Quibbles and Bits 6/30
By LisaB on July 1, 2008 at 8:00 AM in ABC News, Barack Obama, Current Affairs, John McCain
If anyone has seen the movie Becket, Peter O’Toole, as Henry II, screams at a ragged group of mean looking men, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” The king was making a political request. “Do in the bishop without me actually having to ask for it, OK?” Someone does; the king pays a rather nominal political price for seeking the bishop’s death and life goes on.
Except for the bishop, of course.
This tradition of doing in a “troublesome” friend, enemy or frienemy continues with particular transparency in the Obama campaign’s “creative” use of surrogates and those-who-cannot-be-named-surrogates.
1) On June 30th, ABC News blogs that an Obama “informal advisor” (I suppose the better to disassociate from after a nasty bit of work is done) Rand Beers said that Senator McCain doesn’t really have the chops to be a war-time leader because during Vietnam, he was A POW AND DIDN’T REALLY KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON.
“Sadly, Sen. McCain was not available during those times, and I say that with all due respect to him, said informal Obama adviser Rand Beers. “I think that the notion that the members of the Senate who were in the ground forces or who were ashore in Vietnam have a very different view of Vietnam and the cost that you described than John McCain does because he was in isolation essentially for many of those years and did not experience the turmoil here or the challenges that were involved for those of us who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam war.
“So I think, he continued, “to some extent his national security experience in that regard is sadly limited and I think it is reflected in some of the ways that he thinks about how U.S. forces might be committed to conflicts around the world.”
Nice. An “informal advisor” (read: throw away bomb thrower) says something nasty and Obama doesn’t disagree, but suggests he would NEVER go so far:
Obama spokesman Bill Burton reacted to the comments by Beers by saying: “It is Senator Obama’s feeling that Senator McCain’s service was heroic and should not be diminished.”
Asked if the comments by Beers diminished McCain’s service, Burton had no immediate response.
Look for more “informal advisors” to come, blow up, and go.
2) The Christian Science Monitor has a story on planned trips abroad by both presidential candidates.
For Republican John McCain, multiple trips to Iraq, a recent visit to Canada, and a swing through Latin America that begins Tuesday showcase an already strong international profile from his Navy years, followed by more than two decades on the Senate Armed Services Committee. A meeting (and photo op) in Washington last Saturday with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows that Senator McCain doesn’t even need to leave the country to burnish his foreign-policy credentials.
For Democrat Barack Obama, a multinational tour of Europe and the Middle East scheduled for mid-July aims to add some heft to the Illinois senator’s light foreign-policy résumé – and, in Europe at least, tap into the Obamamania that’s already in full flower.
While McCain, it can be argued, is working to shore up support in the hispanic community by courting those voters, Obama’s purposes here are less clear. What voters, exactly, does he think to influence by a trip to Britain, Germany and France?
3) At The Hill, Klaus Marre has a brief piece about the MoveOn.org kerfluffle. Which one you ask? Why the one about General David Petraeus being renamed “General Betray Us” of course. In a “MAJOR SPEECH” Monday, Obama rebuked moveon.org for that advertisement last year.
Of course, Marre notes:
Obama did not vote last year when the Senate approved a measure condemning the controversial Petraeus ad
Naturally. A non-vote at the time of “crisis” is rhetorically morphed into a principled stand months later. He did come rather late to this “rebuking” party, didn’t he?
4) At timesonline.co.uk, Tom Baldwin also covers the pending Obama seven-nation “world tour” [sic]. The article notes that Obama is moving to the center after the primary season:
This [position switch on Iran and Israel] is one of several areas where he is watering down pledges made during the campaign as he pivots back towards the political centre. He now concedes that his condemnation of free trade deals like the Nafta agreement when he was trying to win rust-belt Democratic primary voters was “overheated”.
He has even begun unpicking his promise to withdraw all US combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, saying that he wants a gradual and responsible exit that will take account of conditions on the ground.
With regard to Obama’s popularity in Europe (and loving crowds as the presumed reason for the trip in the first place), the Times had this to say:
The Democratic candidate will be received enthusiastically in Europe, where he is more popular even than in America.
But the next part is interesting:
But there may be a more guarded welcome in the Middle East. Israel, in particular, remains suspicious over his past support for Palestinian causes, as well as his attitude towards Iran, with which he has promised to hold unconditional talks during his first year in the White House.
This has found an echo in Europe. When David Miliband met Mr Obama’s policy team recently, the Foreign Secretary is understood to have raised questions about the implications of undermining the West’s united front on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Despite Obama’s popularity in Europe, European leaders are unsure of Obama’s positions on policies important to them. So, what positions will Obama take?
Quite frankly, there’s no telling. Obama says things that his campaign handlers later refute (see NAFTA). He says things that he, himself, backpedals on later (see NAFTA, Israel, FISA, etc). Will Europe be talking to the serious academic, Barack Obama or his evil twin Baricky? Hard to say.
5) In a related piece, Jennifer Rubin at commentarymagazine.com has something to say about how Barack and his “evil” twin Baricky are confusing people. She adds Paul Krugman to David Brooks as the latest smarty pants to be puzzled by the democratic candidate.
After quoting some of Krugman’s NYT article comparing Obama to (I kid you not) Reagan and B. Clinton, Rubin has this to say:
It is remarkable that now two savvy guys like Krugman and Brooks can’t figure out what Obama is. And neither seems to be playing coy to make a rhetorical point — they really don’t know.
But maybe that’s no accident. Obama has told us there is no there, there. In his book he wrote: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” So perhaps searching for Obama’s “core” is a fool’s errand. He is glib and clever and seized upon a clever formulation (Agent of Change) to attract young and idealistic people longing for meaning. But perhaps that is all there is.
We don’t know how he will act under pressure and in real circumstances demanding definitive action because he has never developed, stuck with and acted upon a fixed set of principles. So voters will have to figure out for themselves which polar opposite vision of Obama is the real one. The fact that both could be in contention is startling and sobering.
Figuring out which Obama is the “real” one, in all likelihood, won’t help much. My guess is both and neither are real. And when you don’t have much of a resume to run on, you’d at least think you would want people to be very clear on who you are and what you offer.
Wouldn’t you? Well, maybe not if you’ve got an evil twin.
Oy-Vey!
Obama to expand Bush’s faith-based programs
By JENNIFER LOVEN – 5 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jqqqF79sCN4HSE6uVrPQVBQpYZVwD91KU7P80
I can’t wait to see how Aravosis and Markos try to spin this one.
Gawd, he’s going to be a disaster.
Well, Trinity probably needs to build a new wing. And think of the money funnel to Jesse Jackson. Sheesh.
Did someone say Kos??? Here ya go ..
hahaha - the K(a)OS, a safe place to state: “I carried water before I was against carrying water for BO.”
Is Obama’s ploy to confuse everyone so much that he only gets the sucker vote?
Those with clear vision will see this man is about no one and nothing - he’s a transparent panderer.
The Wikipedia entry for Kos was illuminating. He’s not your average leftist. On March 17, 2008, he proclaimed that Clinton “doesn’t deserve fairness on this site.” I’m guessing this would have been in response to the supposed racism of the Clintons and in conjunction with Ob’s statement that “the gloves are coming off.” This was met at the “liberal” site I was on with cries for him to beat the bitch, bloody her up real good.
They complain about the McCain “beat the bitch” comment from a woman at a fundraiser. They make this rabid right look like nuns.
why yesireee, we need a way to spread the hate filled Alinsky messages of Trinity and St Sabinas, what better way than with TAXPAYER funds!!!
ANOTHER Dem PROGRESSIVE issue bites the dust from Uhhbama!!
let’s all play Queen and get our flipflopping progressive agenda stompin Uhhbama groove on shall we?!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hMenB9Ywh2Q
Queen
Another One Bites the Dust
The religious pork pipe plumbers lay pipe in to St Sabina and TUCC.
Praise the lord pass the pork.
Money makes the prayers go round.
Speaking of character, don’t you just love Obama’s proposed expansion of faith-based programs? Aside from buying off the religious organizations with an ear-mark and pandering to the religious right, this carries on Bush’s wonderful tradition of injecting relgion into the secular state. It also extends Obama’s demonstrated disregard for the Constitution, in this case by ignoring the establishment clause. All those homeless families should have to sit through a sermon before they get a room and a meal, dontcha know?
I can’t stand Arianna HuffinPuff but this was just brought to my attention:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-obama-moving-to-t_b_110026.html
Memo to Huff: “Where are you going to go?” -Obama.
“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”-Obama
We tried to stop y’all from turning our party over to a psychopath who has subverted what was left of our party to his own purpose. Now it’s up to him to decide what to do with
ourhis party, and his record indicates it will be a bitter disappointment, but, oh yeah, bitter is cool now.See, even he thinks he’s a blank. I had the oddest sensation when I first saw him. It seemed that I could see through him. I even told me kids that.
yes it’s like the YOU HAVE WON A FREE VACATION postcards where all you have to do is listen to our 45 minute CONDO TIME SHARE presentation!!!
What worries me is WHICH religion.
The State Religion.
Larry, in case you missed my post from earlier:
Obama said in his speech yesterday:
“One of my earliest memories is of sitting on my grandfather’s shoulders and watching the astronauts come to shore in Hawaii.”
The astronauts arrived aboard the USS Hornet in July 1969. Obama claims he moved to Indonesia at the age of 6 and returned to live with his grandparents in 1971. Unless Obama was spending summers with his grandparents there is no way he could have seen the USS Hornet arrive in Hawaii.
He needs to write a sequel to his book “Dreams of My Father” entitled “Dreams of My Grandfather and Typical White Grandmother,” based on “my dreams (fantasies) of my typical all-American childhood while living in Jakarta.” Have any of the “facts” OB claims about his formative years been proven? Where’s that Grandma? Why can’t she be interviewed? Where’s the original bc?
He repeats stuff his staff digs up about what might have happened in his life (and of course, always, the rosy picture). He LIES easily and once someone crosses that threshold, there is nothing to hold them back — no fucking conscience.
This post by Anna and the other yesterday in which another poster pointed out that Obama couldn’t have seen astronauts walking in Hawaii after the space flight would make a great bit. Another Obama lie beautifully refuted three different ways.
This timeline shows he was living in Indonesia in 1969.
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/cands08/obamatime.html
Obama is turning into the Forrest Gump of politics. Inserting himself into iconic american scenes throughout history.
Obama is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.
Not to argue for him, but I thought in his book he mentioned that he had spent a summer or two with his grandparents in Hawaii — seem to recall it being mentioned when the decision was made for him to live with them full time.
For the most part, reading his book made me feel sorry for him, as his family seemed a little disfunctional, with his Mom focused on her own persuits, his Grandmother focused on her bank job and his Grandfather taking naps in the afternoon, bringing him to bars and having difficulties providing an income for the family.
Not exactly the picture perfect reflection of small town mid-western values. He seems to play up the Kansas roots a little too much, considering his mother was pretty young when her family left the state, and her father seemed to have had a hard time settling down — it also seems like the Grandmother he threw under the bus was the one who kept the family going.
OH I WAS SO HOPING SOMEONE WOULD NAIL HIM ON THIS
when i heard it I heard bells
another manufactured false memory
someone confirm and do a post pleeeeasssee….
“The astronauts arrived aboard the USS Hornet in July 1969. Obama claims he moved to Indonesia at the age of 6 and returned to live with his grandparents in 1971. Unless Obama was spending summers with his grandparents there is no way he could have seen the USS Hornet arrive in Hawaii”
He didn’t say what mission, or when. Maybe he was home on vacation in 1969. Or perhaps, it was one of these missions:
Apollo 14: Splashdown February 1971 near American Samoa. The module was brought to Hawaii by the USS New Orleans — the astronauts did not come with it, but a young boy might not have known the difference amid the excitement.
Apollo 15: Crew was flown immediately from USS Okinawa to Hickham Air Force Base, Hawaii. August 1971.
Apollo 16: Crew was picked up by USS Ticonderoga and flown to Hickham Air Force Base, Hawaii. April 1972.
How about some coverage on Obama’s announcement that he’s going to EXPAND the Faith Based Initiative and allow Christian employers to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion? Here’s your Constitutional Law professor promoting a totally unconstitutional program that robs average Americans of their hard-earned tax dollars and gives them away to the tune of billions to people who get a preaching license off the Internet, people like Jeremiah Wright and Pat Robertson.
What a great Democratic prez Obama will make, no?
Oh, and we sure don’t want those Clintons anywhere near the WH, those slick people who’ll say anything, do anything to get elected, those CENTRIST Democrats. No, we want Obie–a Republican in sheep’s clothing Democrat.
This entire election is turning into the Twilight Zone, i truly believe the Dem leaders in D. C. want another Republican regime.
Yes. The “new” Democratic Party meme: triangulating is GOOOOOOD. Say and do whatever it takes to WIN.
All the things for which the idiots like Donna Brazille trashed the Clintons, they now support and excuse in Barak Obama.
Wright and Pfleger will be looking for paybacks in the faith-based initiatives.
Bet your bottom dollar on it.
Yup…
The Dems always said they would be trying for those votes, so he picks up the guy who wrote the book on how Bush failed them and starts sounding…The Trumpet.
BWWAAAHAAAAAAA….
The Trumpet
BWAAHAAAAAAAAA…
picturing the cover now..
LOL
Well said, terri. Of all the slings and arrows we will suffer in this outrageous selection, this crap makes me the maddest. Constitutional Law professor my ass. Faith-based vote buying. Faith-based money laundering. He’s not going to be a tax and spend liberal, he’s going to be tax and send to my base who in exchange support Obama and His Party.
maybe we an all be preachers, is there a mail in form somewhere that Pflegler filed out, cause he sure sounds like he missed seminary school most days……
Lisa B, interesting collection of “quibbles and bits”. The challenge here, I think, is to figure out which one is THE EVIL TWIN.
Both?
They are clones and maybe mutiplying as we speak.
Obama already sent his front man Kerry to Israel to pitch for him, but Kerry isn’t all that popular there either. Why does Obama need to send front men out for him? Is Kerry paving the way to try to make it appear that Obama’s ties to Farrahkan, Said, Wright et al have had no influence on Obama?
Obama is neither left nor right wing.
He is a tool of powerful and wealthy forces who have no idealogy.
They seek only to increase their power and wealth.
Obama is the empty suit they hide behind.
Obama is available to the highest bidder..lol!
A True Partisans candidate dream come true.
can we do some Haiku to Uhhbama….
Ode to a Flip Flopper
some great BITTER poetic works could come from this at least….
Chicago style Change® = Republican politics.
1. pay to play (profiteers)
2. pay for play (pulpiteers)
Neat twist on Marx’s From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Here’s a much fuller description of what Obama plans to do re: faith-based initiatives
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/07/obama_to_create_a_presidents_c.html
Bleech.
In other words, rather than address Bush’s turning the Justice Department into a political branch, Obama is going to create a government bureaucracy for the promotion of proper religious charity organizing, just to be helpful. Not. Nothing like a REAL partnership between the White House, aka, the State, and faith-based organizations, aka churches.
And I’m sure having them be “neighborhood partnerships” will be as helpful in accountability as all those $199 campaign contributions.
This guy is a moving target. But I can dam guarantee that the republicans have a few sharp shooters out there waiting on him. If we can’t have Hilleary, then give me John McCain, at least I know where I stand with him. What I can expect and hope for and know that there is no chance in hell for some other things that might really matter to progressives.
With Obama, I don’t know what the fuck to believe, hope for, other than “Change I Can Believe In”, Yea Right….His Ever Changing Empty Ass Mind”, doing and saying whatever his puppet master David Axelrod tell him to say.
Obama is much like our Florida weather, “Change you can believe in”. If the weather report tells you one thing, it’s generally just the opposite.
My quibble…
“Musings on Pollsters: Confessions of a Former Gallup Study Director…”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5xjfed
As a former Gallup study director, I view the polling of Zogby and Gallup in non-technical terms…and recount some of my own experiences witnessing manipulation of data…
Obama is popular in Europe? Did something make Europe stupid–or is it just another lie?
Hi Perry,
Glad to see a familiar name.
I got booted from DU about a week ago for saying that I didn’t know if i could support Obama and was taking a serious look at McCain for the first time.
The more I read here the more I mourn our party. I have always been aware of the tension between our principles and political reality, but…who is this guy?
He may very well have peaked already.
liberalcommontater;
Sorry to hear your skeptisiism was repaid by being shown the door, but it is not surprising.
Stick around, it “gets better and better”.
Good one! I just love coming here on my lunch hour and reading all these zingers. You folks make my day. ;.)))))
From far away, Ob looks good. The entire liberal world is just sick about what’s happened to America. We would all like some magical wand to make it all better. Obama is that wand. The last 8 years have been about the abuse of power, but somehow the topic was changed to racism. If we elect a black president, it absolves us of Abu Ghraib, the Iraq War, etc.
Europe isn’t stupid, just not seeing Obama beyond the anti-Bush (theoretically) telling everyone what they want to hear. Like everything else about this election, is all appearance not substance.
Don’t forget to cast your weekly AOL poll vote.
McCain is ahead with 62%.
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/straw-poll/
Obama’s European Tour- Oy vey!
Last January, Nobama’s crowds of glazed eyed, fainting cult followers even had me brushing up on end-time prophesy.
This summer, if I see throngs of followers amassing at European landmarks ala Hitler, Mussolini, Franco- I will lose it!
You may need to prepare to lose it. My neighbor’s daughter just came back after three years working for a USA company in Paris. She said the Obama mania is very high in Europe and you see young people wearing his tee shirts. She said in her office, the French employees were following the primary here more than their own politics.
They gave her a hard time because she didn’t like him. I imagine that is one reason for his European
tour so you can see his adoring fans there.
You may need to prepare to lose it. My neighbor’s daughter just came back after three years working for a USA company in Paris. She said the Obama mania is very high in Europe and you see young people wearing his tee shirts. She said in her office, the French employees were following the primary here more than their own politics.
They gave her a hard time because she didn’t like him. I imagine that is one reason for his European
tour so you can see his adoring fans there.
The McWar trips have nothing to do with his lobbyist interests of course? Especially given his first one is Columbia? I wonder if his wife will be in attendance?
You seem to oppose Obama for his wobbly opposition on NAFTA but support McCain - a full advocate of it - with no conditions for Labour reform?
Colombia has awful Labour relations and human rights practices (it does not count on here I guess as you ex Dems now support torture). (Killing Union members). I guess it does not matter that McJobloss consultants have lobbied strongly for the Colombia Free Trade Agreement or represent Corporations that will make fortunes from the agreement.
I guess it does not matter that McCain’s chief political adviser, Charlie Black, made $1.6 million in lobbying fees from the Occidental PetroChemical company there. His main lobbying interest being the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. You know the little company that was involved in the bombing of a Colombian village, killing 17 people in 1998 and in 2007 was found to have been “complicit” in the murder of three union leaders.
Peter Madigan, a top Republiscum fundraiser for the McMurder, another Cloumbia Free Trade Lobbyist, whose firm defended President Alvaro Uribe.
Who benefits from the McDeath trips to Columbia? Not Americans.
Not Columbians
2500 murdered Trade Unionists since 1986, 40 last year.
So yeah, contrast the Republiscum trips to Latin America with those being made by Obama to Europe; which is now the second largest trading bloc in the World.
dude,
there is nothing you can say, i mean nothing, that will scare hillary supporters from voting for mccain…
Mccain is by far the better qualified, more trustworthy and more honest candidate than Obama…
but hey, good luck trying to steal enough votes to steal the november election… its going to be so much harder than stealing votes from hillary…
a. hillary
b. mccain
america first!
You are not Hillary supporters. She has disowned the likes of you. If you really supported her - why does she need Obama to help repay her debt? Where are the PUMAs?
Oh right they are running for McWar. Some Democrats you are.
I’m voting for McCain because I want to see Keith Olbermann’s head explode on public television.
Due respect.
no she hasn’t, and never will. she has made it clear we have our own votes, we own our own votes, not barky obambi.
Obama is a danger to the United sTates and to Europe. I didn’t know you all drank the koolaid too.
better stop…you’re drooling.
Hillary or McCain ‘08
NOBAMA EVER
I’m supporting the Constitution and my country by exercising my right to free speech and continuing to be a free thinker. GO crawl back into the pages of Animal Farm and start chanting, 4 legs bad, 2 legs better with your DNC selected thug.
Hey UK, the dems left us behind when they cheated for BO. We don’t care what they do.
http://justsaynodeal.com/
1. You are incapable of judging who is who on this site, so your claim that “we” are not Hillary supporters is laughable because of the omniscience it implies. Further, you seem to think we all think the same, which is curious because it does not explain your presence here.
I, admittedly, am not a Hillary supporter(she’s too far right for my taste), but I am assuredly a Hillary empathizer. I continue to be disgusted by the misogyny that was used against her.
2. You do not speak for her, though you certainly seem to want to do our thinking for us. If she says she disowns the PUMAs, then your claim will hold water, albeit not retroactively.
3. How do you know that no one on this site has contributed to her debt relief? Once again, oh God-like UKforDems, your claim is embarassingly laughable.
Please go do something useful, like abuse some neo-Thatcherites.
Yours,
Steven
Our familyVotes McCain a real man you can Trust!
Party loyalty is not American. We’re not all robots yet.
Think for yourself UK for dems.
NOBAMA!
Obama has consistantly sold out the little guy for his money men.
So why would I believe a man with a political record that can be measured in literally DAYS to suddenly find courage to buck that trend?
And you shouldn’t either. From what I understand your Labour party has pretty much sold out Britains for immigrants. Geez….name me one country that isn’t having the issue of their jobs being given to another set of immigrants?
Yet, you are here trying to sell Obama hopium on globalization issues while he has lied about his stance every time he has opened his mouth? The man with DAYS of government experience, suddenly has the political juice to stop gloablization? When he doesn’t have spine enough to do his job and vote, solely to dupe rubes like you? LOL!
No thanks….you can tell continue to lie to yourself but don’t expect me to fall for it.
As far as, the death squads in Latin America that you decry. Obama has praised the Reagan and the Republican party all over the country at the expense of peace and prosperity, Pres Clinton.
I guess that months on end love fest that Obama had for Reagan Republicans escaped you.
However, your diatribe against McCain’s advisor, while ignoring Obama’s Zbig is so disgustingly disingenuous you should be ashamed of yourself!
Zbig has an ocean of direct victims when compared to Black and a consulting job.
Zbig writes about this Admin and false flag attacks and has actually armed, trained, and planned them against the Soviets.
However, I have read nothing about Black packing stinger missiles for Occidental PetroChemical….have you?
Of course, those type of big picture questions don’t matter. Obama supporters will continue to delude themselves that Obama has the courage to change to govt with his DAYS of govt experience.
Did I drill that in there yet? DAYS of experience?
What major corporation has the mail room clerk ever ‘changed’? LOL
Your ‘hope’ is misplaced that was a Michael J Fox movie not reality.
bad edit…Zbig writes about this admin, Iran, and false flag attacks…
Obama is a liar and a thief.
If you like him so much, take him.
You can have him.
We are now just finishing up eight years
of a fraudulant liar and thief and do not need
another one.
I am a Democrat, and I do not trust this fraud.
I will be voting for McCain.
I will not vote yes to a lying, vote stealing
deceptive, racist pandering back-stabber.
Fear tactics… McCain did not cause anything you speak of to happen in Columbia. You are also neglecting the truth of the very volatile political situation there.
There is much more to loose in South America right now. We need Columbia to partner with us and we need to find a proactive way to stabilize our neighbors to the south.
Why don’t you propose a solution?
More recently, Obama as he traveled through Florida seemed to give some contradictory statements about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the Colombian terrorist group FARC.
On Thursday Obama told the Orlando Sentinel that he would meet with Chavez and “one of the obvious high priorities in my talks with President Hugo Chavez would be the fermentation of anti-American sentiment in Latin America, his support of FARC in Colombia and other issues he would want to talk about.”
OK, so a strong declaration that Chavez is supporting FARC, which Obama intends to push him on.
But then on Friday he said any government supporting FARC should be isolated.
“We will shine a light on any support for the FARC that comes from neighboring governments,” he said in a speech in Miami. “This behavior must be exposed to international condemnation, regional isolation, and - if need be - strong sanctions. It must not stand.”
So he will meet with the leader of a country he simultaneously says should be isolated? Huh?
On Friday in an interview with the Miami Herald, Obama also used language suggesting that he’s not as positive that Venezuela is supporting FARC.
“When I asked him what he would do about the estimated 37,000 Interpol-certified Colombian FARC guerrilla computer files that indicate an active support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to the Colombian rebels, Obama went farther than the Bush administration,” wrote the Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer.
Said Obama: “I think the Organization of American States and the international community should launch an immediate investigation into this situation. We have to hold Venezuela accountable if, in fact, it is trying to ferment terrorist activities in other borders. If Venezuela has violated those rules, we should mobilize all the countries to sanction Venezuela and let them know that that’s not acceptable behavior.”
“If” Venezuela “is trying to ferment terrorist activities in other borders”? Just one day before Obama had asserted that Chavez was supporting FARC in Colombia.
I’ve asked the Obama campaign for a clarification and will get back to you as to what they say.
- jpt
UPDATE: The Obama campaign says there’s nothing unusual about proposing the isolation of a country at the same time a President talks about meeting with its country’s leader. (The Obama campaign cites how the U.S. is talking to North Korea via the Six-Party talks as an example. Though it might be observed, those diplomatic efforts are quite different than a presidential-level meeting.)
As for the statement, and then the very qualified “if” statement about Chavez and FARC, the Obama campaign says Obama is laying out his principles. The U.S. government says all the time, “If Iran continues its nuclear program,” the Obama campaign says. I don’t know. Saying, “if in fact” Venezuela is aiding FARC seemed to me at least to be different than saying “if Chavez continues aiding FARC.” What do you think?
UPDATE 2: So, I just spoke to an Obama campaign foreign policy adviser and this is how he explains any confusion.
Obama, he says, believes that Chavez is supportive of the FARC, both ideologically and tangibly. The Obama campaign disagrees that Obama’s language — “if, in fact, it (Chavez) is trying to ferment terrorist activities in other borders” — is hedging language at all. Obama has been very clear that he believes that Chavez is supportive of the FARC, the adviser says.
As to the question of whether one can pledge to isolate a country while also proposing a presidential-level meeting, the adviser says that I was inaccurate in characterizing Obama as proposing such a meeting — the reality was that Obama was merely acknowledging a willingness to meet.
But “if we are going to isolate the Venezuelans, it may be that we have to engage in a full-on diplomatic strategy with them,” the adviser says. Obama was not saying he, himself, would propose such a meeting, nor that he would necessarily participate in that meeting. When Obama referred to “my talks with President Hugo Chavez,” he did not mean “my talks,” literally (necessarily) — he meant his administration’s talks — “though it could be him engaging in this diplomacy directly and personally,” the adviser says. The point is, all the tools need to be in the diplomacy kit — isolation, willingness to hold presidential meetings, and everything in between.
Got it?
Look for more “informal advisors” to come, blow up, and go.
Suicide bombers for BO.
And when you don’t have much of a resume to run on, you’d at least think you would want people to be very clear on who you are and what you offer.
Wouldn’t you?
Not if you want to change positions at a moment’s notice, depending on whose favor you’re trying to curry.
Here’s how Kos himself classified those who support faith-based initiatives back before it became an Obama plank:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/19/33443/188
Love Beckett, now there is a “Burton” that deserves credit. Great line to sum it all up.
If the euro’s are so excited about ob’s visit - they can keep him, we don’t need him over here.
“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” He is totally right about this, for perhaps the first time in the ob campaign I find myself in full agreement with him. He tells everyone he is a sham and yet they continue to eat the crap cake.
As for his mixing religion and politics there was a news story a few weeks ago about the DNC pushing some inter-faith religious gatherings in Denver. The articles said they were trying to compete with Republicans with the “Dems have belief too” push.
I have nothing against it, but from what I read it was clear they were planning to make it very much a “holier than thou” type of FRONT and use it to play down the horrible press of the wacko obmentors.
Just another tactic that won’t work.
Sure seems like we are in the throws of the first post-modern election and the deconstruction of everything.
You’re onto something. Something’s been bothering me for some time, now, which may lend some light onto the man’s vacuous-ness.
We know that he has a big, empty spot where his dad and step-dads used to be. However, they’re still alive.
I think, though, that it was his relationship with his mom that scarred him for life. He left her in Indonesia, in his early teens (he could only barely have known his little sister, 9 years younger) to live with his grandparents in Hawaii. Did he leave on bad terms? When his mother wasn’t feeling well, & went to Hawaii to the doctor, she discovered that she had cervical cancer. Obama, by then stateside, did not come to see her. When she was dying, he did not come to her bedside. MONTHS after her death, when he happened to be in Hawaii, the family had a little ceremony for her, which he attended. What a guy.
I gleaned this from the Timeonline article on his mother.
That guy doesn’t know who he is.
Thanks for the good work.
Here is a little bit from 6/30..
From Keith Ellison to Barack Obama
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/06/020874.php
Here is a small snip….
In Dreams From My Father, Obama meditates on Farrakhan, finding: “If [black] nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence.” As Steve Sailer notes, Obama “dispassionately rejected Black Nationalism as economically and politically impractical.” In Sailer’s words, Obama concluded that “the Black Muslims are losers, and Obama, with his two Ivy League degrees and boundless ambition, is a winner.”
Obama nevertheless found the functional equivalent of Farrakhan in Jeremiah Wright. Wright had no such reservations regarding Farrakhan. He has an enduring relationship with Farrakhan that goes back at least as far as their joint trip to visit Col. Gadaffi in 1984. In casting his lot with Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama found the useful Christian analogue of the Nation of Islam.
Ellison abandoned his affiliation with the Nation of Islam after he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic endorsement for a state legislative seat as a self-identified member of the Nation of Islam running under the name Keith Ellison-Muhammad in 1998. In 2002, as a Muslim, Ellison won the Democratic endorsement for the legislative seat minus the –Muhammad. This year, after avowing his allegiance to Wright in a celebrated speech, Obama famously cast aside Wright and Trinity United Church under pressure late in the primary process this year.
In seeking their respective nominations, both Ellison and Obama found support among Hamas and friends. The Hamas-related support for Ellison and Obama is indicative of the melding of the left with Islamist forces at home and abroad. It is an alliance that Ellison embodies.
please read it all if you have time…that is just a small snip of the piece.
Obama is a flim-flam man, a bamboozler. He must have learned it on the streets of Chicago. And as for the Evangelicals, they’re more likely to think he’s the Antichrist than any kind of savior. In regard to Europe, I think a lot of the news there is so pro-O that it makes MSNBC look mild! A British woman once called CSPAN complaining about all the negative attacks being made by Hillary! And, of course, some Euros think the U.S. is a copy of apartheid South Africa. Well, I just wish that when Barky goes over there they would KEEP HIM.
The last section of the article on Ellson -Obama was most interesting in light of the two women with head scarves kept from sitting behind Obama recently…..they didn’t want Ellison speaking on his behalf citing Obama’s message as the reason. It really proves that the removal of the women was not a mistake by a young supporter on the campaign but a message from the top. No Muslims in sight of Obama for any reason.
I agree…