Blogito, Ergo Sum
by Gregg Calkins
11 December 2010, a Saturday
"Yeah, but we’re Muslims" Dept:
The attorney general defended the use of sting operations orchestrated by government informants.
We’ve used sting operations against members of our own congress, so you guys can just sit back down and stop complaining. If you want to be part of this country, try harder.
Add
credibility says the NYTimes:They have been foes and they have been, kind of, friends. And on Friday afternoon, President Obama and former President Bill Clinton walked unexpectedly into the White House briefing room for a news conference that was part surreal flashback, part one-two political punch.
With Mr. Obama standing largely silently at his side, Mr. Clinton took over the lectern to lend his backing to the tax compromise the White House reached this week with Republicans. And then Mr. Clinton went on, for half an hour, answering questions and holding forth on topics from triangulation to Haiti to the mortgage crisis and the nuclear arms treaty with Russia.
Even after the 44th president excused himself and left the room, the 42nd went on.
The Washington Post put it thusly:
Ex-president's solo turn in White House briefing room seems at least a temporary handoff of power by Obama as he struggles to right own presidency.
Hallway audio heard someone unidentified muttering "I know I invited that jerk to help lend me credibility in the racist white south but on the whole I think I made a mistake. Where’s the damn circuit-breaker for that microphone. Do not—I repeat DO NOT—let him anywhere near the Oval Office! If he gets in there and takes a hostage we’re in trouble. Anyone know where Hillary is?"
Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont denounced the president’s tax compromise for more than eight hours.
Another item:
Nobody is listening, but the above items are one of the major reasons I argue that ALL bills should be single-issue bills and voted independently on their merits. That way you could not ‘defend’ your vote on "tax cuts for the wealthy" by saying you did it only for "unemployment benefits extension" or some other reason. All should be separate bills: income tax rates; extension of unemployment benefits; inheritance taxes; and so on. Let each senator and representative be clearly identified on each issue. Let...
What’s that? They don’t like that part of my idea? Oh...
For many readers facing foreclosure, getting banks to respond is the hard part.
My advice: write your letter on a check for $1 and send it to them.
Back to politics, where Colbert I King warns:
Since the Democratic Party's "
shellacking" in last month's midterm elections, speculation has been growing about a possible 2012 presidential primary challenge to President Obama launched by his party's disgruntled left. Talk of a primary challenge has only ratcheted up following Obama's announcement of the tax deal he cut this week with congressional Republicans.Warning: If the Democratic left does to Obama in 2012 what it did to incumbent President Carter in 1980 via Ted Kennedy's damaging Democratic presidential primary challenge - or what the Republican right did to incumbent President George H.W. Bush in 1992 with Pat Buchanan's entry into the GOP primary - the Democratic party as a whole will find itself paying a steep price for years to come.
That's a promise, not a threat.
Whew, good thing you explained that last part. Of course, some Democrats, looking at what just happened and peering head toward 2012, are already worrying about the price of NOT doing it. In perhaps typical liberal fashion they are more worried about their own seats than the party as a whole, which appears to be in pieces, anyhow.
It's a pretty safe bet that Obama could beat back a contender or contenders for the 2012 Democratic Party nomination. But, as with the experiences of Carter and Bush in their damaging primary struggles, Obama would be forced to devote organization, energy and money to winning renomination, three precious resources best reserved for a general election.
If the bet is really that safe then he won’t need to battle that hard, will he? Word is that he already has 95% of the black and young vote already locked up. The blacks will show up in that proportion to prove that racism is not involved in their choice and the young will show up because he has brilliantly fulfilled all of their hopes and dreams and...well, we think they will show up in those numbers...we certainly hope so. One nice thing about the young: we can tell them it was all Bush’s fault and they’ll still believe it. Yes, I know they are four years older than the first time, but remember what one wise man said: there’s a new one born every minute!
Perhaps those on the purist Democratic left - not one of whom could have won a presidential race in 2008 and not one of whom can make it to the White House in 2012 - refuse to recognize what Obama has accomplished in two short years, even in the face of rock-solid Republican opposition. His supporters know better.
And make no mistake, those Obama supporters - not those faux Washington friends, but the rank and file around the country - will take note of his treatment by the left. And they will, if necessary, repay.
A promise, not a threat.
Sort of like when you bump into someone on the street and he pulls a knife and says gimme your wallet or I’ll cut you...and that’s a promise, not a threat.
Mr King, when you promise to "repay" treatment against you that you don’t like, that’s called a threat.
I promise.
Here’s a threat for you to envision. After Obama’s approval rating has fallen into the low 30s and Hillary has left her position in order to "spend more time with my family" and do Good Works In General, like her husband, while honoring her promise to not seek higher office, she will oh-so-reluctantly answer her party’s call for salvation and accept their draft.
Mr King, ah, ‘promises’ the "purist Democratic left" that Obama will win in 2012 if he doesn’t have a primary challenge to distract him, but the moment that HIS PARTY MEMBERS (the people who already have complained that Obama thinks more about himself than he does about them) decide he might very well lose they will wisely choose to back another horse they think has better chances.
After all, they will reason, isn’t it better off to have Hillary win, a Democrat, than some Republican defeat their historic president? Especially since he was historic for only one single reason, and that’s already in the history books? (That’s the problem with doing something historic...you can only do it once. ... What’s that? He could be the first black president ever to be reelected? Hmm, well, that’s a point.)
Well, I can’t say that I really see a Republican candidate on the 2012 time horizon who really rings my chimes, nor do I fall into the category of people who believe the worst Republican is better than the best Democrat, but, frankly, as of this moment if I was the Republican candidate I’d rather face Obama than Hillary.
Obantology has recapitulated Bushongny to the point where not only has he polarized all of the members of the Republican party, whose primary goal has become his defeat, but also managed to disaffect all but his most loyal, the black and the young.
What kind of patriot would Hillary be not to put down her knitting and answer her party’s call in their hour of desperate need, however much she hated the very notion of running one more time against Barry, the guy who should not have won the first time because he was an untested and inexperienced candidate who would have to learn on-the-job.
If he learned at all.
Hillary can afford to enter the campaign late, too, unlike any other Democrat. She has, after all, outstanding name recognition, a solid and loyal following, campaign cash she won’t even have to spend time asking for, and all of her campaign scripts and talking points against Obama have already been written, polished, and are more applicable than ever. Plus one more: if you don’t nominate me this time, you’ll get a Republican president in November.
Mr King actually worries more about saving Obama’s presidency than he does maintaining the grip on the office for the Democrat Party. Mr King is for Obama, first and foremost. So, liberal Democrats are increasingly beginning to think, is President Obama.
Don’t think Hillary isn’t watching things like the latest McClatchy poll and
this:Overall, just 42 percent of registered voters approve of how he’s doing his job, while 50 percent disapprove.
Obama’s standing among Democrats dropped from a month ago, with his approval rating falling to 74 percent from 83 percent, and his disapproval rating almost doubling, from 11 percent to 21 percent.
Among liberals, his approval rating dropped from 78 percent to 69 percent and his disapproval rating jumped from 14 percent to 22 percent.
In a hypothetical match-up with ... Romney he actually trails by two.
He beats Sarah Palin, though, which should comfort nervous Democrats. Hillary, who’d rather die than see Romney beat Obama, has to be prepared for her worst nightmare: being drafted to run again. Ah, sure.
On a perhaps related note, this just in from
Georgia:Two African-American Democrats on Thursday announced that they were joining the Republican Party.
She’d come so close in the primaries that State was the only job that didn’t seem like a demotion. Besides, signing on to his team wasn’t viewed as giving up anything in 2012 because there was no hope of challenging him. And 2016 was too far off to game.
But the demigod turns out to have clay feet, and Clinton is now stuck to him. He’s fallen and she can’t get up.
And the question that gets asked regularly now is, "
Will Obama get primaried?" But I think that’s the wrong question. Typically, any President who disillusions his base, ends up with a primary challenger. George H.W. Bush over "read my lips," Lyndon Johnson over Vietnam, Gerald Ford for detente, and Jimmy Carter for practically everything. And then that President goes on to lose the general election*, because the primary challenger was too weak to defeat him, but strong enough to wound him.That is, a President who can’t master his own party cannot continue to master the country.
So the question we should ask is: If Obama gets primaried, who will be his challenger? Someone from the center, a moderate? Unlikely. Challengers typically come from the disillusioned base (Eugene McCarthy, Ronald Reagan, Teddy Kennedy) or the wacky extreme (Pat Buchanan). So the idea of Hillary rising from Obama’s ashes to take him on seems pretty silly.
The challenger must be someone from the Super Lefty Left. To defeat the master, the challenger must be able to release Obama’s grip on the African American vote — and no such person exists. Put simply: Obama will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee in 2012.
But is there someone strong enough to inflict that mortal wound? A person also deluded enough (or simply upset enough) to make a run at the master? Not yet, there isn’t, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be.
Stay tuned.
Logical...as long as the underlying assumptions are valid. Not so logical, though, if they are not.
One: Hillary is not stuck with Obama. She’s already made noises about what she will do "afterward" and she has been SoS long enough to have earned her creds and demonstrated her loyalty. She can decide to retire after the inauguration and give Obama the opportunity to nominate a new face, it’s time for her to sniff the roses.
Two: This presumes the challenger will be someone openly opposed to Obama. But Hillary can run against him while at the same time professing her loyalty, in classic two-faced fashion.
Three: this is because she can wait to be drafted, pretend to be deeply torn and agonized over the decision, declare her loyalty to Barry’s ideals (hoping to pick up his base) while crying crocodile tears about the country just not being ready for him yet, the country’s loss, and all that, so sorry...blah blah blah. Come on, surely you can write that script for your own amusement.
There’s an idea...maybe I should write Hillary’s acceptance speech for her. ... I want the American people to know that all I truly longed for was a chance to do good in retirement, like my wonderful husband has done, having devoted my life to public service, but like just like the retired fire-wagon horse, who when the fire bell rings discovers he has a purpose in life that won’t end until he’s dead and gone, to serve and to save, so, too, I must reluctantly accept this draft notice as my own fire-bell rings. (Author’s note--avoid looking like the silly Kerry "reporting for duty" fiasco.)
Sorry, Bill, but our second honeymoon has to be postponed, just as it was for so many Americans drafted to serve in America’s wars they never wanted but had to win because that was their duty. And I am a slave to duty. (A.N. – avoid sounding too Gilbert & Sullivanish here.) Wars that had the right goals, but suffered from leadership not suited to the task, even through no fault of their own. (A.N. – carefully work in pro-Iraqi war vote while invoking Bush screwup? Hold until last moment for Afghanistan reference and Obama.)
Barack Obama has been just such a fine leader but the time wasn’t right for some of his ideas and he also suffered, unfortunately, from the inexperience I warned you about back in 2008. I fully sympathized with his plight as I tried to aid and counsel him as SoS, because I’ve spent a hard lifetime of my own gaining valuable experience. Many of you know how long and hard I’ve worked, and yet I cannot help but heed your call in this our country’s time of need. We dare not, we MUST not let our country fall further into Republican hands, and so I have decided your call must be answered... (A.N. – work in reference to retired fire-horse answering call, no matter what, preferring to die in harness, etc etc etc, while avoiding reference to being too old or likely to die in office. Be careful here. Problem to be resolved: how to praise v.p. selection early while pretending to be surprised at draft call.)
Hey, this is just off-the-cuff. Give me an hour and I’ll work it up for you with bells and whistles.