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Mar 5, 2008, 12:46 GMT
Clinton comeback reignites Democratic race
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Older Talkback
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cute?
at least she worked to get where she is not like Baracks wife
By Michael Gerson
...Obama may be defeated in the end because he is inexperienced -- because he has already made some serious errors in the primaries that will exact a cost in the general election.
As a thought experiment, consider the foreign policy achievements of Obama's first 100 days.
Redeeming his Inaugural pledge to 'pay any price, bear any burden, fly any distance to meet with our enemies,' Obama's first major international meeting is with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. National security adviser Samantha Power does her best to talk tough on human rights in preparation for the meeting. But, as Henry Kissinger once said, 'When talks become their own objective, they are at the mercy of the party most prepared to break them off.' Having made Iranian talks 'without precondition' his major foreign policy goal, Obama is left with little leverage to extract concessions, and little choice but to move forward.
The New York Post runs a front-page picture of the Obama/Ahmadinejad handshake under the headline 'Surrender Summit!' The story notes another of Obama's historic firsts: the first American president to meet with a Holocaust denier. The Israeli prime minister publicly asks, 'Why is the American president meeting with a leader who calls us 'filthy bacteria' and threatens to wipe us 'off the map'?' Tens of thousands protest in Tel Aviv, carrying signs reading 'Chamberlain Lives!'
America's moderate Arab allies in the region also feel betrayed, assuming that America is cutting a bilateral deal with Iran that accepts its nuclear ambitions, while leaving the Sunni powers out in the cold. The Egyptian press notes that President Obama's motorcade in Tehran passed near a street named in honor of Khaled Eslamboli, the assassin of President Anwar Sadat.
Shell-shocked by the criticism, the Obama administration moves its forthcoming presidential summit with Raul Castro to the Turks and Caicos, in a vain attempt to limit press scrutiny. The four-minute, Friday evening meeting -- photographers are forbidden -- still results in hundreds of thousands of Cuban protesters in Miami. Spouses of the imprisoned and tortured carry pictures of their loved ones. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praises Obama's visit as a 'public apology for generations of American imperialism and militarism.'
At the same time, the Obama administration is arm-twisting Mexico and Canada into a renegotiation of NAFTA. The Mexican president wonders aloud to the press: 'Why is the new president courting his enemies in the hemisphere while insulting his closest friends?'
Obama's Oval Office speech to the nation on Iraq is initially more successful. As promised, he orders a phased, unconditional withdrawal of combat forces, beginning 'not in six months or one year -- now.' American troops will no longer be embedded in Iraqi combat units or used to combat Iranian influence (all pledges made during his campaign).
Many Americans cheer. But the next day, The Washington Post records stunned disbelief among the troops. A high-ranking officer observes, 'The surest way to break the morale of the military is to undo its achievements and humiliate it on the verge of success.' Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Sunni allies react with panic at another sign of American unsteadiness and retreat from the region. Armed groups of Sunni and Shiites within Iraq begin preparing for a resumption of sectarian conflict. An intercepted al-Qaeda communication talks of 'so much defeat, exhaustion and death -- and then, praise be, this unexpected victory!'
Obama's 100-day agenda would be designed, in part, to improve America's global image. But there is something worse than being unpopular in the world -- and that is being a pleading, panting joke. By simultaneously embracing appeasement, protectionism and retreat, President Obama would manage to make Jimmy Carter look like Teddy Roosevelt.
Which is why President Obama would probably not take these actions -- at least in the form he has pledged. Sitting behind the Resolute desk is a sobering experience that makes foolish campaign promises seem suddenly less binding.
But it is a bad sign for a candidate when the best we can hope is for him to violate his commitments. And that's a good sign for John McCain.
Barack Obama’s wife Michelle is quoted in New Yorker Magazine saying America is a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents, and we’re “just downright mean.”
Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents.
'“The life that I’m talking about that most people are living has gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl. . . . So if you want to pretend like there was some point over the last couple of decades when your lives were easy, I want to meet you!”
Said the woman who attended Ivy league colleges when her test scores were otherwise too low to gain admission...
The Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday said the Democratic Party would commit a “grave injustice” if it seated delegates from Florida and Michigan at the party’s national convention - and he threatened a march on the party’s Washington headquarters…
Sharpton wrote: “I firmly believe that changing the rules now and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic Party’s rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice.”
He added that protestations about being disenfranchised, a point made by [NAACP head Julian] Bond in a separate letter to Dean Tuesday, “should have been made many months ago, before the decision was made to strip these states of their delegates…
He said his National Action Network is discussing a possible march on DNC headquarters, adding, “This smacks of the same stuff we accused the Republicans of in Florida in 2000 . . . changing the rules.”
...historic high househoold wealth - I guess she didn't take economics
Sloth - a military that is 100% volunteer, in the face of war - where's the sloth there Mrs. Obama?
Cynical - these are the same folks who will vote for a man with virtually noe experience i.e. your husband?
Downright mean - the first to jump to help any nation on earth.
This woman is the half empty glass.
Lazy - americans are the most creative and productive workforce on the planet.
is funny.
Not some eastern, provincial, elitist snob who thinks she's been around America and seems to have formed some pretty f--ked up opinions about the population.
I am not a republican but can't imagine Laura Bush making statements like this woman has ,NOW Laura Is a Lady.
you people just jump on quote you read by others. SP4 who the heck are you? You are the cynic!!!!
'you people just jump on quote you read by others.'
Barack Obama’s wife Michelle is quoted in New Yorker Magazine saying America is a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents, and we’re “just downright mean.”
'Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents.' etc...
For someone who was chosen over more qualified students to attend Ivy league colleges, for someone who's thesis looks like it was written in crayon, for someone who was making $400,000 in the private sector, this woman sure whines a lot.
The whole whine fest:
www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/10/080310fa_fact_collins?currentPag e=3
Add that to the: 'for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country' and what do you get: A spoiled malcontent.
March 7, 2008
STEVE HUNTLEY shuntley.cst@gmail.com
'Guys, I mean come on. I just answered like eight questions.'
With those few words, Barack Obama ended a Texas news conference where he had come under tough questioning about influence peddler Tony Rezko from Sun-Times columnists Carol Marin and Lynn Sweet and CBS2 reporter Mike Flannery. In fact, Obama dodged the questions.
Try to imagine President Bush, fleeing questions coming at him fast and furious over a controversy, closing a news conference by saying, 'Come on, I just answered like eight questions.' Democrats in Congress and liberal interest groups would be shouting coverup. The editorial pages of the national newspapers would be thundering outrage. The late night comedians and left-wing blogs would be heaping ridicule on him.
Or contrast Obama's avoidance strategy to John McCain's response to what was universally considered a shoddy New York Times story. It alleged two disillusioned McCain aides eight years ago thought he might have had a romantic relationship with a lobbyist. McCain met with reporters and took every question they had about the article.
Obama is lucky the Rezko affair is a Chicago issue with which national reporters are unfamiliar. And, given what's known today, it's hard to see how the Rezko case could wound Obama's political ambitions. But for that reason, it's hard to understand his reluctance to answer questions from the Chicago investigative reporters who know the Rezko issues best.
Maybe that's something Democratic superdelegates ought to consider as they ponder whether to declare for Obama now or wait to make a decision closer to the Democrats' August convention. They need to know that he will be the strongest candidate for November. In addition to the Rezko issue, Hillary Clinton in recent days has succeeded in raising questions about Obama's experience, his credentials to be commander in chief and his stance on NAFTA. Obama had the momentum going into Texas and Ohio and outspent Clinton two-to-one, but lost.
With those wins, Clinton urges superdelegates to wait for more voting to determine which candidate now has momentum and the best chance of beating McCain. Obama's camp counters the math makes it impossible for her to catch up with his delegate count. But there's the tricky question of what to do about Florida and Michigan, where 2 million Democrats voted but no delegates would be seated because those primaries violated party scheduling rules. A revote is possible, helpful to her.
Obama's premise is that the superdelegates have to ratify as the nominee whichever candidate ends up with the lead in delegates. That looks like a pretty sure thing for him at the moment. But when you count Florida and Michigan, the popular vote is very close with the two candidates separated by 30,000 votes. Even if maybe she can't overcome the delegate gap, Clinton could overtake Obama in the popular vote. Then what should superdelegates do? How do you decide, as the Democratic mantra goes, to count every vote?
What irony that would be for a Democratic Party that has spent the last seven years complaining that Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidency because Bush had the general election equivalent of delegate strength, the Electoral College vote....
And how might Obama's refusal to answer questions about Rezko come in play in deciding his fate?
There is nothing I'd like more than to see Obama and Hillary open Obama's files on Rezko and Clintons Puerto Rican terrorist pardons....
Any facts please ?Or is this smear to be continued without any evidence but wishful thinking from the neocons...
Issues should be education,health care,unemployment,climate change,economical crisis.None of these issues will ever be debated by a republican,for a simple reason,nothing to gain from it .
By all means let's introduce paranoia into the debate.It seems the USA is at war these years.With whom ?The entire world ?
Is there some sort of miracle cure that would free the american people,or at least that part that is responsive to the fox network spin t,to the real situation .There might be .Start with the question,when will this so called war be over ?What are the terms of victory to end this incredible insane weapons buildup .Any realistic perspective on that,beyond a few propagandistic slogans?Share them with us....
When did the fire ever go out of this race? The news media has covered very little else. The only thing that has bee re-kindled here is the Clintons campaign. The race itself has been cliffhanger from day one.
What does that say about Mister Pearson's work here? Clearly, he is a Clintonista.
We are havng a vigorous campaign. The candidates are stating their case, in between all the rhetoric. All those issues are out there. Like good acors, they will save them for the last act.
The primary system has one, undeniable, goal: to weed out the weak. To that end, this is what you are witnessing. Obama and Hirray, by their records in Congress, short one's to be sure, are essentially the same, after the war.
Outside of the war, McCain isn't that far off from either of them in a whole mess of areas. In fact, Hillary and McCain are essentially the same on the war.
McCain's going to the middle. We never do well with these guys, We only win with a conservative, or a conservative poser like Bush and Nixon, so I expect him to lose.
No, on all those issues you love so much, these folks are going to do a lot of the same things i.e. make a show and drop them. Hillary and health care part 2, some troop pullouts for show, mouthing some global warming while greenlighting the trial lawyers to get rich on it...you know the drill.
Obama says he'll pull out of Iraq. All of the troops? What, exactly, does he mean? See the problem...?
I couldn't help but notice your vigourus contribution to the campaign SP4nthanks for informing the electorate that you think Bush is the greatest president to have lived ...for succesfully lying to congress about Iraq?I'm sure that will be very helpfull for others to access your moral standards and yoyr profound democratical principles.Are you a fascist ?Tell me you are not the average republican neocon....
Stop fighting global warming ,because....some lawyers might gain from it,that is the latest gospel from sP4 as usual .Nothing more relevant to the subject ,sp4?
Meanwhiel how do you explain the climate related problems in your own turf,like the california fires,Katryna,the shrinking water levels,lake Mead,the midwest drought,the shrinking ice caps,etc,etc.To be neglected because you pretend some trial lawyers might gain from it .You must be brtaindead to post such nonsense.
Also nice to confront SP4 s obvious ignorance of european health care with the experience of his own country's expats living in Belgium.Read it and tell me again,doesn't a decent health care system is needed for the USA,it would be both cheaper and much better,it might save your lives even:
/213.159.10.107/be/survival/surv_relocation/belgian-healthcare-system-1 493.html
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