]]>Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Which is really nothing more than his continuous riff that nobody but him and Joe Lieberman understand the threat we are facing.
Of course, in typical Obama fashion, the “presumptuous” nominee decides that statement is all about him, and responds:
“It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.”
“Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power — including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy — to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.”
Well it is nice to see him respond to an (imagined?) attack with something other than insulting voters, but did you see what he did there.
we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did
1 Democrat, 2 Republicans. Nice. No mention of Jimmy Carter, who got a freakin’ Nobel Prize for his work in the Middle East, no mention of Clinton. Hell, he could have mentioned GHW Bush, who handled the collapse of the Soviet Union in a way that made the world a better place. But NOOOO, instead we need to do what Nixon and Reagan did.
Then, along comes Clinton, who despite what her worst detractors believe, really cares about the country and the Democratic party.
President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address and certainly to use an important moment like the 60th anniversary celebration of Israel to make a political point seems terribly misplaced. Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from President Bush.
Oh snap!
How come she defends Obama better than he defends himself?
While I applaud Clinton for coming to Obama’s defense(if it was even necessary, I don’t see an attack on Obama in there anywhere, but oh well), especially considering he has never once defended her from horrendous and unpalatable attacks, I can’t think that this really did him any favors.
If by some small chance, Clinton did take the VP spot, is this what we will see until November, Obama taking a hit, and Clinton coming up behind(like his “mommy” as a few commenters at TalkLeft point out) to give the bullies a stern talking to?
He seems to be following the John Kerry Path to Victory, another election that was the Dems to lose.
Makes me feel good, how ’bout you?
]]>In her post today, she touches on a subject very close to me.
]]>In her post today, she touches on a subject very close to me. She asks of the “creative class”, Where Do Your Kids Go To School?
She asks them, assuming since most of these are upper income people, they probably don’t send their kids to public schools. Implying that, perhaps, they don’t practice what they preach.
My daughter attends school in the Jefferson County Public School system, which was recently in the news, when the Supreme Court overturned our desegregation policy.
(I am sure this subject was hashed out many moons before I ever caught sight of the Mighty Corrente Building, but I would like to quickly recap.)
The plan, which was court mandated in the 70’s and incited riots in my fair city, was ordered because the African American students were all being crammed into a few small underfunded schools in the city’s West End(the historically AA part of our city). The reasoning was that if AA students were spread out all over the system, they would receive a better education, and the traditionally AA schools would get better funding, since white students would now be attending.
And it worked. The plan wasn’t perfect, it required long bus rides for many students, but it had a strong foundation, the core of which, is that no school in the system could have an enrollment of AA students over 49%.
Eventually, after the mandate was lifted, the plan continued. Until one whiny (white) mother complained about the long time it would take her daughter to get to school. The battle was fought for years, and was finally decided by our uber-conservative Supreme Court.
I tell you this, to tell you about my school choice for my daughter. When I was researching daycares, I stumbled across this intriguing education concept called, Montessori. I never could afford to send her to a Montessori preschool, but when she began her public education, I was fortunate enough to have a couple of Montessori schools available to me.
I chose one as my first choice. It is a National Blue Ribbon school, 98% of its students go into Advanced Placement.
I knew none of this when I chose the school. This is what I did know. It sits in the middle of a public housing project, in the middle of the West End. Conforming to the school assignment plan, AA enrollment is exactly 49%, Latino enrollment is at 17%, and most of those are ESL students.
I chose this school, knowing my brunette blue eyed little girl was going to be the minority. I did this for several reasons, the desire to have her achieve a Montessori education, being chief among them. But there were several other schools I could have picked where she would have gotten the Montessori education, and she wouldn’t be the minority. But the idea that she would be exposed to people from very different walks of life was intriguing to me.
Because I am a liberal. Because I am tolerant. Because I believed in the desegregation plan. Because I want her to be “color blind”, in a way that my generation can never be.
Yet I too, have to wonder how many of the “creative class” would have made the conscience decision I made, all the while they accuse me of racism.
]]>The right to vote is fundamental to democracy. Any candidate who can not stand up for that principle, in a primary, does not deserve my vote in that primary.
]]>The right to vote is fundamental to democracy. Any candidate who can not stand up for that principle, in a primary, does not deserve my vote in that primary.
In a primary, I will vote for a candidate who is most closely aligned with my principles. That is the Principled Vote. Now, I have cast many Unprincipled Votes. In a general, I have supported Congressional and Senate candidates who violated my principles, but they were better than they other guy/gal.
By this action Obama has lost my vote until the primary is over. And it makes me angry that I will have to make an Unprincipled Vote in the GE. I am aware that if Obama is the nominee, he will be subjected to attacks, mainly of which is that he is largely undefined, and the GOP will attempt to define him for the electorate. He is already carrying harsh baggage in this respect. I will of course eventually be swayed to come to his defense.
Honestly, I would rather eagerly leap to his defense, with full faith in him. But I can’t. I can’t be happy that he wins the nomination this way. I can’t stand that he might get it before the convention. I would rather the candidates go back to work, convincing the legislative apparatus that will select them, regardless of the pleged delegate count after the remaining primaries. Let them demonstrate who is the better leader on the issues to be decided this election.
Then I could cast a Prinicipled Vote.
And it is sad, because based upon the values he espouses in speeches*, and has begun to demonstrate some leadership on, are values that I mainly agree with, and would like to see advocated more concisely, with action. And with this action, Obama would earn my vote, and probably the votes of those who are thinking of not supporting him.
Instead he takes the low road, for political expediency, which informs me, and many other voters, that he has not gained wisdom. I believe Clinton has, and can have faith that she would support this, even if it worked against her. But Obama is demonstrating that he will not.
*I will admit, he has moved me. In my previous job as a News Monitor, I was exposed to Obama before he burst onto the national stage at the ’04 Convention. I saw the speech he gave the night he won the primary in Illinois. I believed he saw what was wrong, and what needed to be done to make right. Now, not so much.
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