators in a democracy. It is called oversight.
But, instead, Obama, by his own admission, offers the excuse that he has been too busy running for president to do anything substantive, such as direct his staff to organize a single hearing. “Well, first of all,” Obama was forced to confess in the Democratic debate in Ohio on February 26, “I became chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign, at the beginning of 2007. So it is true that we haven’t had oversight hearings on Afghanistan.” To date, his subcommittee has held no policy hearings at all — none. At the same time that Obama claimed he was too busy campaigning to do anything substantive, racking up one of the worst attendance records in the Senate, Senator Clinton chaired extensive hearings of the Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health and attended many others as a member of the Armed Service Committee.
As a consequence of Obama’s dereliction of duty on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a feckless administration has had absolutely no oversight as it careens from disaster to disaster in Afghanistan, including the central governments loss of control over 70 percent of the country and yet another bumper crop of opium to fuel the efforts of the Taliban and their terrorist allies. Of course, if you don’t hold hearings, conduct oversight, make recommendations or sponsor legislation, then you have no record to explain or defend and you are free to take whatever position is convenient when attacking those who actually did address issues. Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Obama holds forth on Afghanistan, chiding the administration and our allies as though he’s a profile in courage and not someone who has abandoned his post in establishing accountability.
On Iran and the question of designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, the junior senator from Illinois was not quite so clever at avoiding taking a position. He first co-sponsored the “Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007,” which contained explicit language identifying the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. He subsequently claimed to oppose the Kyl-Lieberman sense of the Senate resolution proposing the same thing. Obama’s accountability problem here is that he didn’t show up for the vote on that resolution — a vote that would have put him on record. Then he declined to sign on to a letter put forward by Senator Clinton making explicit that the resolution could not be used as authority to take military action. All we have is Obama’s rhetoric juxtaposed with his co-sponsorship of a piece of legislation that proposed what he says he opposed.
Obama’s gyrations on Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are not the actions of one imbued with superior intuitive judgment, but rather the machinations of a political opportunist looking to avoid having his fingerprints on any issue that might be controversial, and require real judgment, while preserving his freedom to bludgeon his adversary for actually taking positions as elected office demands. It is hard to discern whether Senator Obama is a man of principle, but it is clear that he is not a man of substance. And that judgment, based on his hollow record, is inescapable.
Thank you, Ambassador Wilson, for laying this out so eloquently and thoroughly.
Mr. Wilson has just made himself irrelevant. Not just by writing this bullshit article that has no real substance. It’s an attack article with nothing there.
But by cross posting this at NoQuarter, the den of Xenophobia, lies and racial attacks, you have just burned any bridges you might have had with true progressives.
We don’t care if you have a different opinion, that is what makes being a progressive so great. Discussing differing opinions.
But once you cross the bridge into the Realm of Larry Johnson and SusanHu, there is no return.
So good bye, Mr. Wilson. You have burnt more than one bridge today.
Dave Dial: have you enlisted alreday? Please hurry and do enlist soon; Obama is getting ready to send several troops to Afghanistan. And judging him from his inaction as the Chairman in the US Senate commitee responsible for NATO I can assure it, well, that his calls will be, ahem, questionable, dangerous. But thank you Dave Dial for your future service to this country. Until then… so long.
Lame, real lame.
And it makes no sense.
Make that argument to some pro-war college Republicans, not someone who has been against the Iraq war from the begining.
And to dismiss the reasoning behind Senator Obama’s oposition to the Iraq War is to dismiss all intellectuals who wanted to hear the exact words Obama said.
So take your empty words and file them under the (L) folder.
Hey Dave, I am an intellectual and a damn good one. My point is that Obama’s anti-war posture is flimsy and nothing but grandiose posturing.
Tell me, what else *anything* besides that single speech has he ever done? Opposed Casey?
No of course not, he voited to reconfirm. Any editorials ? Any *other speeches* ? Any bills or
initiatives in Congress? NO. He even opposed Sen. Kerry’s bill. He did NOTHING as a US Senator. Not even HIS JOB which was responsible for overseeing NATO and its mission in Afghanistan.
So… the only lame mind here is yours.
Incorrect. I would post Senator Obama’s complete resume here, but I think everyone knows he has accomplished a lot. So I’ll just post a link http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132×4678548
One that I have handy, of the many that are out there…
As for the war part, it’s about judgement.
Taking quotes out of context doesn’t diminish that. Those who follow politics know the truth.
The real question is, what the Hell has Hillary done? First Lady? She has less years as a elected legislator than Senator Obama.
What’s her big selling point, I was married to Bill and I’m old?
Judgement - as in getting involved with Rezko?
Judgement - as in not holding one committee meeting on a topic that you purport to consider important in foreign affairs (Afghanistan)?
Judgement - as in admitting that someone who was just elected to the senate in 2004 would have few credentials to run as POTUS and then turning around and doing that very same thing?
And your ridiculous statement about Hillary Clinton’s experience just shows that you have truly been drinking deeply of the Kool-Aid. What it grape, cherry or orange?
You mean “your truth” or the one that will
appear in history books?
We are all aware of the laundry list of bills he hurried up to put out quickly so
he could run for POTUS asap(not that they passed or were of much impact).
Have you read Sean Wilentz (Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University) piece “The Race Man” Please go ahead.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304
Or… Joe Conason piece
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/12/29/obama_europe/
Please go ahead; read them, think and get back to us with some answers.
These pieces and Ambassador Wislon’s piece have substance.
The rest, well the rest is just
the blah blah blah of Murdoch and his pseudo-reporters.
Certainly not the truth.
Obama supporters “cannot handle the truth”
DaveDial….with your attitude, one wonders why you even bother to come here and read anything that’s posted.
This would be my question. Haven’t you burned your own bridge by just showing up here?
Oh well, I’m sure Ambassador Wilson will manage to soldier on without your support.
Uh DD, hey little feller - NATO is in Afghanistan, not Iraq.
I Looked in the “L” File..Sure enough..there was DAVE DIAL with all the other LIARS & LOSERS.. Did you even Read what Ambassador Wilson ..You are Rude..and Illogical with you Comments..
Getting back to reality..Thank you Ambassador Wilson for you excellent Comments..and For making a very valid Point..even the United nations was Influenced by the Manipulations of the Bush/Cheney Administration and Collin Powell..
As far as your Point about Obamas position at that time..One has to remember that he was just a local official in Illinois..that He was associating with TONY REZKO..who was tied to NADHMI AUCHI..both of who were tied to Iraq.and.Saddam Hussein who was till in power,
and Obama was also associating at that time with other Political activists in Illinois..The NOI was around him..anbd they ALL had to have had some INFLUENCE on why The United States should Not attack Iraq..
One also has to consider the Muslim Influences in Baracks Life..when He makes decisions or Comments on Foreign Affairs..
In the Mean time…As Far as BARACK OBAMAS~No Show chairmanship on the Subcommittee on FOREIGN RELATIONS & NATO..with him holding One hearing in over a Year..That may be Important to you..Me and Others Ambassador..but Not Senator Obama..
So What if there are RECORD OPIUM Crops in Afghanistan this Year..and the sale from that DRUG MONEY..is what FUNDS the Taliban and Al Queda..
Oh Yeh..I forgot..Obama suggesting that NEXT YEAR…after He is president…He will solve all that by Bombing..Nuking..Attacking that whole Corner of Persia and take em all Out..
SORRY Ambassador Wilson..People like Dave Dial..”he Spy Who Punked us..” just know more than a Highly qualified Ambassador to Iraq like you..A former Counter Terrorist Deputy Director and CIA Analyist like Larry Johnson..
A Decorated Combat Vet like Colonial Patrick Lang..with a hugh Resume..or even the 28 FLAG OFFICERS who Endorse Hillary Clinton..
Daves been DIALED Alright..
Correction..(soory for not editing0
Dave..Did You even read what Ambassador Wilson Wrote..or the Point He was Making..Dave..You are Rude and Illogical with your Comments…
Not speaking for the Ambassador, Dave, but you’re brilliant mind will be missed.
A fresh perspective like yours, and the clever, incisive, revolutionary approach you take to language, and problem solving, has been an asset to NQ, at least to me.
So, when are you leaving?
(Was that spin? Can I write for the New York Times, now, I lied…)
your, not you’re.
I’m playing Obama, just for fun, and pushing the wrong button, all weekend.
Or maybe that’s Bush.
Sorry.
Excellent Simon LOL thank you.
Oh. My. God. That should leave a mark. I hope the media picks up on this and runs with it. Thank you Ambassador Wilson!!
I’m sure that Ambassador Wilson will be immediately asked to appear on all of the network news programs as well as CNN and MSNBC first thing tomorrow.
Oh sure he will Susan! Not.
Isn’t it amazing how one man, who was a hero when he spoke the truth about Bush becomes a villain when he speaks the truth about Obama?
Ya ever wonder what kind of minds can twist their thinking like that? Lack of intellect or integrity? Or both?
When Obama made these remarks in 2004, it makes one wonder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gexyfVpFMU&eurl=http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/02/26/experience-and-experiences-of-the-rezko-sort/
After all, he is a fairly intelligent person and knew Clinton was the Expected nominee back then even, everyone did!
Reading Rezko Watch today, something started to make some sense!
http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/
the article of “One-degree of separation: Obama’s 2002 speech and Rezko’s power plant in Iraq” leaves valid questions and exploring more I think, based on Obama’s own words again, now in his Iraq 2002 speech:
But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.
Let’s focus on the key words “I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors”.
To say that you know something requires an explanation. It has to be based on information certain—not a belief and certainly not hope. How did Obama know? How could he speak with such certainty?
Obama certainly knew going against Clinton would be a dog fight, so it makes you wonder, as timing is everything! Obama in Nov 2004 says no run for President!
2004 Obama fundraiser financed by wife of Auchi!
2005 Rezko under Fed investigation and facing charges!
2006 Rezko charged!
2006 Obama decides to run for President!
2007 Obama announces run for President!
Question becomes, was Obama ordered to run for President by his money people?
Was the house and the land strip additional perks to force him in light of Rezko’s mounting problems!
Was the newly made position and huge money increase for Michelle Obama at U of Chicago Hospital a measure to bring her onside of Obama’s bagmen?
Did Rezko et Al know they won’t be set free and need their “get out of jail free card” in place now and not in 2012?
This is and would make a very interesting blog!
Thank you for taking the facts and extending them to the results that have been “achieved” by Barack Obama.
And this person wants to be President?
Yes… this is also over at the “IFUCKINGHATEHILLARYPOST” aka HuffingtonPost
Does Obama even know HOW to hold and organize Senate hearing?
Seriously…
Good question. He’ll probably ask his advisors to do that so then he can deny any involvement.
Remember how brilliant Bill Clinton was, remember when a president, and his staff, understood the issues the US faced?
(sigh)
Hillary understands the issues, too.
I’ve heard that some Senators are still frustrated that he never bothered to learn the rules of the Senate. Which you can be 100% sure that Sens. Clinton, Webb, et al. took care to learn right off the bat.
Let’s put it this way: I doubt that Harry Reid would have asked Obama to convene the senate during the holidays. Just a guess. But Reid had no problem asking the very junior Webb to do that job because he knew he’d be responsible enough to take care of it and do it right.
Why on earth is Webb endorsing Obama? I heard he might ask him to be his VP?
Money, most likely.
How much did he get, and who are the respective consultants, isn’t it like have your guy call my guy?
And see why Washington is in a bubble?
LOOK at Auchi, they either don’t see it, are in denial about it, or feel immune fron any fallout.
And that’s just not realistic, Auchi was Saddam’s bagman, that alone should be enough to make him stink, and yet Congresspeople rationalize, and deny.
And if they can’t see that, how the hell can they see anything else, in terms of governing the US, or even the war?
The whole process is polluted, like an ecosystem in decline. The press goes, and the whole thing becomes rotten.
Ambassador Wilson:
I cannot begin to tell you how much I admire both you and your wife, Valerie Wilson. You both are the kind of American’s I am proud to call fellow citizen’s.
Why your words, born of “experience” and “expertise”, are not being given the respect and coverage they deserve by the MSM makes my blood boil!
My mother always said that a person is defined by the company they keep. Therefore, your words of support for Senator Clinton speak volumes to the kind of person she is and why she should not only be the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, but this country’s next President of the United States!!
Larry here’s your problem:
Were you resentful about how Obama twisted Edwards, Biden’s record into blaming them for the war itself?
Obama has has free reign for a year dissing everyone else. Hillary grinned lik the cheshire cat as Obama used that hatchet on the rest of the field.
Now he’s swinging it like a danish battle axe on her and she doesn’t like it.
Danish battle ax?
Did I miss something? I thought you Renaissance Festival folks were too busy with your Star Trek conventions, during the “off” months to concern yourself with the facts; being that you folks are famous for creating “alternate” realities.
I can see from your post that I was right!
He was using the same attacks on Edwards, and Clinton grinned while he perfected the malevalent techniques he is using on her now. Now it’s a much bigger and potent weapon
Hatchet–>Battleaxe.
spitwads—>bazooka.
Only now when it’s too late stop him, do any of the Clinton supporters realize what he has been up to.
btw, I can’t stand Star Trek, and these observations have nothing to do with renaissance fairs…that’s your own imagination.
Wrong target, the bigger target is Auchi, men who deal in the manner he does (bribery, arms, et al, really, read the Pentagon report), and his relationship to American politicians, and therefore the American government.
Right?
The cancer?
Get it?
“He was using the same attacks on Edwards, and Clinton grinned while he perfected the malevalent techniques he is using on her now.”
Clinton isn’t Obama’s mommy. It isn’t up to her to be some kind of gatekeeper, controlling him and trying to make him match his behavior to his rhetoric. If Edwards is bothered, perhaps he should be the one to point out that Obama’s “New politics” are anything but. He’d at least be listened to.
Salo You are right:
Obama has has free reign for a year dissing everyone else
The part your incorrect about is it is not Larry’s problem. It is SO much bigger than that. And guess what? It includes you.
Hillary grinned lik the cheshire cat as Obama used that hatchet on the rest of the field
It is not lost on me that your post fails to respond to what Amb. Wilson had to say,
During one of the earlier debates, Senator Edwards and Senator Clinton where heard in an “offmike” comment to each other saying they wanted the race to winnow down to just them. They both thought the JR. Senator from Illinois was not qualified. Also during a majority of the debates Senator Obama, Senator Clinton and John Edwards said quote “I agree with Joe” unquote.
What you are saying is Senator Obama agrees with those he would wield a “danish battle axe” against those he agrees with.. That speaks volumes about Senator Obama’s character and his inability to lead when the rubber hits the road.
realize what he has been up to.
This is going to be your worst nightmare when you do and as I said ,You won’t be alone.
As my Klingon brother said,”taHqeq, HIjol petaQ!“
He’s not swinging anything, he’s lying, and he’s deluded, and the press is enabling him, by not asking the questions everyone but Kos is asking.
The dangerous thing, though, is he might have some heavy duty information hidden in his closet.
And why this issue, in regard to the war?
Others may buy Obama’s spun sugar, the denial easier to accept, (oh no, Obama, NO senator would be involved with a man like Auchi) the truth too difficult to comprehend, but the cancer doesn’t cure itself, it gets worse.
So it has to be confronted.
Auchi was Saddam’s bagman, and Auchi is connected to Obama, and Gov Blagojevich of Il, having given both money, either directly, or through Rezko.
A man known for bribing government officials the world over, CONVICTED of bribery in France, do you think he wants something from Obama, or worse, got something from Obama?
And if that is the case, Obama is Auchi’s slave, forever, isn’t he?
Strong Kung Fu, Ambassador Wilson.
Sponsoring a bill normally implies you support it, or at a minimum believe it deserves a vote and care enough to show up to cast one.
I was curious what your reaction was to Senator Clinton’s recent speech.
February 25, 2008
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Remarks on Foreign Policy at George Washington University
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/speech/view/?id=6196
This is probably a prophetic statement about Obama. It nails all the discontents that I have about him and his MO. However he appears to be the presumtive nominee. It’s quite possible that he has thought through the process and has deliberately crafted a light resume for his purposes–There’s nothing in particular you can attack him on.
Salo -
You’re right. Barack Obama should have been called out earlier for his B.S. against Edwards and Biden.
You’re correct about him getting a free pass re: his fairy tale existence.
Larry, Susan, and others posting here are not to blame for the utter failure of the 4th Estate.
Out of curiosity, the response to this statement from Obama’s camp is ballistic, really hitting a nerve, going apeshit.
Why is that, I see it as fairly innocuous.
Ambassador Wilson: I, too, have utmost respect for you and your wife. What the Bush administration did to you is a shame one simply cannot fathom.
As for Senator Obama’s record, it lacks in so many ways. He claims that he will bridge the differences between the parties and unify the country. After examining the Senator’s record both in the Illinois legislature and in the U.S. Congress, one of my colleagues found that there is absolutely no evidence of Senator Obama as uniting the party factions.You may want to take a look at this at:
http://www.reflectivepundit.com/reflectivepundit/2008/02/obama-the-audac.html
And if the press had done it’s job, Mrs Wilson would have seen justice by now.
It just is not OK for the press to abdicate it’s responsibility, becoming an organ of propaganda, little lap dogs to the wealthy and powerful.
Ever see Britney Spears with that little rat dog she carries in her purse?
That’s the American press, in the politician’s hand bag.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/10/08/nbritney.jpg
Britney and the American press go for a walk.
Recently Clinton has been disparaged for not ever having dealt with a crisis. I’ve seen it repeatedly in the press. Russert talked about her never having faced a crisis today.
If you can forward this to Clinton, she should point out her excellent performance on 9/11 and 9/12. Thats a good indication of a real crisis and her role in the response was first class.
The press appear to have disappeared her responce and behaviour at that time.
That’s a great point!! You should write this to them directly. You’ll find an address in their website
(”Send us your tips” at the top right corner under Hillary Hub).
It really does me alot of good to see that Ambassador Wilson and Larry Johnson, and too many others to mention, have the same positions I have concerning Obama, especially considering all of the nasty attacks I have taken for posting critical comments about Obama, many of which came from people who I thought were my friends.
Somehow, I became a racist, even though my Mother and Brother have darker skin than Obama due to my own mixed race heritage, and even though each week I purchase and deliver food to the Red Cross Homeless Shelter which I also volunteer at, among other charities I donate to which overwhelmingly benefit the black community.
I’m just a regular guy posting anonymous comments on a few blogs, so I’m not putting my neck on the line the way Johnson and Wilson and many others are.
But I just want you to know that I appreciate what you are doing and the positive effect it has on me.
My memory is maybe wrong, but I recall Bush claiming he needed no more authority to invade Iraq, that the Afghanistan authorization covered terrorist activity there, and the fact of no inspectors into palaces was enough ‘proof.’ I remember that only that bill that stipulated inspectors forced Saddam’s hand, and he then let them into the palaces and anywhere. And that would have stopped the invasion from taking place, no wmd, no invasion. Obama has said he actually believed the WMD fairy tale, which calls his judgment into account. Also, if he has such great judgement, how did he do a business deal with Tony Rezco? And why does he think we can keep using private armies over there if his bill to hold them legally responsible passes? How would that get us out of Iraq, if we leave our ‘business’ contracts in place with taxpayer financed private armies behind to protect, them? She’s for outlawing private armies and keeping military activities in the real military and she’s for getting everything and everyone out, and canceling Bush’s no bid contracts. It seems to me that she understands the situation and knows what we need to do, and he thinks that since the war has taken place it’s okay to keep private armies and oil business there. That is still an occupation. HIs judgement seems very poor to me.
And Washington, upon reading that line, shat.
The other point I keep remembering is Saddam made an attempt to surrender, through back channels, and Bush/Cheney/PNAC said no, they WANTED military action, an American military presence in Iraq.
Saddam did not want war, I suppose his money launderer, Auchi, among others, did not, either.
And there were no WMD, it is my belief the white house knew this, going in, the WMD only a pretext for illegally invading Iraq.
Wolfowitz said this, too, didn’t he?
Off Topic
Did anyone see 60 minutes tonight. Again, completely one-sided. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are interviewed. But, Steve Croft brings up the whole “Obama is really a Muslim” internet rumor and then puts Senator Clinton on the spot to ask her ” do you believe he is a Muslim?” Then they show that stupid picture of him again. Nothing about Tony Rezko, him not holding one committee hearing, his lack of experience, his “I was against the war before I was for it.”
The only impression that one would be left with, who hadn’t been following the very one-sided media slant would be that Obama is the one getting smeared
It all goes to who owns the media, and their interest in the American presidency. The whole media culture is rancid, isn’t it, not healthy, or vibrant, at all, the integrity of the reporters mirroring the politicians they purport to cover.
I guess like anything new, you either get it, or you don’t.
All I can say is, what else do you need to be president than “a noun, a verb and a 2002 speech”?
A great line, and sums up Obama, Bush, and those behind them, perfectly.
gqmartinez: it’s a great line !! Do you mind if I adopt it? NQ should use it in their top banner.
Thank you Ambassador Wilson. It is absurd that BO is allowed by a complicit and blind press to continue to assert Hillary wasn’t against the war until she started running for pres. In fact, she was as clear as any of the congress persons voting for the war that her vote was not meant to approve war but it reflected a sophisticated understanding of presidential powers and the need to have US military, and economic backing when negotiating with hostile nations. BO is reckless in his speech, in his actions — not overseeing NATO and talking to Canada discounting his campaign speech. BO right on one day, Hillary right on day one.
He only gets questions that refer to lies he’s told about her. Of course no tony rexco questions, although it did get into today’s NYT. But, she can take it, all of this and she gets more than fifty percent of the democrat’s votes and she may still win. they’ve gone so far that it’s impossible to not see, unless you’re a Hillary hater, in which case you don’t mind because you think she has it ‘coming’ to her, the uppity ‘wife.’
Thank you Ambassador Wilson for laying it out so well. I really enjoyed your book and was even more furious when on reading it I discovered that you are a true American hero for what you did in Iraq.
I’m not nearly as knowledgeable about foreign policy as I would like to be, but am trying to learn. I don’t have to look any further than the deals that Obama has involved himself with here in the states to realize that he has very little if any judgment that I would consider in even a consistently fair range. The only thing I can’t figure out is if it is stupidity or arrogance or a combination of both. It’s one thing to be corrupt, quite another to get caught.
Thanks again, you and your wife are true heros! I hope in spite of how things have shaken out you guys and your twins will have/are having a wonderful life !
I actually mentioned this as comments several times on this blog. The Ambassador is correct. This is the heart of his hollow judgment concerning the Iraq War decision. And considering his 100% party loyal voting record there is no reason to believe that Obama would have voted any differently than Hillary Clinton.
His so-called judgement was what Hillary has called it - just a speech. He never in a position to evaluate the intell information available and therefore has as much credibility based on judgment and you and me.
I’d still want to see the connections to Auchi fully explored.
I think Obama can be bought for the price of an upscale Chicago house.
IMO, of course.
No doubt. If Obama get the nomination you know that right wing bloggers will be all over it 24/7 and his chances of election will be zero.
“any bridges you might have had with true progressives.”
Yo, dude. (Or dudette).
Real progressives support universal health care, not the wimpy centrist plan the hope candidate is touting.
So you’re not a true progressive, or even a progressive. Are you even a Democrat?
Thank you Ambasador Wilson. Prior to reading this resoned comment I was going to hold my nose and vote for Obama in November if he won the Democratic nomination. I can no longer do that.
There is no doubt in my mind that Obama is as “feckless” as the Bush Adminsitration. Thank you, Amb. Wilson, for this piece. I wish Hillary would do an ad with just these points…
” I profoundly resent Obama’s distortion of George Bush’s folly into Hillary Clinton’s responsibility.”
Thank you so much Ambassador Wilson for suming up so succinctly how I feel. It’s political posturing. It’s a lie!
“It’s quite possible that he has thought through the process and has deliberately crafted a light resume for his purposes….”
And of this I am sure: he’s thought about this for a VERY LONG TIME.
I’d say the starting point was when he arrived at Columbia U. Strange how he doesn’t talk about his time nor does he seemed to have made an imprint on campus. No associations with fellow students? No memberships in Student Activities with all that happens on that campus what with lectures, symposiums, conferences, etc? No mingling even with black students? No dating???? Columbia has a very VIBRANT student social life. It’s NYC for heaven’s sake! Even the studious party a little bit. No way to avoid it. Too much going on to not be the least bit curious. What is up with that???
Which is why I believe there’s been careful calculation towards this historic run. Very careful and cunning. Follow the missing pieces…..
Thank you Ambassador Wilson for such insightful and eloquent analysis of the dangerous flaws candidate Obama has. I happen to think his MIA as Chairman
of the FR subcommittee on Europe are close to impeachable offenses to this country.
Today, we heard a large number of Flag Officers describe their endoresemnt and support of Sen. Clinton as Commander in Chief. Listening to them was a unique experience.
But these have not been reported anywehre in the MSM.
There none but a single article in the Boston Globe about Gen. Hugh Shelton’s endorsement.
On the other hand we read day after day in the front pages of the newspapers all the irrelelvant ( eg. Russell Simmons !) endorsements Sen. Obama gets.
So, how can be ensure your article is read by the people of this country? Would the papers
publish it as an OpEd ?
Your voice needs to be heard loud and clear before is too late…
What can we do?
Say it like it’s so, Ambassador Joe, because you’re right, it is.
Speaking of judgements, my 2 cents worth:
If Obama had been in the U.S. Senate for the 2002 AUFI vote, what would he have done? We don’t know! How could we, because in his own words, neither does he!
In addition to, “And, in 2006, he clearly said, ‘I’m always careful to say that I was not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn’t have the benefit of US intelligence’ “; On July 26, 2004, the NYT quoted him saying, “But, I’m not privy to Senate intelligence reports,” Mr. Obama said. ”What would I have done? I don’t know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made.”
So it’s pretty clear isn’t it? In his own words, he doesn’t know how he would have voted.
Meanwhile, he uses these I-don’t-know-statements to excuse Kerry when either he’s supporting Kerry, or Kerry’s supporting him. But then flips and claims to have higher wisdom above and beyond Clinton for doing vitually the same thing as Kerry and a number of others.
So my question is, how can we trust the judgement of Obama for president, who doesn’t trust the judgement of Clinton, on an issue where her judgement is in turn virutally the same as the judgement of Kerry whose judgement he does trust?
What exactly is Obama’s judgement anyway?
Sounds to me like the answer is a non-sequitor.
ybnormal,
Excellent.
Obama doesn’t stop… Now he is talking about the NIE of 2002 (as if he knew anything about it) and telling people in Ohio Sen. Rockefeller voteed against the war… Here is an account from Clinton’s webpage:
Sen. Obama Misleads on Hillary, NIE
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Today in Ohio, Sen. Obama attacked Hillary Clinton by making a highly misleading statement about the Iraq war resolution:
Now I have to say, when it came to making the most important foreign policy decision of our generation - the decision to invade Iraq - Senator Clinton got it wrong. She didn’t read the National Intelligence Estimate. Jay Rockefeller read it, but she didn’t read it.
Sen. Rockefeller voted for the war resolution, not against it, as Sen. Obama suggested to the people of Ohio. On national television, his top strategist also falsely claimed that Sen. Rockefeller voted against the war resolution.
Sen. Clinton explained to Tim Russert, “I was fully briefed by the people who wrote [the NIE]. I was briefed by the people from, you know, the State Department, the CIA, the Department of Defense.” Sen. John Kerry, a supporter of the Obama campaign, echoed these sentiments this summer saying, “I didn’t read the full report because I got it from them straight.”
What just kills me is that all the evidence the media need to raise questions about Obama’s judgment and record is right out in the open - it doesn’t even need any digging or real investigation; it just needs someone to write the stories and deliver tham.
I don’t understand why no one seems to want to ask why it is that this ability to effect transformative change has not been in evidence in the three years he has been a member of the United States Senate. Why hasn’t he worked that magic to persuade his Republican friends to pass S-CHIP, to refuse to give telecom immunity? If he has this magic persuasional power, why hasn’t he used it in the one place where it could have made a difference? (the answer is, that if he tried and failed, he couldn’t run on this amazing power). Why hasn’t he taken the time to hold some oversight hearings?
I am sick to death of Obama and his surrogates, when questioned about the lack of a record, responding that he has been very clear in his statements on (pick your issue), on the campaign trail and in his speeches.
Talk is cheap. And talk seems to be all this man knows how to do.
I heard Obama blasting Clinton again today for not reading the NIE before she voted on the AUMF. What no one seems to want to tell the American public is something I learned from reading Charlie Savage’s book, Takeover: once someone read classified material, such as that NIE, he or she was forbidden to speak about anything in it - even information that was already part of the public domain - so they couldn’t take their concerns to the people, couldn’t talk to their colleagues, couldn’t go on MTP or This Week and say anything about anything. It paralyzed them to the point where I think many members of Congress chose not to read the materials so as not to be silenced. It was very diabolical - so when you read that there were a lot of people who didn’t read that NIE - or many other materials - that may have been why.
An Obama nomination has the potential to be a disaster.
“An Obama nomination has the potential to be a disaster.”
Do “Obama nomination” and “Abomination” sound the same?
Does that mean we are going to have a
OBAMA~NATION..??
It has been speculated for months now that the Tallaban will have a surge into Afgan come spring or summer!
Senator Obama accepting his post as Chair of forgeign relations including Oversights on NATO and Obama’s failure to act upon his Commitee and only use it for a resume addition is not only dispicable, but amounts to nothing short of murder by neglect when the Talaban does surge!
Senator Obama did not do the repectable thing in resigning from his post as Chairman, he glorified it on empty grounds!
Why with everything that has been predicted going on, and lives at risk hasn’t any Washington Senator demanded Obama to resign from this commitee?
Are the Republicasn hoping the surge takes place and having Obama as the Democrat nominee, they have a major case of his inability?
What about the brave people there fighting, even the NATO troops there, all the family’s, is this the way to the Whitehouse, by purposely neglecting and do nothing politics?
Get this guy removed now, the world isn’t waiting for a messiah named Obama, it is moving on and it will destroy America even more throughout the world!
Before I even read Joe Wilson’s articles, he’s the one that inspired me to start questioning Obama.
We just had a messiah president, one so full of himself he believes he is above the law. He thinks it is acceptable to expose a CIA agent, to ostracize the Wilson’s into silence, and to fire attorney’s who won’t prosecute for political purposes.
With Obama and his supporters it’s the same thing all over again. This man is perfect and can do no wrong. If we aren’t even allowed to discuss Obama’s faults now, we certainly won’t be holding him accountable as president. Attempting to even question the “Obama will” already leads to threats and retaliation.
Excellent article!
Obama has not done his job as a US Senator and now wants a meaga promotion.
Obama can’t be trusted.
I support Hillary Clinton!
She is smart, capable and proven. She will be a steady and courageous leader. She has the political experience to make change in Washington. She has proven her ability to reach concensus with republicans. She has faced public and personal defeats in her life and has prover herself resilient and responsive to these trials. I know she is ready to be the president of the United States of America.
I believe Barack Obama’s supporters vote for him for the following reasons:
He inspires certain feelings in them that invoke such admirable emotions as hope, faith, enthusiasm, etc. They want to believe that those feelings will transfer into reality.
I am a realist and a scientist. I need proof. Hillary Clinton has proven herself a strong leader. Barack Obama has not.
I think that Mr. Obama’s “handlers” pushed him (willingly) into a campaign for a job for which he is not prepared. I can imagine the long meetings about his readiness and experience. I can imagine them telling him … “if you wait 4 or 8 years you will have 100’s of Senate votes you have to defend … some of them controversial