It probably seemed like a good idea at the time for Rob Portman – accepting the nomination to be George W. Bush’s trade representative, precisely 5 years ago today. After all, Rob Portman, now a famed Birther, who happily laughs at jokes claiming Barack Obama is an illegal alien, is a true believer in zero regulation of markets, to the point of ideological purity.
Today, 5 years later, we Ohioans live in the world Rob Portman’s slavish devotion to his ideology has created – a nuclear winter aftermath of total economic collapse created entirely by Republican dogma, a dogma whose apex Rob Portman achieved precisely 5 years ago today. This one goes out to you, Rob Portman. I’m sure this will all ring a bell to you.
I’ve been saying this to people for a while, but I haven’t blogged it in a while. Time to fix that!
Democrats will be able to defeat Republicans by running against George W. Bush for decades to come.
Repeat.
DECADES.
And if Democrats don’t do precisely that in 2010, they will be committing political malpractice. Some dude running for some random office 20 years from now in Anytown, USA, will have taken a picture with George W. Bush at his college Republican shindig and will whine about that picture’s use against him, and he’ll still lose because of that picture.
The best current evidence of this? Watch how fast Republicans whine about it. Watch that knee jerk crybaby thing happen, like clockwork. “All Barack Obama does is blame George W. Bush WAHAHHHHHH!” You know you have Republicans by the nuts when they squeal like stuck pigs so quickly.
The reason they squeal so loud, so fast? Because it works, and will work, FOR DECADES. Every time. Why does it work? BECAUSE IT’S TRUE, and it will remain true for a very, very long time.
Every day, Americans walk by the wreckage of George W. Bush’s Republican dogma. We pay for George W. Bush’s policies at the doctor’s office, if we can even afford to go to one. We pay for George W. Bush’s policies at the gas pump, every single time we fill up our gas tank. We pay in airports abroad when foreigners laugh at us and in veterans’ halls where parents pay tribute to their fallen children. Almost a quarter of us pay for George W. Bush’s policies with our jobs. If we even have a job, we pay for George W. Bush’s policies with our lower wages and our vulnerability in our own workplace.
WE will pay for George W. Bush’s policies as a country for DECADES.
That means there will be hell to pay on the ballot, FOR DECADES, until voters can no longer find anyone on a ballot who IS responsible for George W. Bush’s policies.
John Kasich and Rob Portman are the perfect Republicans to be first in line. Portman is responsible for George W. Bush’s trade policies, and Kasich for Bush’s budget policies. That makes them both road kill – the first at the head of a long line of Republicans who will pay with their political careers for the policies of George W. Bush under the wheels of a freight train of payback bearing down on them with the heavy momentum of history.
This Democrat intends to make them pay. Every Democrat running for every office up and down the ballot FOR DECADES had better make Republicans pay, too.
Watching Republicans squeal themselves sick about it is just makes collecting that price a bit more enjoyable. There is no other pill to take, folks. Make them sleep in the fire.
Here’s a clue. Your latest attempts to build on the failed narrative from the last campaign that Obama is soft on terrorism is fraught with danger. I know it is tempting and nearly a tourette’s like tic with you guys, but you must know that you are entering a world of pain with this one. A world of pain.
Let’s imagine for a minute that you even have ground to stand on. We’ll act as if your current criticism for delays in White House comment on the Detroit crotch bomber aren’t met by a 6 day delay by Bush commenting on Richard Reid. Reid’s failed shoe bombing happened on December 21, 2001 – just 3 short months after 9/11. Bush commented on the incident on December 28. A full week later. He thanked the stewardess and said it proved we were all on high alert. Then Attorney General John Ashcroft commented that intelligence agencies were sharing information with the American people in order to “enlist our assistance”. I’m sure this instilled a great amount of confidence and a warm secure feeling among the American People.
Let’s also pretend your Obama bashing for taking a vacation doesn’t immediately remind people that George W. Bush was on vacation for the entire month of August in 2001 as dire warnings were coming in that al-Qaida was “determined to strike in the U.S.” and Zacarias Moussaoui was learning how to fly a jumbo jet.
Again, Bush took a solid month off tying Richard Nixon for the longest Presidential vacation. Yet some wingnuts want to holler about too much golf and such nonsense. We’ll just act like this month long vacation while dire warnings of an imminent attack came in never happened. Guess what Bush was doing the day after the PDB entitled “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US” was published?
Golfing.
Tip: If you are reading the “right-leaning” blogs in Ohio, stop. You won’t get any meaningful narratives that will stick. You’ll get a zinger or two here or there, but they are usually destroyed at will by us on the left. We’ve done it so much and with so much effectiveness we’ve begun to bore with it. Hell, we’ve even stopped reading them for the most part. It’s too easy.
Let’s also dismiss the entire notion of fixing the problem with intelligence agencies sharing data so that they might thwart future attacks. In a speech in February of 2003, then President Bush pledged to make information sharing an important tool in the “war on terror”. It wasn’t until 2007 that the Bush Administration published The National Strategy for Information Sharing. So much for a sense of urgency.
It all begs the question, really. How will you create a narrative about being soft on terrorism when your record shows you’ve been as ineffective over the course of two Presidential terms as you might claim this President has been in a quarter of one? Despite, mind you, the lack of a major attack on the country which you so proudly proclaim is your record of success.
Whose fault might it be that agencies don’t share data well enough to prevent a crotch bomber from getting on a plane bound for Detroit? Didn’t you have this fixed in the time between 2001 and 2008? It was obvious Republicans were working on this for years…or were they? I’ll stipulate they may have been a bit distracted by a war being waged on trumped up evidence in a country not related whatever to the current threat. A war which was spinning out of control and leading to unprecedented electoral defeat for the GOP. We’ll mark this down as duly noted.
So go for it. Bring on the soft on terrorism charges. They’ll be like political boomerangs on fire. They’ll revisit you and torch your narrative like a rich banker’s son’s nuts.
Go right ahead. Enter a world of pain if you must. Go down the road of reminding the American people how it is that the party in power during the most catastrophic attack on American soil is somehow able to now point the finger at the other party’s President and proclaim “soft on terror”.
Earlier I posted about how far we’ve come in executive leadership by noting an article about a con man who duped the Bush Administration into thinking he could decode Al Jazeera broadcasts that contained messages for terrorists.
The recent failed attempt to down a passenger jet over Detroit again reminds me of how far we’ve come. A diarist at DailyKos does a good job of putting together thoughts on something that occurred to me while watching the never-ending coverage of a rich Nigerian son who burned off his nut sack in an attempt to kill over 200 people in an attempted act of terror.
The contrast between the reactions is stunning. As the diarist points out, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder nails it:
There is a reason why Obama hasn’t given a public statement. It’s strategy.
Here’s the theory: a two-bit mook is sent by Al Qaeda to do a dastardly deed. He winds up neutering himself. Literally.
Authorities respond appropriately; the President (as this president is want to to) presides over the federal response. His senior aides speak for him, letting reporters know that he’s videoconferencing regularly, that he’s ordering a review of terrorist watch lists, that he’s discoursing with his Secretary of Homeland Security.
But an in-person Obama statement isn’t needed; Indeed, a message expressing command, control, outrage and anger might elevate the importance of the deed, would generate panic (because Obama usually DOESN’T talk about the specifics of cases like this, and so him deciding to do so would cue the American people to respond in a way that exacerbates the situation.
Obama of course will say something at some point. Had the terrorist blown up the plane, it;s safe to assume that Obama would no longer be in Hawaii. In either case, the public will need presidential fortification at some point. But Obama is willing to risk the accusation that he is “soft” on terrorism or is hovering above it all, or is just not to be bothered (his “head’s in the sand, “golfing comes first,” )in order to advance what he believes is the proper collective response to a failed act of terrorism.
Let the authorities do their work. Don’t presume; don’t panic the country; don’t chest-thump, prejudge, interfere, politicize (in an international sense), don’t give Al Qaeda (or whomever) a symbolic victory; resist the urge to open the old playbook and run a familiar play.
In a sense, he is projecting his calm on the American people, just as his advisers are convinced that the Bush Administration projected their panic and anger on the self-same public eight years ago.
Of course wingnuts longing for the days of Bush would rather have the President on a megaphone talking about how we’re going to re-invade Iraq or some shit. I’m sure they have and will go after Obama as irresponsible to go golfing instead of kill him some Moose-lims. It’s obvious those days are long gone. We have an adult in the White House. Their other point will most likely be that it “wasn’t on Bush’s watch”, though they failed to blame Bush for 9/11 in any way. Utterly predictable these loons.
Back in the day before such calm leadership graced the White House this would be an opportunity to exploit the fears of the American people. Put administration officials on TV, including the Vice President, and talk about how dangerous “these people” are and bend language to later justify some planned overstepping. Maybe Obama should invoke Bush and tell the American people if we don’t pass health care reform the terrorists like Abdulmutallab win.
Steve Benen (also linked by the Kos diarist), hits the other nail on the head:
Obama and his team obviously prefer a far more mature, strategic approach. It’s about projecting a sense of calm and control. It’s about choosing not to elevate some lunatic thug who set himself on fire.
Indeed, notice the pattern throughout the year. The Obama administration has taken out Saleh al-Somali, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, and Baitullah Mehsud, while taking suspected terrorists Najibullah Zazi, Talib Islam, and Hosam Maher Husein Smadi into custody before they could launch potential attacks.
In each case, there were no high-profile press conferences, no public chest-thumping, no desire to politicize the counter-terrorism successes. Indeed, most of the country probably never heard a word about any of these developments.
It’s about competent and effective leadership, and it’s what the country was sorely lacking up until 11 months ago.
Mouth breathing Obama bashing Palin sycophants only understand monosyllabic grunts that talk about Muslims, terr-rists, and war. They don’t even recognize competent leadership when they see it.
Amid all the HCR disappointment, Copenhagen hand wringing, and teabag nonsense, let’s remember just how far we’ve come. While the media and the right want to make a big deal of some White House attention seeking party crashers, today we note a report that a known liar and thief duped the Bush Administration into believing he could decode broadcasts from Al Jazeera into future actions of terrorists.
(Note: When your own attorney brands you a “habitual liar engaged in fraud”, that’s a bad thing)
You may remember some hinting among the right about terrorists using secret codes in Al Jazeera broadcasts. Turns out the basis for this was a con man who convinced the 9/11 punch drunk Bush Administration and Pentagon into thinking he had technology that could “crack the code” to understand what the terrorists would do next.
He couldn’t explain it. He couldn’t give them the algorithms, but they gave him money anyway and raised the terror alert level to Orange!
This was the level of incompetence of our former administration:
The federal government was acting on the Al Jazeera claims without even understanding how Montgomery found his coordinates. “I said, ‘Give us the algorithms that allowed you to come up with this stuff.’ They wouldn’t even do that,” says the first officer. “And I was screaming, ‘You gave these people fucking money?’”
The best part of it all is this delicious irony:
A branch of the French intelligence services helped convince the Americans that the bar codes were fake.
Freedom Fries ahoy!
We all too soon forget the travesty that was the Bush Administration and our dismissal of it and all it stood for. When we begin to judge how far from perfect our current administration is, let’s remember who re-calibrated the scale downward.
Speaking to the nation from the White House Treaty Room at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, on Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush announced the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban regime and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan:
I always appreciate it when a candidate opens up to questions online, which Jennifer Brunner did today at DailyKos on the subject of President Obama’s Afghanistan speech tomorrow. I like it even better when the candidate is responsive, which Jennifer was. When the issue is Afghanistan, and a couple of questions immediately reveal the Hobson’s choice Barack now faces, you really begin to appreciate just how thoroughly George W. Bush fucked up our country.
Bottom line, Jennifer says it’s “Time to Bring Home the Troops”, “as soon as possible”, but when asked how this would affect our pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, the Hobson’s choice is laid bare.
Not suggesting immediate withdrawal, but rather careful planning on a timetable for gradual withdrawal, such as is occurring in Iraq.
It is unclear to me how such a “timetable for gradual withdrawal” will lead to Osama Bin Laden’s capture or death. Perhaps Bin Laden is in Pakistan. perhaps he is in Afghanistan, who knows. I do know that unless we get Bin Laden, there will be no “success” in Afghanistan, either perceived or real.
The only reason Americans supported this war to begin with, and the only reason the deteriorating support even still exists, is because of Osama Bin Laden. The NANOSECOND that we get Bin Laden, wherever he is, American support for any involvement in Afghanistan will disappear, because it’s the ONLY reason we are there.
That is the definition of success for me. It should be the definition of success for our government, too, and I’d love to hear any candidate or elected official make that case. If gradual withdrawal from Afghanistan will increase the chances that we get Bin Laden, I’m all for it. If dancing naked down the streets of Columbus helps us get Bin Laden, I’m all for that, too.
The fact that Bin Laden is still around, more than 8 years after we went after him, is the fault of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, the Republican Party, and every fool who ever voted for them. When we do get Bin Laden, as I’m certain Barack Obama will eventually accomplish, Afghanistan is over.
After Tim published the last video from the all-night Palin book signing camp-out in Dublin Ohio, people began to ask us if we had more footage. But of course!
When we originally went out to see what was happening at the Border’s bookstore in suburban Columbus Ohio where people were camping out to be the first in line for a Sarah Palin book signing event, we had no idea what we’d be in for. It’s always this way. What was apparent right away was that these people were literally dug in for the long haul on their support of George W. Bush and unapologetic for having helped elect him and his disastrous administration.
When Tim came up with his “you can’t have it back because you fucked it up” line, it seemed to fit so well that not even those who were being told they fucked up our country seemed to object. They only did so once they began to realize what they were being accused of and they then searched in vain to find justifications for their past support of Bush and current support of the even more vapid Sarah Palin.
One such chap was someone we dubbed “duct tape dude”, a kid who had put duct tape over the McCain in his McCain-Palin tee shirt and replaced it with “2012″. Actually admitting in public that he wanted Sarah Palin to be our President in 2012. Game on:
Hanging around the Palin idiots as much as Eric and I did yesterday really gets you down. It’s hard to believe there are this many people in America this ignorant, and so proud to be so. Exhibit A is their utterly predictable reaction when someone tells them, straight up, “You voted for George W. Bush twice, you fucked up our country, you can’t have it back.”
There are no two single acts in the average American’s engagement in politics more responsible for the current state of our country than the act of voting for George W. Bush, twice. Try naming two bigger things the average American could have done to create the mess that Barack Obama has to clean up. Try it. You can’t.
Here’s how that conversation went whenever we began it yesterday with the Palin morons. After the initial shock that someone might actually call Republicans on this, the litany begins. All totally predictable, the same every single time, WITHOUT VARIATION, delivered with increasing agitation to the point of twitching rage.
First Utterly Predictable Spew of Horseshit – DID YOU EVER SERVE IN VIETNAM?
Hey, stupid. I was in elementary school when we pulled out of Vietnam, you dumbfuck. In fact, half the electorate doesn’teven remember Vietnam, which is a major reason Barack Obama got elected. So shove it up your ass, go wipe your tears with your American flag, can’t you even count?
Second Utterly Predictable Spew of Horseshit – IT’S THE DEMOCRATS’ FAULT!
George W. Bush took a $6 trillion surplus and turned it into debt as far as the eye can see with a Republican Congress. Then, George W. Bush gave us two unfunded wars, one of his choosing, the other of necessity, both of which he fucked up so bad not even Barack Obama may be able to fix the necessary one. Then, he drove the entire economic system to total collapse, like Herbert Hoover on crack, right before he handed it off. You voted twice for that, you stupid mother fucking dumbass fucktard. Twice.
Third Utterly Predictable Spew of Horseshit – BILL CLINTON GOT HIS DICK SUCKED!
As always, it inevitably turns to a discussion of genitalia, because Republicans are the most sex-obsessed dipshits in all of political discourse. This is also about the time the twitching begins, largely because of the mention of Bill Clinton’s name.
Fourth Utterly Predictable Spew of Horseshit – LOOK IN THE MIRROR, YOU FUCKED UP THE COUNTRY, NOT ME!
This is what a child sounds like when you catch them spraying their own urine all over the kitchen floor because it’s funny. Like children, Republicans who voted for George W. Bush, TWICE, still think it’s funny that they did this. Ha fucking ha.
It’s not funny. You fucked up our country, you god damned fucking idiots. And you cannot have it back. And until you accept responsibility for your actions, you won’t get it back. So pick up a mop, start cleaning up the mess you created, or eat me.
Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was “blindsided” by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush’s re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.
What’s the latest word from conservative whackosphere? Barack Obama was channeling George W. Bush when he gave the two standing orders to use force to rescue Captain Phillips. Barack drilled down into his inner cowboy and did exactly what George W. Bush would have done!
It’s pretty clear, isn’t it?
LOL. Right. I’ve had plenty of conversations lately with friends and other lefty bloggers about how incredibly easy it has become to make fun of the right. So much so that I generally don’t even feel like doing it. It’s no longer sporting. Fish in barrel and all that. From the tea party insanity to the recent Somali pirate fiasco, they’ve just come completely unglued and the hilarity of it is clear prima facie. Krugman has a great piece in which he basically says Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. Like me, he doesn’t feel it’s right to make fun of crazy people. Well, I might disagree as to the fun part – but it’s certainly not sporting anymore.
Enter the anonymous CPA in Cincinnati who goes by the name of Gordon Gekko. [Aside: That's about the perfect credentials for a wingnut right there. Anonymous. CPA. Cincinnati.] Gordo tries to recover from this incredibly embarrassing post by linking to some American Thinker claptrap about how Obama was only doing what George Bush would have done. The problem with that line of thinking?
It’s precisely false.
What George W. Bush did was call on the United Nations (collective wingnut gasp) to continue to usurp the God-given supremacy of these United States of the World to rule the high seas by doing stupid shit like cooperate with other nations instead of shooting pirates in the fucking head:
Shortly before leaving office, the Bush State Department issued statements supporting UN peacekeeping and LOST as remedies for the Somali pirate problem.
So what did the cowboy conservative Christian soldier badass do? He issued two factsheets.
Apparently nobody does. Funny how, in light of the bonus outrage, nobody calls it “The Paulson Plan” anymore. Hard to make political hay out of something if you have to bash your own side in order to get to your opponent I guess.
Some remember:
I’m still totally amazed at the excessive bonus outrage on the right. Welcome to the party boys! Your party has been allowing us to get ripped off for years. Now you want accountability? That’s funny, right there.
“There should be a dress code of respect,” Card tells INSIDE EDITION. “I wish that he would wear a suit coat and tie.”
Card is the first member of the Bush administration to bash Obama, and he’s going after him for forgoing a coat and tie.
“The Oval Office symbolizes…the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I’m going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it’s appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President.”
Card continued, “I don’t criticize Obama for his appearance, I do expect him to send the message that people who are going to be in the Oval Office should treat the office with the respect that it has earned over history.”
