|
2007.04.29 Decision '08 // Dem Stupidity Roundup
(And assorted other "Let's give 'em a country to run" topics)
See previous: 2007.04.28 Decision '08 Roundup
Below the fold (newest items at the top):
- Can The Reagan Legacy Be Rekindled?
- Ivy league Intolerance
- Obama the Neocon?
- Who's Afraid of Hillary Clinton?
- A vote for Obama as an offset against racism?
- Hillary is jeered at California convention
- Anonymous Dem Politician: Netroots can be “mean and irrational”
Carl Bernstein Prepping Unauthorized Bio on Hillary Clinton
Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton’s best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is going to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of "discrepancies" in her official story.
Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film "All the President’s Men," has spent eight years researching the unauthorized 640-page biography, "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton."
“Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Senator Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past,” said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, which publishes the book on June 19.
With the thoroughness for which he is famous, Bernstein spoke to more than 200 of Clinton’s friends, colleagues and adversaries.
*** Ed Morrissey has more here.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
[I've moved an excerpt and some comments from here to the top of this post.]
***
So much for John McCain as a good "national security" President: McCain & Coercive Interrogation
Andy McCarthy
Chris Wallace also asked Senator McCain about coercive interrogation in light of the contention by former CIA Director George Tenet that the interrogation methods used by the CIA on high-value al Qaeda detainees saved countless American lives. (It must be noted, Tenet insists these methods did not rise to the level of torture regardless of how cavalierly the public discussion suggests otherwise.)
Here is the McCain/Wallace exchange (from a transcript of the entire McCain interview, available at FoxNews.com):
[...]
Sure, except now here is McCain in the 2005 essay he penned for Newsweek, addressing the "ticking bomb" scenario (italics is mine):
[...]
So, confronted by the do-or-die starkness of a ticking-bomb, McCain acknowledged in 2005 that it "might well" be necessary to use "extreme measures," and that so doing might in fact "save an American city or prevent another 9/11." Was his bottom-line position that coercive interrogation doesn't work? Of course not. It was that such interrogation might very well work but that it would be a mistake to write an exception permitting it into our law because the exception would be abused.
That is a perfectly respectable position — there is a serious (though beneath-the-radar) debate about whether the best way to minimize the use of coercion is (a) to regulate it tightly and prosecute all violations, or (b) categorically ban it and assume that interrogators would know enough to ignore the ban in true emergencies. But, it is just plain bluster to argue, as McCain continues to insist, that coercion never works and he doesn't care what anyone else says. As his answer on the ticking-bomb demonstrates, even he doesn't believe that. ...
This nation owes John McCain a lot, enough that I could almost forgive him for the BCRA fiasco, but as far as I'm concerned this is a show stopper. He's letting his own unpleasant experiences as a POW interfere with his ability to think clearly about an important Long War issue. It's one thing to point out that a uniformed military pilot shot down over enemy territory has a right to humane treatment. Trying to extend that right to the jihadis is quite another matter. I'd still vote for him over a Dhimmicrat but I sincerely hope I'm not faced with that choice.
*** Ivy league Intolerance
Don Surber
A closed mind is a terrible thing to waste.
I see where a group of idiots heckled Alberto Gonzales, the U.S. attorney general, who had returned for a 25th reunion at Harvard Law School. The intolerance by these cretins shouted him down.
Once again, an Ivy League college shows no class whatsoever.
The AP story quoted this guy: “The departure was clearly undignified,” said Thomas Becker, a second-year law student who wore the black hood and orange jumpsuit during the protest. “He looked really annoyed.”
He should be expelled for conduct unbecoming a scholar.
This is how Harvard treats guests.
Sadly, administrators at these overpriced institutions of babysitting are cowards. Consider these reports: ...
*** Obama the Neocon?
Ed Morrissey
Is Barack Obama a neocon? Robert Kagan thinks so, and he makes his case in the Washington Post today: It’s not just international do-goodism. To Obama, everything and everyone everywhere is of strategic concern to the United States. “We cannot hope to shape a world where opportunity outweighs danger unless we ensure that every child, everywhere, is taught to build and not to destroy.” The “security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people.” Realists, call your doctors. ...
Some people argued in the 2004 presidential election that the war on terror needed a Democratic president to give it non-partisan status. As it turned out, the Democrats nominated a poor candidate — but Joe Lieberman may have been attractive for that purpose. Does Obama sound like he could fill Lieberman’s shoes?
Er, no. Obama has been part of the defeat-and-retreat caucus during his entire Senatorial career … all two years of it. He has consistently voted and spoken to pull out of Iraq and to run away from the very terrorists he challenges in this speech. ...
Obama is no neocon, and I think he’d take that as a compliment. He’s also no national-security Democrat, and his idea of staying on the offense only lasts as long as no one dies as a result. War, unfortunately, means something else entirely, ...
***
Just read 'em. I'm busy with other things:
*** Hillary is jeered at California convention
By Stephen Dinan
SAN DIEGO -- Over the jeers of some delegates to California Democrats' state convention yesterday who wanted her to take a tougher stand on Iraq, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said America doesn't know "half the damage" President Bush and his administration have done.
Hours later, Sen. Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton's closest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, had the crowd chanting in support as he promised to force an end to the war.
For the more than 2,000 delegates here in San Diego, the Iraq war remains the critical issue and a key dividing line as they size up their choices for 2008.
Mrs. Clinton, who repeatedly has blamed the president for misleading her into voting in 2002 for the resolution that authorized the war, said ["gee I wish I'd had one of my flunkies read that bill to me before we voted." -- BF]
*** Anonymous Dem Politician: Netroots can be “mean and irrational”
See-Dubya
The SF Chronic looks at the swarm of blog coverage of the California Democratic Convention, and recognizes that blogs have changed the way politics are conducted.
Depite all the money they bring in, it’s not always for the best: But one key state Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of concern for riling the netroots crowd, warns that such efforts are potentially positive and negative.
Netroots commentary can frequently be intensely personal, even “totally mean and irrational,” the strategist said, with some bloggers finding power in their ability “to assassinate political characters online.”
“It’s amplified by the anonymity, and it can be scary that it’s so irresponsible,” the insider said. “And it’s pulling the mainstream media in that direction.”
Who was it that said neither party likes their base, but the Democrats are scared of theirs? ...
|
