Clinton understood that for a progressive to be successful in a conservative country he had to convey the attitude that he respected the deeply held values of voters. He supported the death penalty, welfare reform and took a tough national security stance. He could discern the difference between a Pentecostal and a pretzel. Clinton realized that conservative success was dependent on the excesses of liberalism. Attitudinally, he trumped the right. And when he deviated from those attitudes, his Presidency suffered. (Marshall Whitman, Bull Moose)
The party of Pelosi and Kennedy wish it was 1929. They wish the American populace was in the grip of major economic disaster so that a newer New Deal could emerge and be implemented by a future President John Edwards. Bill Clinton was an absolute genius and he knew how to govern succesfully. Free trade, opportunity, responsibility were the way of the 1990's. The country actually took on the issue of a major entitlement and got results. Those were the days.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Bush has not bounced
Since the killing of Zarqawi on June 7th, the easily manipulated media has declared that we have somehow turned the corner in Iraq and the president has gotten a "bounce" in the polls.
Nonsense. The Iraq war is going as it has always gone: poorly. We are refereeing a sectarian civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. We are not fighting back old Baathists, they are gone or dead. Today's grim discovery of the two missing American soldiers bodies should cement in the collective head of America that we need to light a fire under the collective bottom of Iraq.
The Cato Insitute's Ted Galen Carpenter argues:
"Enough is enough. At some point, the Iraqi people need to stand on their own feet and decide whether they will cooperate in governing the country or whether they will wage an increasingly bloody sectarian war. If the choose the latter, America does not have a dog in that fight."
There have been several supposed milestones of Iraqi success: Saddam's overthrow, free elections, the deaths of Saddam's sons and now the killing of the number one terrorist in Iraq, a man who was starting to get under the skin of the majority of the Iraqi people. None of these events have actually produced the desired goal: the return of American troops to American soil.
Then again, we've been playing this game for quite some time. And with a president who's stated goal is the elimination of tyranny everywhere, don't expect a change in strategy.
Nonsense. The Iraq war is going as it has always gone: poorly. We are refereeing a sectarian civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. We are not fighting back old Baathists, they are gone or dead. Today's grim discovery of the two missing American soldiers bodies should cement in the collective head of America that we need to light a fire under the collective bottom of Iraq.
The Cato Insitute's Ted Galen Carpenter argues:
"Enough is enough. At some point, the Iraqi people need to stand on their own feet and decide whether they will cooperate in governing the country or whether they will wage an increasingly bloody sectarian war. If the choose the latter, America does not have a dog in that fight."
There have been several supposed milestones of Iraqi success: Saddam's overthrow, free elections, the deaths of Saddam's sons and now the killing of the number one terrorist in Iraq, a man who was starting to get under the skin of the majority of the Iraqi people. None of these events have actually produced the desired goal: the return of American troops to American soil.
Then again, we've been playing this game for quite some time. And with a president who's stated goal is the elimination of tyranny everywhere, don't expect a change in strategy.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Newt
In today's Washington Post, Newt Gingrich says he's ready:
"We have a choice between those who are failing to deliver and those who are unthinkable," he said, adding he would put "even money" on the Democrats taking back the House this fall. "Neither party currently is where the country is." (newt.org)
During the Clinton/Gingrich years, problems were solved. Most importantly, a major entitlement was reformed and has proven to be a success. So, yes I could see myself voting for Newt.
"We have a choice between those who are failing to deliver and those who are unthinkable," he said, adding he would put "even money" on the Democrats taking back the House this fall. "Neither party currently is where the country is." (newt.org)
During the Clinton/Gingrich years, problems were solved. Most importantly, a major entitlement was reformed and has proven to be a success. So, yes I could see myself voting for Newt.
Powersurge
For all those who need a clear and scathing review of the constitutional record of George W. Bush, please read this document (pdf file) put together by the Cato Institute's Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch.
Realism in 08, please?
Jonathan Rauch has a overdue piece at Reason, worth reading only to understand that at some point in American history, we had presidents who lived in a fantasy free environment. Oh to be a fly on the wall during this:
"Kennedy was no revolutionary in foreign policy. Indeed, he was contempuous of idealistic reformers. Meeting on August 20, 1962, with his senior foreign-policy advisers, he read from a draft document describing a national counterinsurgency strategy. The United States, said Kennedy, reading aloud, seeks "to insure that modernization of the local society evolves in directions which will afford a congenial world environment for fruitful international cooperation and..for our way of life."
Kennedy's comment: "That's a lot of crap."
"Kennedy was no revolutionary in foreign policy. Indeed, he was contempuous of idealistic reformers. Meeting on August 20, 1962, with his senior foreign-policy advisers, he read from a draft document describing a national counterinsurgency strategy. The United States, said Kennedy, reading aloud, seeks "to insure that modernization of the local society evolves in directions which will afford a congenial world environment for fruitful international cooperation and..for our way of life."
Kennedy's comment: "That's a lot of crap."
Sad
To the one person who reads this blog, thank you for your patience........
Now, on to the suicide deaths at Guantanamo Bay. It's hard to start a blog with this kind of sentence. Imagine, six years ago the very idea of prisoners, most of whom have no charges other than being "suspected of terrorist activity," and the ever popular "enemy combatants" being held in another country against their will, with no access to anything other than their own misery. Force fed, no trial, no way out, nothing. Then tell me what country this is. Yes, I understand the pressure the guards and the commanders are under in this kind of situation, and maybe this is the casualty of a war without end, but isn't this anything but a stain on the history of this country?
Thanks to Rumsfeld, we conduct war on the cheap and in total disregard of rules of humane warfare. Yet, Rumsfeld remains as Defense Secretary. Words truly fail me.
Now, on to the suicide deaths at Guantanamo Bay. It's hard to start a blog with this kind of sentence. Imagine, six years ago the very idea of prisoners, most of whom have no charges other than being "suspected of terrorist activity," and the ever popular "enemy combatants" being held in another country against their will, with no access to anything other than their own misery. Force fed, no trial, no way out, nothing. Then tell me what country this is. Yes, I understand the pressure the guards and the commanders are under in this kind of situation, and maybe this is the casualty of a war without end, but isn't this anything but a stain on the history of this country?
Thanks to Rumsfeld, we conduct war on the cheap and in total disregard of rules of humane warfare. Yet, Rumsfeld remains as Defense Secretary. Words truly fail me.