22 posts tagged “obama”

So much for Obama being that new hope and a different kind of politician, ehh?

Wiretapping orders approved by secret orders under the previous version of the surveillance law were set to begin expiring in August unless Congress acted. Heading into their political convention in Denver next month and on to the November Congressional elections, many Democrats were wary of handing the Republicans a potent political weapon.

The issue put Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in a particularly precarious spot. He had long opposed giving legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in the N.S.A.’s wiretapping program, even threatening a filibuster during his run for the nomination. But on Wednesday, he ended up voting for what he called “an improved but imperfect bill” after backing a failed attempt earlier in the day to strip the immunity provision from the bill through an amendment.

I guess you can't vote with your convictions all of the time.  So begins an even newer era for Obama -- that of being a true politician -- like the rest of them.

Good plan.  Go with something that the left criticized with GW in the hopes of winning over more of the right.  Kind of sounds like a true politician, doesn't it?

Taking a page from President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants to expand White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, risking protests in his own party with his latest aggressive reach for voters who usually vote Republican.

Gag me with a spoon.  I always thought Bush pushing the faith-based program thing was wrong.  Now Obama wants to "expand" them.

Funny how atheists can find their vote for Obama because of his speeches that speak of reaching out to non-believers.  Yet from my perspective, he isn't changing any policies from his predecessor.  He isn't talking about separating church and state by "expanding" these programs.  He is talking about using taxpayer money to fund these programs. 

Also, all I think about when I read this news piece are all of the liberals who were writing that Obama is a different kind of politician pushing his hope line.  This just continues to confirm that he is just a politician like all of them -- looking for votes and walking the line.  There is nothing new here.

Balloon.  Pop.

All I can do is shake my head and say...  wow.  (via Hugh Hewitt)

Another reason why I am an atheist.

Update:  According to Jake Tapper, Obama's campaign has already erased Pfleger from his website:

Pfleger appears to have been scrubbed from the Obama campaign's page that features the testimony of faith leaders, but you can see the cached version HERE.

This post makes a good point about Chamberlain in 1938.  The author posts about a Chris Matthews' interview with Kevin James.

MATTHEWS: You don't know what you're talking about. Your problem, Kevin, is, you don't know what you're talking about.

And the problem is, you don't understand there's a difference between talking to the enemy and appeasing. What Neville Chamberlain did wrong, most people would say, is not talking to Hitler, but giving him half of Czechoslovakia in '38. That's what he did wrong, not talking to somebody.

If we leave Iraq and if we talk about making Iran/Syria take responsibility for the situation over there -- that is in fact a de facto appeasement, a land give in essence.  With the Iranians trying to subvert our strides in Iraq, they are making the case for not working with us.  And if we leave Iraq, with no real support, we are essentially giving the Iranians a puppet state. 

That is worse than out in the open appeasement.  It is essentially a under the table land deal.  By handing responsibility over to the Iranians -- we are basically holding up a middle finger to Iraq while giving the keys to Iran and saying we don't want to deal with this anymore.

You have to see that by letting Iran and Syria be the ones that create stability in the region, you have to figure their stability is different from what we want.  Their stability would entail a puppet regime running Iraq with them pulling the strings.  That is something we definitely don't want.

In 1938, I am sure the Czechoslovakians felt the deal was fair and just as other powers toyed with what was theirs.  Imagine what the Iraqis must feel with the political rhetoric being thrown around here.

I keep hearing that once it is official when Clinton has dropped out of the race that the Democratic Party will have to undergo a healing process.  I also keep hearing that the easy way of doing this is for Obama to make Clinton the VP on the ticket.

But the way this campaign has gone on the left side of the aisle, you really have to sense the canyon that healing process will have to cross is wide.  And as Novak reports, a VP nod just ain't going to happen:

Close-in supporters of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign are convinced he never will offer the vice presidential nomination to Sen. Hillary Clinton for one overriding reason: Michelle Obama.

The Democratic front-runner's wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party's nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility.

A footnote: Support is growing in Democratic ranks for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland as vice president. He would bring to the ticket maturity (66 years old), experience (six terms in Congress) and moderation (rated "A" by the National Rifle Association). He is very popular in Ohio, a state Republicans must carry to elect a president.

So the question is going to be can the Democratic Party heal?  My guess:  Most likely.  If McCain could heal the Republican Party -- my guess is that it will happen with the Democrats.

But if this holds true...

A sizable proportion of Democrats would vote for John McCain next November if he is matched against the candidate they do not support for the Democratic nomination. This is particularly true for Hillary Clinton supporters, more than a quarter of whom currently say they would vote for McCain if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee.

...Obama has his work cut out for him.  Or it is game, set, match for McCain.

Jennifer Rubin over at Commentary Magazine has a great post about Obama and his contention that he is the "great bridge builder" and that he will be the one to lead a new era of bipartisanship.  However, his record shows nothing more than just being an ideologue:

He has essentially taken up every cause of the left (from opposing confirmation of Justices Roberts and Alito to supporting a bevy of tax increases) and has been absent from any of the truly bipartisan efforts, few that they may be, since he got to Washington (e.g. the Gang of 14).

As the most liberal Senator according to National Journal, he is further from the middle of the Senate and less inclined to compromise on strict party line voting than Senator Mitch McConnell (the ninth most conservative Senator) is on the other end of the spectrum. Is someone more doctrinaire in his voting record than McConnell on the Right (and Dick Durbin and John Kerry on the Left), the best person to lead us into a new era of bipartisan co-operation?

Worse still, John McCain actually can lay claim to being a bipartisan role model, which made his primary run so problematic with the GOP base. His list of bipartisan efforts on global warming, judges, campaign finance, immigration and spending reform is long and substantitve.

Bipartisanship implies compromise.  If Obama went to Washington voting on his core beliefs, then based on his record, I believe compromise runs against his core belief system.  And that is fine -- but why do one thing and say another?  Oh, yeah, that is what politicians do.

And then there is Iraq.  And as Jennifer, again, correctly points out, Obama shows no sign of even considering the other argument on Iraq.

...Obama has shown no inclination to process new information and adjust his views accordingly. Indeed, there appears to be no new data that would persuade him that the answer to Iraq is other than: “Leave immediately.” If that is not the definition of an ideologue (or a “dogmatist” as Obama would say), I do not know what is.

So Mr. Obama, if your campaign literally runs on the personification of hope and that anything can be overcome, then when glimmers of hope are seen in Iraq, why is your first and only thought to still abandon our new ally?  And if you are indeed the savior of the cluster that is Washington politics, then why didn't you put yourself out there and try to create bridges when you were there?

In my opinion, Obama is just another politician.  He will not be the savior of our great Republic.  And neither will McCain for that matter.  But when it comes down to brass tacks, I think McCain has shown that he is willing to take on Washington politics, he has rubbed his party the wrong way in the name of bipartisanship, and he has put his personal political gain on the line with a controversial issue like Iraq.

With bipartisanship comes controversy and the creation of friction.  I don't think Obama wants people to dislike him in his own party.  His record clearly shows that.  And maybe that is why so many Democratic politicians are jumping on his bandwagon.  So don't buy into the rhetoric.

James Pethokoukis on Obama's paltry spending cut ideas.

My take: In a $3 trillion federal budget, that's it, that's all the fat—just defense and some procedural changes. How about limiting discretionary spending growth to inflation minus 1 percent or such? Oh, and on the subject of taxes, don't think Obama will wait until the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire in 2010.

Here is the latest from the LA Times regarding the barbs being traded between McCain and Obama over Iraq:

Reacting Wednesday morning in Tyler, Texas, McCain taunted: "I have some news: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. . . . It's called 'Al Qaeda in Iraq.' " Some in the town-hall audience laughed.

"If we left . . . they wouldn't be establishing a base," the Arizona Republican said. "They'd be taking a country, and I'm not going to allow that to happen, my friends."

Obama responded at a rally in the sports arena at Ohio State University in Columbus. "I have some news for John McCain," the Illinois Democrat said, leaning into the crowd for emphasis. "There was no such thing as 'Al Qaeda in Iraq' until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq."

Brilliant comeback.  How original.

The funny thing about this exchange is that to me McCain wins.  McCain is (and has always) been the one pointing to the Bush administration with regard to the foul ups they have presided over when it came to Iraq.  And when McCain points out the obvious with an invitation to tell the world what you are going to do about it -- Obama recoils to the old Bush got us into this mess line.  But what he isn't saying is that his position is to leave Iraq ASAP (which in turn will allow al Qaeda Iraq to get stronger, not weaker).

McCain's plan of supporting the surge is at least a constructive plan that is geared toward helping the Iraqis.

Al Qaeda is in Iraq and blaming why they are there doesn't amount to a hill of beans of how we are going to deal with them.

I am reminded of a scene from Apollo 13 where there is a heated exchange between the two crew members over what caused the explosion on the spacecraft and Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) has to intervene:

[after a dispute has broken out between Haise and Swigert]
Jim Lovell: All right, we're not doing this, gentlemen. We are *not* doing this. We're not going to go bouncing off the walls for ten minutes, 'cause we're just going to end up back here with the same problems! Try to figure out how to stay alive!

And that is how I feel about Iraq.  We need to solve the problem and the current surge is doing more to take on al Qaeda Iraq than what we were doing before.  The more we support the Iraqis, the more they will be able to take on al Qaeda by themselves.  But the damage is done, the oxygen tank has already exploded, and our *presence* in Iraq is all but assured for some time.

I would prefer for Obama to be straight with his supporters with respect to that obvious point; however, he doesn't choose to see the obvious and neither do his supporters.  And for that -- I cannot support such a candidate with regards to the Iraq issue.

Do you think it is as simple as pulling out all of our troops from Iraq?  Well guess what, nothing is ever that simple.

McCain is right about one thing and that is the Iraq issue will help or hinder him.  And as long as it continues to work and Petraeus works his plan -- the more I think Obama will lose in November.

Huh?  So I guess experience needed to be president *is* important to Obama...

"I am a believer in knowing what you are doing when applying for a job."

This is the weirdest thing and the way Obama deals with it at every rally is almost like a broken record.

It kind of makes think it is staged.  But I am sure that I will be corrected as this is akin to the response the Beatles received when they were on stage.