Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

[GatewaySnayke]

And why write a policy speech on his plan for managing Iraq BEFORE he went there and looked at the situation?

I dunno, but we should ask John McCain why he wrote out a plan for managing Afghanistan when he hadn't visited since December 2006.

[Hudler]

Ben Stein and Glenn Beck are drawing comparisons between Obama and Hilter.

I'm skeptical about this. Stein's a pretty reasonable guy.

Stein likes Hitler comparisons. His Expelled movie, for example, claims that belief in natural selection leads to Nazism. For the most part, I just find Stein kind of dopey. I don't understand why he's a national political commentator.

Ben Stein has been fairly involved in politics his whole life and has worked as a speach writer in Nixon's administration and done campaign work too I think. Take the Nixon thing however you want.

[Cole Burns]

Glenn Beck [is] drawing comparisons between Obama and Hilter.

This really unnerved me the other day. Do I think it was pretentious of Obama to go on this whirlwind world tour? Yes. Do I think he has the right to do so? Yes! Does it make him fascist when people treat him like a rockstar? Preposterous!

The analogy goes:

Obama is "Wildly Popular" => "Fascist" => "Messianic"

There's one for the non-sequitor thread.

I enjoy listening to Glenn Beck for entertainment value only. But I can't listen to him more than about 3 days in a row for a couple weeks at a time. His predictions are always obscenely dire and never right.

I think only ideologues(and mormon stay-at-home moms) take his political opinions to heart.

[GatewaySnayke]

This really unnerved me the other day. Do I think it was pretentious of Obama to go on this whirlwind world tour?

I disagree, sir. It was the McCain campaign that practically begged Obama into visiting The World and I think it's silly for them to cry about it now. As I pointed out earlier, McCain has been visiting abroad, the exception being that nobody gravitates toward him like they did for Obama. I only got upset when they started [expletive] about how "unfair" the media is.

[Cole Burns]

This really unnerved me the other day. Do I think it was pretentious of Obama to go on this whirlwind world tour?

I disagree, sir. It was the McCain campaign that practically begged Obama into visiting The World and I think it's silly for them to cry about it now. As I pointed out earlier, McCain has been visiting abroad, the exception being that nobody gravitates toward him like they did for Obama. I only got upset when they started [expletive] about how "unfair" the media is.

McCain was suggesting a joint visit to Iraq. My point wasn't about Obama stepping outside US soil. It was the entourage of news anchors that followed him in tow. It was like it was a concert tour or something. I don't even mind him meeting with world leaders, but stop campaigning in Germany.

[clement]

I can see your point, Cole, but the campaigning in Germany is relevant in the context of the current administration. Bush has so greatly diminished our relationships with our allies and one can see a tour of the EU as a step toward telling that part of the world that if Obama is elected, you will see a different approach to world diplomacy. And I think there are enough people on American soil who are concerned about what Bush has done, that this tour of Europe is seen as a positive among voters at home. The rabidness of the crowds and the reporters following him is just a reflection of how badly people want to see a change at the top. And for most over there, whether right or wrong, they see a potential McCain presidency as a continuation of the Bush foreign policy doctrine.

And McCain's invitation to Obama to tour Iraq with him was 100% a politically motivated offer.

[Cole Burns]

I can see your point, Cole, but the campaigning in Germany is relevant in the context of the current administration. Bush has so greatly diminished our relationships with our allies and one can see a tour of the EU as a step toward telling that part of the world that if Obama is elected, you will see a different approach to world diplomacy. And I think there are enough people on American soil who are concerned about what Bush has done, that this tour of Europe is seen as a positive among voters at home.

I'm only saying that the approach is pretentious. It was almost like a pre-victory lap. "Once I'm president (and we all know that's a formality)..." It had an air to it. But look at my original post: He had every right to go on this trip. He just may suffer some backlash in the fly-over states for how it came off.

The rabidness of the crowds and the reporters following him is just a reflection of how badly people want to see a change at the top. And for most over there, whether right or wrong, they see a potential McCain presidency as a continuation of the Bush foreign policy doctrine.

Disagree. It has to do with Obama's charisma. Hillary didn't get these types of crowds. No other "change" candidate got these types of crowds. But anyway, I don't fault Obama for this. It's the people treating him like a rockstar, he hasn't (to my knowledge) sought this out.

And McCain's invitation to Obama to tour Iraq with him was 100% a politically motivated offer.

Agree 100%. When I first heard about it I knew it was McCain trying to get in front of this trip. I'm surprised he didn't make more out of this.

[GatewaySnayke]

Any comments on Maverick and his attack dogs going after Obama for not visiting wounded soldiers? As Mr. Great American himself put it -- Obama would rather work out than visit the troops and he didn't do it because his traveling press corps wasn't allowed to take pictures of it.

[GatewaySnayke]

Senator Doesn't Care About The Troops may get a break if the media picks this up:

NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports that there was never a plan for Obama to take the press to Landstuhl, despite the claim by McCain folks and others. The plan was to go with his military aide, retired General Scott Gration. The Pentagon said Gration was off-limits because he had joined the campaign -- violating rules that it not be a political stop.

Obama had gone to see wounded troops in Iraq earlier in the week, without even confirming he'd been there. No press, no pictures. He has done the same when he goes to Walter Reed -- never any press.

[fulldeck]

An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States...a point to ponder despite your political affiliation:

We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you people are even bothering to
hold an election in the United States.

On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another
lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated
primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to
yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to
run!

Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with
the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns
a beer distributorship !!

What in God's name are ya lads thinkin over in the colonies?!