The Rs have shown strange on defense. And yielded to the liberal 'diplomacy first' approach. But it was President Obama's proven martial record that saved the day. Along with, the support of Leader Pelosi Reid and Hoyer. Hillary Clinton stepped up, 'this is real.' Assad blinked. He did not want to end up in a bad place fooling around with Barrack Obama. Over there, they know better.
Strong defense people are again up for grabs. This was another show of R-con faintness on defense. They won't be able to easily run on the ole' 'We strong the Democrats weak.' - a mainstay of several past elections.
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Over here? Some Progressives need to get with it. 'Obama has taken away the Rcons main issue.'
First. We don't allow women and children, people to be gassed. Even Nick Kristof got that.
"When history looks back on this moment, will it view those who opposed intervening as champions of peace?" he asked. "Or, when the textbooks count the dead children, and the international norms broken with impunity, will our descendants puzzle that we took pride in retreating into passivity during this slaughter?"
The R-cons are the ones deeply stuck in ideologies and living largely in short sighted one way echo chambers. Thus Putin is now 'their hero'. Democrats have to really govern, figure things out. Progressives don't need a 'Mr. Rush' type to be held to some 'ideological purity' We, as D-pros, think for ourselves and govern based on properly reading the dynamic facts of life society and economics.
In retaking the House and Senate in '14 the Democrats new strength on defense and now widely accepted progressive approach to foreign policy has to be carefully reflected melded and then pounded in red districts. The R cons are also weak because the sequester has hurt defense jobs.
'Peace through real strength.' is a pretty fair policy and plank to run on when being executed by a Democratic President of the caliber of Barrack Obama, indeed it is largely how the 2012 election was won. In that second and third debate President Obama crushed Republican Candidate Romney, on it. If not for Gerry-mandered districts, that message would have surely helped take the House. This is important in the context of legitimacy. Nancy Peolsi has had to do most of the heavy lifting to make things work even on matters of war and peace. She should be The Speaker of the House.
As safety order and a peace plan in the region is moved, this exchange in Syria will help even going into '14. The new process should help 'give peace a chance.' President Obama's upcoming UN Speech should be a fascinating thing to watch.
The country looks ready to move forward. Even the Business Round Table corporations and banks are tired and if Rcons play with the debt ceiling on 'affordable health care'. Whew. 'They have few plans and represent small and shrinking markets. Plus they bring a whole lot of extra aggravation to the governing process.'
America does not need the sophomoric drama. There are a whole lot of new opportunities on the table, good exciting win-win deals to make both here and abroad, to put people back to work and living good lives regardless.
They, The R-cons, have even scared Sheldon Addelson and Bibi Netanyanu who look to be backing President Obama's hardball Mideast plays. One could imagine they are shocked to see R-conservatives side with Valdmir Putin when it came time to...
Here is the video trans script
>> unbelievable. let's get to our panel right now. joining us now is steve clemens, washington editor at large for "the atlantic" and michael crowley, senior correspondent for "time" magazine. and michael, i want to start with you. did you ever think you would live to see the day where the far right in the united states would swoon like this over the russian president?
>> it's a little surreal, jonathan, i have to say. but, you know, to some degree, i think it's any weapon at hand. you know, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. so they -- you know, conservatives love the fact that putin is needling obama, and i think for some of them, at least, they're being pretty super sillous about this and willing to kind of -- willing to sort of in some way side with someone who they fundamentally deplore, and there is something a little bit dishonest about it. i don't think it's that big a deal. the guy wrote an op-ed in the "new york times." he's cynical, it was obnoxious, it wasn't like some great humiliation for president obama. the enemy of my enemy is my friend and i guess that's how conservatives see it now.
>> cynical, obnoxious, two good words to use for critics of the president. if you were advising the president right now, what would you tell him to do about syria and putin? what would you tell him?
>> first thing i would probably tell him to hire the guy who wrote putin's op-ed. because the clarity of the putin op-ed compared to the messaging we've had out of the administration over the last, you know, 10, 12 days is, you know, really big gap. i think the other part of it is, let vladimir putin strut his stuff. let him get more and more on the hook for delivering syria. let him being -- he's gone in two weeks from being the most villainized guy to being the hero that saved the day. and if you poll putin around the world, he's popular right now. so he's on the hook for delivering on his proposal to syria. and delivering on getting rid of those chemical weapons. so i think the white house, you know, can laugh all the way to success on this. and give him some credit. even though i think president obama probably was the original source for this concept.
>> right. michael, help us understand what's going on, if you can. in vladimir putin's head. this week, you write he clearly feels obama has, at a minimum, tried to undermine him within russia. his "times" op-ed may have been in a small way returning the favor. what did you mean by that?
>> yeah. what i wrote was not in an effort to defend putin, but help people understand how he sees us. he sees america going around the world and aggressively changing regimes. so in some cases military force, iraq, libya. he thinks what our goal in iran or at least he says is not just about to stop the nuclear program, to change the regime. he wants to change the regime in syria. he's also seen what -- doing what he says, meddling closer to his borders, georgia and ukraine. and most importantly, americans have to remember in late 2011, early 2012, he said hillary clinton had fermented it, the u.s. ambassador to russia was a revolutionary agitator, kicked usaid out of the country, giving millions of dollars to democracy activists. some i think is posturing. but, you know, talking to people who understand the guy, russia experts, they say there is an element here where he thinks america wants to go around the world changing regimes and he's on our list. and not that we're going to go and embalm him, but we might be subverting him through the political process. i think that drives him absolutely crazy.
>> wow. great. so steve, then why should people in the united states listen to someone whose persecuted gays in his own country, persecuted the political opposition, crushed the senate. why are we taking pointers from this guy?
>> russia has a lot of nuclear weapons and a member of the permanent five in the united nations, they matter. they've got oil and energy reserves that matter. there aren't a lot of major international problems in the world that can't be solved without russia's support. so we have to deal with them. we may not like them. we may not like what they do. we try and influence each other. i think michael got it exactly right on all of the problems. and we've engaged on everything from georgia where georgia's president, you know, was in washington once and said he wasn't worried about being provocative towards russia, because he had american servicemen staying in his hotels. so at that point, you do have a lot of tension that's bit over time. and putin is trying to position himself as being the ronald reagan of russia, creating a mourning in america, trying to revitalize a russian pride in itself. so using these dust stops in the united states as way to accomplish this. america can't completely disregard him. but when he stands up and says, hey, i can deliver on syria, we can help get them into the chemical weapons convention, he is simultaneously positioning himself, but giving barack obama what president obama really wants. and you know this president. this president is willing to forego a little bit of ego and press time if, in fact, he can achieve the greater global public good. and, if you know, this comes together, it's a miracle, but it's a miracle worth seeing through.
>> right. absolutely. you're right on that. michael, i think this is the last question to you. how much of this that's going -- going to change america's international role? are we back now to a bipolar contest between the united states and russia that's going to drive world affairs?
>> well, i think it's -- particularly going to be hard to do justice to that question the time we have. i'm not sure there is a simple answer. i think the first thing that comes to my mind when you ask that is that china's power is only growing. china's incredibly important. they're not a major player in this particular issue. but for instance, if you look at a place like pakistan, still kind of an ongoing crisis in american foreign policy that we're probably going to have to have some reckoning with, china is a big player there. north korea, i could go on. i don't think we're quite at the point we're at a by polar world. clearly putin is asserting himself and we're dealing with russia in years and months to come.
>> steve, i'm sorry, i lied. that was the last question. what's the next step in this crisis. what should people be keeping an eye out for?
>> well, detail. john kerry is meeting sergey lavrov to get down to a detail that would identify secure manifests for chemical weapons which syria dispersed in hidden places all over the country. so while russia is promising they'll deliver, syria is not being cooperative. so the detail of how this process gets dealt and done with is vital to knowing whether president obama will decide, is this credible, is vladimir putin really delivering. and if he's not, you're going to see chuck hagel has been out calling these ship captains and thank them for their perseverance for staying out in this area of the world and will make sure those soldiers are ready to attack.
>> this has been a great conversation, guys. thanks so much. steve clemens and michael crowley.