Straight Talk from Republican Front Runner

Does anyone remember this?

"Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives."

Followed by

“Last evening, I referred to American casualties in Iraq as wasted. I should have used the word, sacrificed..."

Now if a Democrat said this, it would be rammed down our throats over and over again. Yet the wimpo ex governor of Massachusetts won't use it, the ultra wimpo ex mayor of NYC didn't use it, and the eunuch ex governor of Arkansas won't use it. Do you think Obama or Hillary will use it?

Still, McCain's son is in Iraq. The five brothers aren't there, so it wouldn't be polite to call McCain on his slip. And we know politics is about politeness.

Romney brags about his views; warning, massive volume of bullshit below.

"My view is that the troop surge is the right course for us now. I know we've made a lot of errors as a nation in managing the conflict over the last three or four years. But I think the troop surge is the right course." 8/2/07

"A number of mistakes have been made and those mistakes have contributed to some of the challenges we now face. ... I'm glad we're seeing a change in strategy. I'm glad we're adding to the mission of our military the protection of the safety of citizens in and around Baghdad." 1/29/07

(Iraq Body Count says "Civilian deaths directly attributable to US forces alone (ie, not involving any other combatants) increased steeply from 394–434 reported in 2006 to 669–756 in 2007." Apparently adding the protection of the safety of citizens was not really part of the mission.)

"We obviously want our troops home as soon as we can have them home, but we don't want to have them home and lay behind us a safe haven that could become a huge threat to the entire world, and us in particular." ("The Hugh Hewitt Show," 9/14/07)

"'It would be a severe mistake for us to cut and run.' The potential sectarian strife that could ensue if the United States pulled out suddenly, he said, 'could lead to a humanitarian disaster.'" 5/25/06

"We've removed Saddam Hussein but, afterward, I'm afraid to report that we were underprepared and underplanned and undermanaged and undermanned."

In September 2006, 'If we were to withdraw precipitously, we would have a very significant threat of a full-scale civil war with massive casualties.'"

After five years, how could withdrawl be 'precipitous'? I don't think he knows what the word means. And this at a time when Iraq was undergoing a full scale civil war with massive casulties.

In 2004, "Looking Back Over The Last Several Months, I Wish We Had Done Some Things Differently."

McCain and Romney agree that we have made a lot of mistakes in Iraq. They agree that we should keep making them.
The difference is that McCain is not a bloated hypocrite like Romney. He is a true believer, which means he is probably even more dangerous to have as President.

Kwame.

Shame of the Union

I missed the State of the Union this year. Last year I commented that Bush shamelessly conflated supporting the surge and supporting the troops, and the democrats shamelessly applauded the turkey.

By the way, last year bush wanted tax cuts, this year he wants them, and all the yappin about stimulus doesn't mean anything to him. And still, the gutless Democrats roll over and gives him tax cuts when there are much more effective stimulus policies.

The presidential 'race' is nearly decided, now that about 3% of the population (but 100% of the money men whose votes are the only ones that really count) has voted. And a dismal lot of leftovers we have. I guess I'll have throw in with Teddy Kennedy and hope for Obama at this point. Maybe he will be better than advertised. The rest of the gang are thoroughly nauseating.

Scumbags

Scumbags.

The Michigan quarter primary

The Michigan primary is tomorrow. The Democrats won't count the delegates, and the Republicans will only count half. This correlates pretty well with the November elections, where the scam artists only count the Republican votes anyway.

Mitt Romney is running ads talking about how he is such a great businessman he can fix Michigan's one-state recession.

What a load of shit. Michigan's economy is suffering because of its reliance on the auto industry. Now here comes son-of-auto-executive-turn-governor saying he is going to be our savior. Well excuse me, mister. You took your privileged Bloomfield Hills upbringing, went to the east coast and made billions in the financial scam arena, screwing workers with every transaction fee you collected. In the last 35 years, you never even considered applying your business skills to building a Michigan business. Now one week before you want our votes you want to waltz in here and pretend like you will be fix our economy if we elect you?

Mr. Romney, you aren't fit to be George Washington's tapeworm.

Obama SOS

So the news organizations are gushing about the surge for Obama. Here is the good news:

1) Almost twice as many Democrats as Republifascists voted in Iowa caucuses, so it looks like the Democrats will stomp the Republicans in this years elections.

2) Obama got a whopping 38% of the caucus vote, stomping Edwards with his measly 30% and Clinton with her 29%.

Now for a bit of reality.

I) We really should not get all worked up about what a nonrepresentative sample of 0.05% of the national electorate thinks.
II) Mitt Romney could have gotten more votes at less cost by giving people 20 dollar bills (or maybe even 50s) if they promised to vote for him.
III) I suspect that Iowa's impact will be more to hurt Hillary than to help Obama.

My interpretation of the high turnout is that voters are tired of SOS (same old shit.) Well, duh. Why did McCain do so well in 2000? Obama is intelligent enough to use this and yap about change. The only question is how long it will take voters to figure out that Obama IS the same old shit. They may not care, in the same way that if you have been puking sick for seven years looking at smirkjob's face, you just want to stop retching. And maybe I am wrong, and Obama is being very shrewd and devious, faking looking like the same old shit to get the establishment support that is need to avoid the pattern in U.S. politics, that anyone who would carry through on promises for real change will get stomped down by his or her party before the voters get a chance to choose them. I doubt that Obama is the real deal.

Kerry's question, 'How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?' may have fooled people into thinking he was antiwar in 2004. Sorry. Obama has been very careful to avoid voting for the war since he declared his candidacy, but he did vote against the Troop Redeployment Amendment in 2006. In his explanation of his vote, Obama said

But having visited Iraq, I am also acutely aware that a precipitous withdrawal of our troops, driven by congressional edict rather than the realities on the ground, will not undo the mistakes made by this administration. It could compound them.

It could compound them by plunging Iraq into an even deeper and, perhaps, irreparable crisis.

We must exit Iraq, but not in a way that leaves behind a security vacuum filled with terrorism, chaos, ethnic cleansing and genocide that could engulf large swaths of the Middle East and endanger America. We have both moral and national security reasons to manage our exit in a responsible way.

If Obama can point to his 2002 speech, the 2006 speech from which the preceding is taken certainly seems relevant. Even his 2002 speech raises doubt about his anti-war commitment, as he said "I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."

Will somebody please ask Obama what was moral or responsible about voting against this amendment, resulting in an Iraq that in 2007 saw unprecedented levels of terrorism, chaos, ethnic cleansing, and genocide? Will some please ask him why he was engaged in groundless fearmongering in 2006, and whether he will return to it in 2009?