2008 “Playing With Fire”
posted by on October 11 at 12:15 PM
Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights legend who John McCain has said he admires, today issued a harsh warning to McCain over the tone of his rallies:
What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse…George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama…
As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.
John McCain’s response? He’s leaning right into it:
Congressman John Lewis’ comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama’s record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.
UPDATE: The Obama campaign has now issued a response of its own that tries to thread the needle, disagreeing with the George Wallace comparison but condemning the “hateful rhetoric” from McCain’s crowds and the “irresponsible charges” from Sarah Palin.
Sen. Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies.But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for president of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists.’
As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Sen. Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead.
Americans are simply asking: Who is Barack Obama?
Who is this man who did not win any primaries in his own party?
Who is this person who spent two years as a Senator, doing nothing, who is suddenly being force fed by the media?
We don't know Barack Obama.
His biography is suspicious. He claimed to be poor, but his origins are upper middle class.
We know he is in the pocket of the Corn Lobby.
How can he "change" when all his friends are the same old crowd from the Sixties? I rarely hear of his friends who are his own age...they are all all more like Biden and Kennedy's age.
I lol'd.
Can we now stop pretending that McCain is now or ever has been honorable?
And remember, like Al Qaeda and the Serbians, John McCain will arm you to smash the people he hates the most.
Come to our Country First Victory Rally this weekend and get a free semi-aut nine.
Hey Bailo dude:
Here's what the free market says about Obama:
http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/trading/t_index.jsp?selConID=409933
that says we know him very well and he's going to win.
And hey, why do you lie so much?
You say "Americans" are asking who is Obama -- yeah a minority are. The majority are folks who know him well that's why he's leading int he polls.
"Who is this man who did not win any primaries in his own party?"
Bailo, are you lyin gon purpose you know very well he wons lots and lots of primaries in his own party.
You moron.
"Who is this person who spent two years as a Senator, doing nothing,"
he did about as much as other senators did but in any event you're losing this debate as he is winning and most Americans know him just fine
"who is suddenly being force fed by the media?"
oh yes. if other people disagree with you the process must be unfair. Are you going to rise up in armed revoultion dude? Shut up, when you lose an election it's too fucking bad, stop making excuses and avoiding the responsibility the GOP has for tanking our nation and being so unpopular.
What happened to your notion of accountbility? GOP rule results in an America that is weaker abroad, can't catch OBL, and they wreck our economy here at home.
Most Americans see this and so are going to vote against GOP.
That's the way it should work, if you believe in personal responsibility.
"We don't know Barack Obama."
Yes you do liwar he's been the most vetted politician of any in the last two years. What don't you know?
"His biography is suspicious. He claimed to be poor, but his origins are upper middle class." Wow. You caught a politician in a bit of a stretch? Oh. My. God. Meanwhile the McCain bio includes dumping three planes because he didn't follow the rules being leader of the bad boys pack flouting the rules dropping his plane at first chance in Nam like a bad flyer, then giving up under torture after 4 days like a weakling then consorting with Keating and wrecking S and Ls then in general supporting GOP policies that have brought our country to wrack and ruin along the way consorting with known cirminals like North, Nixon, Bush Cheney Gonzalez...
"We know he is in the pocket of the Corn Lobby."
Oh. My. God. You sure making us scared Bailo. This is the best you can do?
"How can he "change" when all his friends are the same old crowd from the Sixties?"
Uj because he's a Dem with a different philosphy and he'll win with a big majority...the way the democartic process intends....
"I rarely hear of his friends who are his own age...they are all all more like Biden and Kennedy's age."
Are you hallucinating? Not true and so what? This is "evidence" he gets along with folks older thanhim and makes friends among folks who came before him?
Ow wow I'm terrified.
Unity most of y'all-
It's not a shame that this is what John McCain has become. It's a shame that it took so long for it to come out.
I know Barack Obama because I read the news. Perhaps the people who've been spoonfed Faux News and the like remain ignorant.
#4
You don't make any sense.
Serbs fought against al-Qaeda in Bosnia. That is a poor attempt at transference.
Besides what does that have to do with the current election.
Oops, wrong way-- KLA, not the serbs. He hated the serbs as much as he hates the vietnamese (I think he has a funny word for them).
And he has long supported "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan, the same freedom fighters armed by the US government in the 80s who eventually became, oh, I forget the name of that group.
I have no clue, however, how the way he acts will determine the direction his foreign policy takes should he pull a hail mary and get elected.
So the Republican's are racist. Gee, people are just NOW figuring that out? God, America really does deserve a McCain Presidency. Maybe a generation or two of totalitarian dictatorship will make us realize how important freedom is.
"You have a republic;if you can keep it." Ben Franklin
bailo @1, the only person asking "who is barack obama" is you bucket head. everyone else has read a newspaper.
@1: economics and class are two separate things. My family went to the food bank when I was in my teens because my father was unemployed but we are full on members of the intellectual middle class. Did that experience give me empathy for those who are having a tough time making ends meet? Yes. Do I think more carefully about my resources because I know what it's like to have to make a budget stretch? Yes. That's all Obama is saying when he talks about how his mother (who, btw, was just a little older than Bristol Palin when she had Barack) was on food stamps. He comes from humble roots-- where they also valued opportunity and education and thought. He is the American story, working his way up without the benefit of Daddy's connections. McCain? Privilege all the way.
As for McCain attacking LEWIS, I've noticed this, too-- somehow it became against the rules to point out anything but the fact that McCain was a POW and a maverick and Palin is from Alaska and... a maverick. All other topics are immediately labeled a shocking attack. Third grade rules, much? "I'm rubber and you're glue, anything you say bounces off me and sticks to you!" Can we please end this generation-long aversion to ideas and civil discourse?
John Lewis, and other democrats cry race card, and other accusations, in response to appropriate inquiries and challenges to Obama's qualifications and background. Why should we continue to keep giving Obama a free pass (like the media does) when he and his supporters are responsible for:
Obama wants to
create a National Security Force
with the size and budget of our entire military to
control American citizens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igDoHZ0hVUY
Obama wants to eliminate our nuclear arsonal,
and render us defenseless against foreign tyrants.
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/07/16/obama-hey-lets-eliminate-nuclear-weapons/
Obama wants to eliminate private gun ownership,
and do away with the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5770
Are foreign donations powering the Obama campaign?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/10/are_foreign_donations_powering.html
Obama's appeal in the Muslim world
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0613/p09s02-coop.html
Pro-Obama, Muslim-led voter registration in mosques
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Election2008/Default.aspx?id=2738844
Palestinians phone bank for Obama
http://townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/05/13/palestinians_phonebank_for_obama
We are loosing our right to Free Speech, the 1st Amendment
to the Constitution, when the media is in the tank for Obama
http://www.mediaresearch.org/
Obama wants to change our National Anthem
http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8430006241001/m/6860048971001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvxiG56M-eU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwog6E08CFU
Obama chose to align himself with anti-American racist, Jeremiah Wright
for TWENTY YEARS ... along with anti-American Ferrahkan, and Ayers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5ixmT83JE
ACORN VOTER FRAUD, Obama cheats to get elected
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/09/01/more-milwaukee-voter-fraud-name-party
Obama's connection with unrepentant terrorist William Ayers
http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2008/10/devastating_vid.php
http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=node/9639
Obama Youth organize ...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=obama+youth+junior+fraternity+regiment&search_type=&aq=f
THE ABOVE LIST IS NOT CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN
KEEP AMERICA FREE AND STRONG,
ELECT MCCAIN/PALIN IN NOVEMBER
Howard @13:
When you can cite a reliable source, that is to say, not Youtube videos, or an unbiased source that isn't a conservative rag, we can talk.
Until then, sit down.
Eli,
Thanks for the post...
Cancelling out everything, noise, static chatter, frequency vibrations....except of course the vaulted silence of very large real estate corporations and, the subsequent entitlements that their power base influences, brings every concerned debaters leveling processes up to a relatively simple form of generalized communicative language structure.
The simple anger disruptions of (imagine a firecracker blowing off in a safe enviorn)word conotator, shoveling around dissention just to watch in glee the inability of SLOG-gers, pro and amature alike are what the Utility companies are making bankloads of consumer credits with labor negotiated trade agreemnets in the fight of their life with Free Market World Trade benefits going predominantly to the Lobbiests and their speech writers.
You can see this model working every kind of advertisement and slap dashed together punditry on the political trail in the last couple of weeks to the elections... with the eception to of course... those places You are able to entertain your self in the relative enviornment with which you and your peers agree to co-mingle.
Simple right?
Well, this of course is elementarydear watchsons and watchgirls....
Because keeping the
"eye 'on' the ball again"
and again, to make sure you don't fall "off" your hobby horse....
is what politics is all about.
Can anybody give Karl Rove an A-men?
didn't think so, did he?
Reading some of the above I ask the Stranger AGAIN; WHY ARE WE NOT REGISTERING TO ADD COMMENTS?!?!?
We have Republican trolls from across the nation spewing their facist hate everywhere they can. It is going to get worse until November....
"I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America. And two plus two equals five."
"We know he is in the pocket of the Corn Lobby."
He's the senator for Illinois. Of course he's in the pocket of the bloody corn lobby, what on earth do you think they DO in Illinois?
@18: A six-pack a night and moose hunting on the weekend. Isn't that what main street is all about?
So after a two-year campaign, two books, dozens of debates and countless print profiles, right-wingers still don't know who Barack Obama is?
FSM help us, they're even stupider than we thought.
Umm...
Bailo just got pwned by PC. WTF?
McCain and Palin (the abuser of power and scoff law) should not be surprised when their racist supporters are stirred up by their hate-filled speeches at rallies. When they call Senator Obama a terrorist sympathizer in campaign speeches, they are inciting hate. McCain supporters sound angry and bitter, and like Armageddon Barbie, they cling to their fundamentalist religion and their guns. McCain has appeared at rallies held by anti-Semitic organizations. By his logic (and by that of the shills at faux news), that makes McCain an anti-Semite. Across the country, racists are burning Obama signs, much like the KKK burns crosses. McCain and Palin owe Obama an apology for stooping to gutter politics, not the other way around.
Who is Barack Obama?
Your next president. Get used to it.
Grandpa McSame and Caribou Barbie are toast.
The Christian Pig Palin disgust me and all thinking feminists. Aa Sandra Bernhard saya "Sarah Palin should be gang raped by black thugs."
As a peace loving liberal I am ready for an intelligent ivy league educated black president who will raise the level of discourse in our country.
@6 yes, oh yes.
"I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election." Hmmm, as in what? Go to a McCain rally?
@14 you jackass. do you really think buckeyefirearms.org is a conservative rag and biased?? egg on your face punk.
The malevolent corn lobby - I shudder at the thought of the corn fatcats pulling the strings of an Obama puppet-presidency - a true Redenbacher Candidate. I yearn for the days when it was just the weapons manufacturers and big oil lobbies that ran the White House.
@26 - After reading it, yes, that's exactly what it is. Are you looking at a different site or something?
@13 way to cite youtube as a source, dude. that's only a little pathetic. but i guess it's a step up from fox news.
and just so you know, being a muslim isn't inherently bad. muslims are allowed to vote just like every other american. just like radical ira terrorists only represent a small fraction of irish people, so too does al qaeda only represent a small number of muslims world wide.
The way this is falling out is becoming pretty clear: 'You should vote for Mr Obama because he's becoming the victim of ignorant, unfair, racist abuse at McCain rallies.'
This doesn't bode well for a President Obama who will have to conduct foreign policy. The Russians, Chinese, Pakistanis, and Iranians, not to mention Al-Qaida, play hardball. To speak frankly, I worry that they would look at him and see a tyro, just as Khruschev saw JFK as a tyro in Vienna. The Berlin Wall and Cuban missiles followed in short order.
You people go outside. It's a lovely day. Obama will own you soon enough.
#1, I can't tell if you are for real. Your comments are always the polar opposite of the general tenor of this blog. And that has value if your comments are genuine. So, for the purpose of this comment, I'll assume that they are genuine.
I think you mischaracterize the question that "Americans are simply asking." You do not account for the context of misinformation and sinister innuendo that has colored the question "Who is Barack Obama?" or for the lack of proactive information-seeking.
On the heels of the Biden/Palin debate, a coworker told me that she would not vote for Obama "because he is a Muslim." She was dead serious. She believes that that is who Obama is.
Why does she believe this? She is not like the old lady that called Obama an Arab; she is a mid-twenty-year-old resident of a cosmopolitan city who values several constitutional rights that will be in serious jeopardy as the result of a McCain victory. Yet, she cannot vote for one she believes is a secret Muslim.
To persuade me, she forwarded a link to an "investigative" web video. It was low-level propaganda that consisted of a tenuous web of "facts" that have been proved false. The video preyed on its audience's fears (e.g., Obama's ascension to the presidency will be the final stroke in a secret Muslim plot to destroy America, as evidenced by the absence of a flag pin on Obama's chest).
Her answer to the question "Who is Barack Obama" is informed to an alarming degree by the content of that video. She has made no attempts to challenge herself and genuinely seek an answer to that question. There is no intellectual curiosity; there is only fear-driven impulse. The analysis ends there.
I do not think she is unique. As I watch the questions that McCain is fielding at his rallies, I think of that video. Back to the old lady of yesterday, her response as McCain took the mic from her was one of bewilderment: "He's not [an Arab]?" As if that was the first time she had heard a contrary view. I fear it was.
The context of the question is vital, and many voters have not make a genuine attempt to look past the predatory misinformation that has saturated this election (primaries and general). A firm grip on the claim that who Obama is is an Arab or a Muslim is untenable. Yet, voters cling to those claims as axiomatic.
This is not lost on McCain/Palin. The campaign's incessant "Who is Barack Obama" line is tailored to stir up these fears. But, for the sake of argument, let's say they do not intend this reaction. That reaction is an obvious consequence that cannot seriously be understood as being too elusive for a thirty-year politician and his advisors. It's either intended, or McCain/Palin is truly oblivious.
So, #1, that simple question, its effects, and the motives of its authors are best understood in the context of fear, misinformation, and absence of intellectual curiosity in which they appear.
@30: No, you should vote for Obama because he's the better candidate. What's being said here is that McCain is trying to win votes by encouraging "ignorant, unfair, racist abuse at McCain rallies".
Foreign leaders aren't going to see Obama as a "tyro" - what they're seeing is a charismatic leader in a democratic election being insulted by the classic, stereotypical 'ugly American'. The way this election is breaking out right now is vivid, live-on-television evidence that yes, the worst Americans that you've long suspected do indeed exist, but they're going to lose to the better impulses in us.
Ironically, McCain may ultimately make Obama's foreign policy job easier by restoring the world's faith that we will turn away from hateful nonsense like this.
This is like the '90's all over again! I was almost starting to miss the conservative losers and their adorable conspiracy theories!
"The way this is falling out is becoming pretty clear: 'You should vote for Mr Obama because he's becoming the victim of ignorant, unfair, racist abuse at McCain rallies."
Pathetic. After all the back and forth, you use a ridiculous argument the Obama is some overly sensitive girly man who can't take criticism? Obama did not say this. John Lewis did all on his own. But they are both black, so I guess it is Obama's responsibility to control the words and writings of every black person in America. Don't criticism the subtle race baiting, criticize the people who attack it.
@30 the only person the russians, chinese, pakistanis and al qeada see as an easy mark is bush. hence russia's sudden aggression towards georgia, iran's progress towards nuclear armament, and the rise of the taliban in pakistan, to name a few examples. obama is exceedingly popular with foreign populations worldwide and represents an immediate boost in american international prestige. that can only be a good thing in terms of checking these threats.
additionally, these weirdos at these mccain rallies represent a cultural sickness that's plagued this country for a long time and needs to be addressed. this goes beyond the election. people who are willing to declare a us senator a terrorist because he has brown skin or a strange name are people who are holding this country back.
@16 & 32: "John Bailo"@1 is a troll, "PC" is a troll -- both are regular posters goofing around with you under pseudonyms
@1, ha ha ha, bonus points for the threat of the Corn Lobby
Everybody SHUT UP! I have something important and constructive to say!
Ok? Ok:
McCain is a fucking cunt and I hate him.
Thanks. Carry on.
Just keep focused and reminding Americans that McCain represents the failure of the economy, the failure in Iraq, the failure of unsteady leadership. Cooler heads must prevail. Everyone knew the right wing wouldn't go quietly.
@28...Sorry wench....I didn't realize my sarcasm was that dry. as a result, i'm sorry you read that site.
@40 i didn't catch the sarcasm either. i almost posted to call you bad names. like bonerface or something.
Who is Barak Hussien Obama you ask? I'll tell you. He's the guy that saved my puppy when it was attacked by a Pit Bull wearing lipstick. That's all I need to know about Barak Obama.
Argh! I didn't have to read it? Phoo, my sarcasm detection must be on the fritz. Thanks, cochise. =)
Bailo @1 is right; these are merely puzzled Americans trying to understand mystery candidate Barack Obama, as evidenced by this fuckwad who brought a monkey labeled with an Obama sticker to a Palin rally in PA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U54xJFEOzk
@1:
Who is John Bailo?
What I do know is that a google search for "john bailo pedophile" yields 7,700 hits. Weird isn't it?
There is absolutely nothing the McCain camp has ever said or done that has not been perfectly countered by the Obama camp. Nothing. Not ever.
Thankfully, Obama's on our side. I'm glad the next President is actually the best candidate and the best person for the job, too. And that there will be a record turnout at the polls that will negate the usual Republican election fraud.
Now Palin is going after Obama's stance on abortion. The economy is bad enough right now that I don't think that this will change the poll numbers, but all I can remember from the last election was people showing up just to vote against abortions and gays.
WhatWhat @ #45,
I can top that with 9,440 results for "john bailo butt pirate"
Sadly "John Bailo is a bare arsed baboon" only yielded 88.
Though, happily, "John McCain is a red assed baboon" produced a satisfyin 2670 results.
@47 I think the numbers are in our favor for abortions. Most Americans are pro-choice, right? (Not so with pro-gay-marriage, yet) I think the bounce for the fundies already happened with the Palin pick.
I can see domestic terrorism from my yard.
Republicans have decide to activate their racist mob base.
What federal building will they blow up?
Where will they stage a shooting spree?
Republicans have made it very clear they are the party of people who believe hate is form of patriotism.
It is a sad testiment to US race history that black man might be punished with death for running for public office.
If there are decent Republicans out there they need to speak up NOW! Not just for the sake of their party but the sake of this country.
McCain/Palin have made it clear their America is for bitter whites only.
Of all the replies to me at #30, I'll address myself to 36. Mr Obama may poll in the eighties in France, but we are dealing with foreign leaders who see things in terms of raw power and don't care about polls. The Russians and others don't care who is President; all they care about is whether or not they are likely to be opposed by force when they decide to move somewhere. Mr Obama has spoken of using force in Afghanistan; that's good. I give him props for that. He has also talked about increasing the Army and Marines by some 90,000; props for that too, for both things If he does them. He's promised to "deal with Iran," but has given no details. That could mean anything from sending them aid to sending in bombers--I've heard no details, only that "nothing is off the table," for what that's worth. He talks about getting out of Iraq.
At no time have I ever defended racist comments about Mr Obama. And his campaign was right to downplay the comparison to George Wallace (A Democrat btw). My sarcastic retort was aimed at other SLOGgers who are talking doom about assassination attempts, of which there have been none so far by the way. And assassins are prefectly capable of striking at candidates--just ask RFK Jr. Whose dad was assassinated during a campaign, not by a Republican hothead but by a Palestinian-American who was motivated by what he saw as Kennedy's support for Israel.
@44 - he looks like a dirty old perv that hangs out in truck stop restrooms
"My sarcastic retort was aimed at other SLOGgers who are talking doom about assassination attempts, of which there have been none so far by the way."
I think you're wrong here - there was one that was headed off early during the Democratic convention.
@33: In addition to those ugly Americans that McCain stoically corrected in his own crowds, ugly Americans also include:
I came home to my house to find my Obama sign had been spray painted with a red "x". I'm keeping it up. I want them to be able to see the hateful way the other side is behaving and be reminded of it every time they see that big red "x".
@51, you say the russians, etc, are concerned about the real threat of force, but my point is by who? without true international cooperation the us is hamstringed, and currently the us is viewed by the rest of the world in the most negative of lights. an obama presidency would at the very least provide a stable platform to rebuild those international ties this country needs to present an actual threat to countries like russia. mccain, not so much.
additionally from a more grassroots point of view, popular opinion, all those polls in france and what have you, does in fact matter. it's the poor or middle class people of the world that make up the bulk of potential terrorist recruits. if you infuse world opinion with positive pro-us sentiment it naturally reduces the available pool of resources for al qeada. an obama presidency accomplishes this.
there are tons of additional reasons to vote for obama, but i feel that this point has been generally overlooked. obama represents automatic groundwork in reestablishing us prestige around the world. mccain is the exact opposite.
@56: It's a common myth that the ranks of terrorists are filled from the poor. If that were true, most Islamic terrorists in the West would be coming from Afghanistan, Mali, and Chad, which are Islamic and overwhelmingly poor. Yet (to take one example), most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, with educations and college degrees, who had spent years in the West. You don't get goat-herders wiring up sophisticated IEDs, owning satellite phones, and setting up Usenet accounts.
To take a recent example in the news--I hate to keep picking on Russians, I have friends in Russia, but it's fresh in everyone's mind--the invasion of Georgia. It was an exquisitely well-timed operation, at a time when Georgia's chief allies, the US and Israel, have other fish to fry. Mr Putin knew we would protest, but that's all we WOULD do. Any effective aid to our Georgian allies would be countered by the fact that we don't want them selling nukes to Iran, and now was the time because we are in the middle of an election season, and the current President is going to be replaced. Their economy is doing well right now with Europe reliant on Russian energy resources, and they don't care a rap about positive or negative sentiment in other countries. They wanted to make it known that any neighbouring country in their "near abroad" is liable to military invasion. And the Europeans would turn on a dime if Russia threatened to turn off the gas and oil spigots.
"I believe we can have a foreign policy that is democratic, that is based on fundamental values, and that uses power and influence, which we have, for humane purposes. We can also have a foreign policy that the American people both support and, for a change, know about and understand.
I have a quiet confidence in our own political system. Because we know that democracy works, we can reject the arguments of those rulers who deny human rights to their people."
That might well be a quote on foreign policy from Mr Obama. It's positive and hopeful and idealistic. It was in fact said by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. The following year, the Communist Ethiopian regime invaded Ethiopia, Daoud Khan of Afghanistan was killed in a Communist coup, riots broke out in Iran which would culminate in the Islamic Republic being established, the Islamist Zia ul-Haq took over in a coup in Pakistan, and Vietnam invaded Cambodia. Then, Islamists kidnapped and killed the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Khomeini took power in Iran, China invaded Vietnam, the US Embassy in Tehran was taken over by Iranian militants, and the US Embassy in Islamabad was attacked and burned (on reports from Tehran that US forces had seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, wheras it was really Islamist militants, who were driven out with French--FRENCH!--military assistance, and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Carter did broker the famous Egypt/Israel accords at Camp David, an act for which Sadat paid with his life a few years later. Carter's presidency also saw the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. None of the players here gave a tinker's damn about Carter 'rejecting their arguments' or quailed before the 'power and influence, which we have.' Indeed, much of where the world is to-day, is built on foundations laid during the Carter years.
Teddy Roosevelt advised that a US President should talk softly and carry a big stick. My concern with Mr Obama (if elected) is that, like Mr Carter, he will turn out to be talking softly and carrying no stick at all.
Correction: "The Communist Ethiopian regime invaded Somalia."
Slog: keeping paid Republican shills employed since 2008.
Of course. There's no such thing as conservatives who hang out and dialogue with progressives just because they like to. That would be just weird.
George Wallace? Kudos to Lewis for cheapening the truly nasty shit that he and others had to go through. Some people just can't help but make themselves look stupid.
@61: Hyperbole? Oh yes, the truck stop pedophile with the monkey speaks bravely in this video, apparently shot before CBS turned its camera on him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKUovpF9LWU
mccain has lost the ability to both state his message and to appeal to much of the republican base. i don't think mccain is as evil as some of you seem to -- i've never seen a politician rebuke his own supporters duringa televised rally. but since he can't articulate his message and since some crazy republicans are showing why they support him, it ends up looking bad. for mccain.
@60 Seajay = good to have on slog for balance and debate. Bailo/Basil = not so much. PC = making more sense lately. DBKieneker = um. Dolphin guy = still having nightmares.
@64: Thanks, but let us not forget Raindrop.
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