Posts with the tag 'experience'
YouTube Clip of Susan Rice’s Statement
Unfortunately, Susan Rice’s statement regarding the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting, “Thank God he did because if he hadn’t we would have not been able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis” is completely false. In fact historians agree that this meeting fueled the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Weekly Standand, in detailing the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting, quotes NYT columnist James Reston who interviewed President Kennedy right after his meeting with Khrushchev,
“Reston reported that Kennedy said just enough for Reston to conclude that Khrushchev “had studied the events of the Bay of Pigs” and that he had “decided that he was dealing with an inexperienced young leader who could be intimidated and blackmailed.” Kennedy said to Reston that Khrushchev had “just beat [the] hell out of me” and that he had presented Kennedy with a terrible problem: “If he thinks I’m inexperienced and have no guts, until we remove those ideas we won’t get anywhere with him. So we have to act.”
Kennedy responded to the meeting with a congressional request for a dramatic increase in defense spending, and a significant increase in the size of the military. Khrushchev responded to Kennedy’s actions with above ground nuclear testing and erecting the Berlin Wall. The tensions between the US and Soviet Union dramatically increased due to the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting; the Cuban Missile Crisis followed.
Susan Rice’s statement is simply false. There is no historical record of the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting being at all helpful in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis and actually the exact opposite true that an inexperienced leader was bullied into an arms race.
First Published at Purple People Vote
Tags: cuban missile crisis, experience, foreign policy, john lehman, Obama, obama advisor, obama foreign policy, susan rice
June 11th, 2008
Barack Obama’s total lack of experience or legislative accomplishment has forced him to run a very different kind of Presidential campaign, mainly using abstract concepts like hope and change. When he was finally pressed to campaign on something concrete, Senator Obama decided to campaign on his “judgment” which seems to begin and end with a speech he gave in 2002. But that’s not the point. Senator Obama has the Judgment to Lead! He even puts it on spiffy banners!
Now, you would think that if a candidate wants to run on his judgment, the thinks he says, does, lies about and the company he keeps would all be valid topics of discussion.
You’d be wrong, of course.
According to Team Hope, anything pertaining to Obama’s friends, pastor, lifestyle, wife, or even his own actions and comments have nothing to do with Barack Obama’s judgment. No, they are manufactured distractions, that distract from the real issues, which is apparently Barack Obama’s judgment that one time and not all the other times.
It makes no sense to me, and Theo Caldwell agrees.
The bumper-sticker slogan “dissent is patriotic” has for decades been employed to legitimize any insult to America, no matter how hateful or moronic. But Americans understand that their president’s instinct ought to be to defend the nation against unfair invective, not embrace those who purvey it — or, in the case of Ayers, seek to blow it up altogether.
With his demonstrable view of America, and considering his cohorts, Obama would be wise to make himself very comfortable in the Senate.
Barack Obama can continue to dismiss any criticism as a distraction. I certainly hope he does. When January comes around, he can stew over all these distractions with Michelle, Bill and Jeremiah while John McCain takes the Oath of Office.
Tags: Barack Obama, change, experience, hope, John McCain, mccain, president, Senator Obama
April 22nd, 2008
David Brooks of the
New York Times wrote an article questioning the ‘New Politics’ of Senator Obama.
…the aura around Obama has changed. Furiously courting Democratic primary voters and apparently exhausted, Obama has emerged as a more conventional politician and a more orthodox liberal.
He sprinkled his debate performance Wednesday night with the sorts of fibs, evasions and hypocrisies that are the stuff of conventional politics. He claimed falsely that his handwriting wasn’t on a questionnaire about gun control. He claimed that he had never attacked Clinton for her exaggerations about the Tuzla airport, though his campaign was all over it. Obama piously condemned the practice of lifting other candidates’ words out of context, but he has been doing exactly the same thing to John McCain, especially over his 100 years in Iraq comment.
This draws into question not only the question of whether Senator Obama is walking the walk of a new more civil and honest campaign style, but it begs the question what candidate is most capable of bringing change. Senator McCain has walked the walk. He has worked with Democrats to achieve legislative goals, he has run an honest and decent campaign. He has a record saying what he means and meaning what he says. Consider the difficulty of a Senator with 20 plus years experience earning the reputation as a strait shooter. One reason it has been so difficult for Senators to run for president is because their job requires compromise, and taking stands on a wide range of issues that Governors can often bypass. The Democrat candidates have the luxury of having a very short record with little to examine. Senator McCain has shown that political stress won’t make him compromise his principals. It is a person of that character and experience that has the best chance of bringing change to Washington style politics.
Tags: campaign style, Clinton, David Brooks, exageration, experience, gun control, honesty, hope change, integrity, maverick, mccain, New York Times, nyt, Obama, political change, tuzla, washington politics
April 18th, 2008
The problem with the Obama candidacy is that the public doesn’t know much about him. We know he’s an excellent speaker, a charismatic and charming guy; but we don’t know much about him of substance. To his credit his campaign has brilliantly utilized this by featuring change as a theme. The change theme promises something new and different without really having to say what that change is. The question becomes are people going to be satisfied with the promise of change without any real clue to what that change entails.
I have to admit that I’m one of the people that started out simply liking the idea of a President Obama. I love the idea of a non-white and/or non-male president. It promotes the idea that anything is possible and it shows that the country is showing signs of growing up and getting beyond past prejudices. Senator Obama’s message of unity is also very appealing to many of us who are fed up with political divisiveness and bickering. However, there is a lot more to being president than broad concepts. There has been little focus on the who’s, what’s, where’s, why’s, and how’s of change. Understandably some people have been caught up in the grand speeches and broad concepts, but responsible voters need to also consider the policies and experience of a candidate.
The reality is that Senator Obama would have a difficult time being a ‘uniter and not a divider’ because he is so liberal. He’s ranked as the most liberal senator and his positions reflect that. Whether it is health care or taxes, his positions are not ones that engender compromise. In foreign policy, it appears that Democrats have taken to pandering to the far left, and forgotten to listen to the experts. Withdrawal plans put forward have not only been unwise, but functionally impossible. The lack of knowledge and experience in foreign policy matters is problematic. The presidency is not for beginners, and while Senator Obama has tremendous promise, earning ones stripes as president is risky at best, as it leaves citizen hoping we won’t need another change candidate.
Published at Purple People Vote
Tags: Barack Obama, candidate, change, experience, foreign policy, hope, left wing, liberal, primary, speaches, speaker, uniter, unity, voters
March 19th, 2008
Following up on Matt’s post below on Glora Steinem’s derisive comments, it appears Sen. Clinton’s campaign is now trashing Sen. McCain’s time in the military. Specifically, Wes Clark employs the canard that McCain’s experience as a fighter pilot and POW don’t alone prepare him to be Commander in Chief. I agree. That in and of itself doesn’t qualify Sen. McCain for the job.
Of course, there’s a few qualifications that Clark conveniently leaves out. James Joyner of Outside the Beltway Blog lays out some of them:
But McCain’s experience isn’t limited to that Clark had as a mere company commander in Vietnam; he rose to the rank of captain (equivalent to an Army/Air Force/Marine colonel) and did a tour as the Navy’s liaison to the United States Senate. He followed that with four years in the United States House of Representatives and another 22 as a United States Senator. He’s a former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and is now the committee’s Ranking Member.
Be sure to check out James Joyner’s full post at Outside the Beltway Blog.
Tags: blogs for mccain, experience, Gloria Steinem, John McCain, mccain blogs, Wes Clark, Wesley Clark
March 3rd, 2008
Despite the rants of some conservative radio commentators, the appeal that Senator McCain has to Independents isn’t that ‘he’s a liberal’, it’s that he’s principled. He gets things done. One reason I think conservative radio has become so mad isn’t because they disagree with him on issues, it’s because he has repeatedly stated that he won’t bash or belittle his political opponents. This is conservative radio’s forte, and Senator McCain’s approach may be seen as a threat. However, to many Independents it’s music to our ears. There are plenty of people left, right, and center that are simply sick of the bickering. There’s plenty to discuss and debate with out lowering the level of discourse to that of a junior high argument. The other aspect that angers some conservatives is that he not only opposed them on certain positions, but he headed up the legislation for those contrary views. As an Independent I see this as a positive. He knows how to reach across the isle, and he’s a worker. He doesn’t just sit on his hands and say ‘well they don’t completely agree with me therefore I’ll do nothing’. Good Senators have to compromise otherwise there’s gridlock, and Senator McCain is a good Senator. There’s also an appeal to this because it shows that his loyalty to his beliefs and the American people takes precedence to party loyalty. Some party people may not like that, but that is sorely needed in politics right now.
Now the reason I think he’ll win the race in November is issues and content. First Iraq and foreign policy: he knows more about war and foreign policy issues than any other candidate by miles. He was right about Iraq and staked his career on his support of the surge when it was very unpopular to do so. He knows the political players around the world, he’s been there he’s talked to many of them, and he simply knows his stuff. The Democrats really can’t hold a candle to him in this area. Even though the supposition is that the Iraq War is unpopular therefore the Democrats win, if people come to this election with an open mind he wins those open-minded people in a landslide. Second, he has an excellent human rights record. He addressed the situation with the monks in Burma, the genocide in Darfur, protection of children from online predators, opposed torture, and whenever an issue of human rights comes up Senator McCain is there front and center. This is an area I hope the campaign plays up more, because conventional thinking may give Democrats the edge on human rights, but the conventional wisdom is wrong. Finally, there’s experience. (I’ll skip health care and taxes for the sake of brevity.) Senator McCain is simply far more qualified to be president. He’s applying for the hardest job on earth, and it’s not an entry-level position. Experience matters, and he’s the guy who has it. He’s one of the most qualified candidates that the country has seen in years, and I look forward to the debates.
From: Purple People Vote
Tags: experience, foreign policy, independent, iraq, mccain, moderate, principle, radio
March 3rd, 2008
