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Week of March 22, 2009 - March 28, 2009

Obama Unbowed: May Neither the Media nor Afghanistan Bring Him Harm!


More than ever, I see Barack Obama as a President of historic importance, with potential to outstrip even FDR, be in a league with Lincoln.  We sure need him.

 

Iraq was madness almost beyond description, but that doesn't mean that invading Afghanistan was a genius Bush move, either.  Imposing one's will on the latter is legendarily difficult, and most who tried left either in tears or questioning their decision to engage.  For us, the shrewd move would have been to eliminate Bin Laden, his networks and co-conspirators, while also removing antagonisms - not burrowing into bloody mountain combat against ageless warlords. Cut to 2009, and we have made a decision not to abandon those we propped up and led on.  Sad, but understandable.

 

If no success within, say, a year, I wish our President the wisdom to pivot and make decisions as to how get the hell out of the cauldron of blood.  And I don't envy him.

 

It is so awful that he was saddled by Bush with horrible deficits, a near second Great Depression, plus two unnecessary wars (one, an utterly insane misadventure), with spillout now into Pakistan.  What an onerous load it would be, even for the greatest of any nation!

 

And it is despicable, when the media chirps up with smiling idiocy that they heard, e.g., from misanthrope Limbaugh or crazed seditionist Bachmann, that Obama is on a permanent campaign and isn't that worrying?  Did they recklessly dump like that on FDR's fireside chats or did they give the leader the benefit of the doubt in the dark days?

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Overreach THIS!

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  • Location Highly variable within Palearctic
  • Party Bush-Was-Worst-President-Ever Party
  • Politics O.T. {heart} Obama!! Independent, Common Sense. "Yes we can." Able to defend proposition that Bush was worse as President even than consensus title-holder James Buchanan!

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  • Favorite Blogs Josh is a journalist of historic importance, I believe. Still thrilled by his smackdown of the Social Security Bamboozlepalooza! I love Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, especially The Line on Fridays (does that count as a blog? :)), but I don't read the Post much as of August 2009 - too bloody right wing as blog below.
  • Favorite Books I dug all them books on Iraq, for example. State of Denial was pretty rich.
  • Favorite Quotes "What in effect happened was that a very astute, probably the most astute, bureaucratic entrepreneur I've ever run into in my life became the vice president of the United States. He became vice president well before George Bush picked him. And he began to manipulate things from that point on, knowing that he was going to be able to convince this guy to pick him, knowing that he was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush--personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum." -Lawrence Wilkerson ********** Iraq expert predicts: "I think the victory will be rapid, within about three weeks." (John McCain, MSNBC, January 28, 2003.) See, e.g., Crooks and Liars from July 2008, http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/07/29/mccain-fails-mccains-commander-in-chief-test/ ********** "Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don't torture, with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the wrong lesson from history. [A]fter all these years how many convictions actually came out of Guantanamo? How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment. Which means that there is constant effective recruitment of Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against U.S. interests all around the world." - President Barack Obama http://wcco.com/politics/Barack.Obama.Dick.2.965981.html ********** "My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-obama-presidency19-2009apr19,0,1035963.story ********

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Law, diplomacy, international development. Music! One day I woke up and realized I don't want any trolls on my blog here! Shoo, trolls! Shoo!

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