There is NO competition at all between Obama and McCain when it comes to understanding the middle east, and the world for that matter.
Time has just released the latest interview from Obama, after visiting Iraq and Afghanistan, were he explains the daunting task in both Iraq and Afghanistan, BUT ESPECIALLY Afghanistan. His answers prove that indeed he was there to listen and understand the situation, not just a photo-op.
And I'm willing to bet that General Petraeus was impressed with Obama.
*OH! and he take a brilliant jab at McCain by the way!
When I began my last diary on this website, I reported that if I spent more than 10 minutes writing it, I was wasting time.
The diary was a waste of time, like all of my diaries - most of which are about energy although sometimes they are about Ulysses S. Grant - but the fact that it was a waste of time did not depend on how many minutes it took to write the diary, an amount which fell, happily, in to the category, "not much."
I spent part of the time wasted saying how I love to say, "The bold is mine."
Then I finished the diary by saying, "Time's up."
As it happens, I like to say that too, "Time's up," especially when I am confronted with some fantastic energy scheme that is supposed to save our asses from now inevitable tragedy or even better, keep our Western car culture lifestyle. (Can you say 'Tesla?')
This is not meant to be an argument, it is meant to engage discussion on a topic that I have not seen covered.
I have given up hope on most MSM television of being fair and balanced. Lord knows the king of advertising being "fair and balanced" fox is anything but. If I have to sit thru Hannity (And this is coming from a conservative) I would rather drink a glass of bird poop. (Sorry for the early morning visual.
If I had it to do over, I would begin this sentence again. I just don’t like how it’s turning out; it’s so seven seconds ago. In truth, however, the distance between two sentences is an infinity. Each word is a candle placed between facing mirrors – receding endlessly into a long-forgotten past, extending eternally into an unknowable future.
(Aside) There is an ancient Russian traditional method of cleansing, i.e. energy, as in negative in a room or house, that uses such a combination of candles and mirrors. "Traditional Russian healers believed that all forms of negative energy would be pulled inside the corridor created by two mirrors and so disappear forever" and that this method would clear the negative energy from a single room.
Seems James Poniewozik (an Obama supporter)at TIME Magazine goes after KO for his blistering Special Comment on HRC and RFK last Friday night. Whether one agrees with the merits or not, Poniewozik writes:
The substance (or lack thereof) of the controversy notwithstanding...Olbermann is edging ever-closer to self-parody, or, worse, predictability. (As soon as the Clinton gaffe broke, blog commenters were wondering how ballistic he would go, and he obliged, and how.) Even if we concede his argument—that Clinton was at best callously and at worst intentionally suggesting she should stay in the race because Obama might be killed—every time he turns up the volume to 11 like this lately, he sounds like just another of the cable gasbags he used to be a corrective to.
So says this gem of an article by Peter Hart at Fairness in Accuracy and Reporting (FAIR). The Press Corps’ Unshakeable Crush on McCain, whose title I borrowed for this diary, is the most comprehensive and well-researched piece I have found in exposing the media's unconditional swooning over John McCain, Maverick.
You knew it all the time, but you ain't gonna believe some of the stuff you're about to read below the fold.
So, my dad keeps forwarding me the craziest stuff about Obama and Hillary, [yeah, CRAZY stuff that snopes.com refutes everyday] so I retooled the great post "You Think McCain Is Here To Help" from DNC.org with some added facts and related it to something we both shared, Family Values, and am urging him to forward it to his friends. I thought some people on here might do the same but minus the ID CD-2 stuff. Enjoy!
For over two months I've been waiting for it. The Post Mortems, the point at which the media declares a campaign dead, and begins to dissect it in excrutiating detail. Of course, in this case the body was brain dead after the Wisconsin vote, but through a combination of self-loans, chutzpah, negative campaigning and sheer political will, the Clintons have kept their bid for the nomination on life support.
Yesterday Atrios had a post calling attention to a brief Time Swampland blog posting by political reporter Karen Tumulty. And I do mean brief. In reference to the recently announced firing of GSA Head Lurita Doan (likely Hatch Act violator for asking staff what they could do to help assure the election of loyal bushies), Tumulty posted a single line...."What took so long?"
But as Atrios quickly noted, a Google search reveals that TIME itself had devoted exactly 0 words to that subject then or since it happened. Yet another example of the failure of the MSM to do its job.
Tumulty's post drew a sizable number of response posts, the vast majority of them critical, sometimes heatedly so, of the media's performance overall and Tumulty responded....finally in frustration...saying that she was going back to cover health care issues and leave the posters to "their bile." But what TIME apparently did next says volumes about their actions.....
The top story buzzing on the Drudge Report and wire services this morning is a story on how tired the Democratic candidates are after all this campaigning. I, for one, am tired of those kinds of empty-headed puff pieces that seem to attract the American attention like a Sugar Daddy stuck to an old shoe.
In honor of my growing exhaustion with this campaign's fixation on exhaustingly moronic topics, I bring you a Top Ten list of other stories that need to be put to rest:
10. Family Fluff - I don't need to hear about these people's kids. Let's wait a few years before infusing their home lives with soap opera high hokum in an entertaining Shotime series. ...
Time magazine's Amanda Ripley has a page turner about Sen. Obama's mother, Stanley Dunham.
Amanda is as good a writer as you can get and I'm glad she was the one asigned to do this piece. Her piece was effective because, I believe, like me she was moved by Obama's mom when she first read about her in Obama's first book, Dreams from my father.
In a column, Petraeus Meets His Match, in the real, 3.4 million reader TIME, Joe Klein writes about Obama's questions on Tuesday.
The first bit of good news is that he noticed. Obama did a remarkable job of pinning down the Petraeus and Crocker on the elephant in the room--that there is no end state that would have the US withdrawing forces from Iraq that is the least bit plausible in the next five to ten years.
Hillary Clinton rested her chin on her right hand, and wore her glasses to read the poster board graphs. Barack Obama reclined in his chair with a studied look. John McCain exuded optimism.
Clinton and Obama are passive. But John McCain is actively exuding stuff even when he is just sitting in his chair. Or as Swampland commenter Paul-no not that one put it
Physical description, physical description, fan boy take.
