“President-elect Obama dined Tuesday with “some of his fiercest intellectual adversaries,” said Jonathan Martin in Politico, including conservative writers George Will, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, and Paul Gigot. The off-the-record dinner was followed by a meeting on Wednesday with liberals and “prominent columnists” like E.J. Dionne, Maureen Dowd, and Frank Rich.” .. [TheWeek.com]
During the general election John McCain, Sarah Palin, and other prominent Republicans portrayed Obama as a liberal, and even as a socialist. They convinced many average Republicans that Obama would rule from the left and lead our nation into perdition.
Obama isn’t a fire-breathing radical, as his actions following his stunning victory have demonstrated. He selected liberals, moderates and even a couple of conservatives to serve on his cabinet. We can expect President Obama to lead from the center, bipartisanship will be the byword during his tenure in the White House.
During his eight years in office President Bush never had a dinner party with leading liberal intellectuals. Bush only consulted with neo-cons who shared vision of American=2 0hegemony spreading throughout the Middle East.
It bodes well for our country that Obama has the wisdom and self-confidence to meet with his conservative critics. I don’t agree with the conservative ideology of Obama’s dinner guests, but they are all intelligent and well-educated. Obama met with conservatives who are respected by everyone, and it’s worth noting that he didn’t extend an invitation to stupid blowhards like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
I’m sure that they didn’t sing Kumbaya before the dinner, and I’m sure that Obama was under no illusions that he would be able to persuade his conservative guests to become liberals.
Obama’s dinner was a bold statement that he will listen to all sides of an argument, and that’s a breath of fresh air coming after eight years of the imperial Bush presidency.
The ‘Drilla From Wasilla‘ — Is the biggest joke on America since Indiana’s Dan Quayle in 1988. Anyone supporting her is glorifying willful ignorance.
The more I get to know Sarah Palin (Via TV), the more I think McCain’s act of choosing a vice-presidential running mate, was like plucking a cheerleader out of dance routine — and rushing her to an OR to perform heart by-pass surgery on a dying patient.
How this lady became Governor beats me! What happened to the dictum — “Bad students finish last.”
Most politicians will lie, distort and embellish, but for Sarah its a different kind of lying — with a straight face, “Moose Eyes” and a smile.
Same lie(s) over and over!
This woman clearly has no idea what she’s talking about, but I have a strong feeling that — she thinks she knows!
After all, GOD IS ON HER SIDE! — Sealed and delivered by Kenyan “Evangelical Con-Man,” the “Bishop Witch-Doctor” of Kiambu, Kenya — Pastor Thomas Muthee.
What a comical embarrassment!
It is so incredible that Sarah still insists that Alaska’s proximity to Russia gives her sufficient foreign policy credentials.
Writing for Slate.com, Christopher Beam observes: In her first interview, with ABC’s Charlie Gibson, she blanked when asked about the Bush doctrine (and her unfamiliarity seemed to be with the phrase itself, not its meaning). Her sit-down with Fox’s Sean Hannity was convincingly compared to an infomercial. And in her latest face-to-face, with Katie Couric of CBS, she looked like a high-schooler trying to B.S. her way through a book report.
CBS Katie Couric Grills Sarah Palin
CNN’s Jack Cafferty: Sarah Palin Is NOT Qualified
There is a significant chance of Palin becoming president, due to the McCain’s age and history of Melanoma, and the thought of Sarah manning the “nuclear button” gives me the shivers.
Who would she turn to in case Vladimir Putin pointed one thousand nuclear tipped bombs at the United States — ready to shoot?
Even more risky is the prospect that she would be vulnerable to manipulation by the power-hungry THUG Bush neo-cons currently hovering around McCain, — and have been instrumental in pushing clueless George Bush into the dustbins of history.
One blogger doesn’t mince his words:
“This is a brilliant move by McCain to court the powerful “trailer trash” bloc, which has put Bush into office 2 straight terms. Look for Palin’s husband to get involved in several bar fights and car crashes, while Our Girl gives a spirited rendition of “Stand by your Man” complete with mini-skirt and thigh-high boots.”
After Palin’s first televised interview with ABC TV another blogger lamented:
Here’s what scares me: All of you guys have a stronger grasp of foreign policy than most members of Congress — seriously. You guys can immediately spot all of her gaffes which required a bit of nuance when it comes to foreign policy. The average American voter, specifically the waitress in small town Ohio almost certainly cannot. These type of people heard: “We’ll go after any country that supports terrorism.” To these people, I’m worried she’ll come off as sounding strong and decisive. She’s being graded on a major curve and it will get spun into how great it is to hear a woman speak so strongly. They’ll be some crap about how mother can be the most dangerous creature on earth when she feels her children are threatened.
The McCain campaign will lambaste the press for being too hard on her and will insert this talking point. The press will play along and start debating this point, establishing the narrative and lending credibility to this.
Remember how we all laughed at Bush in 2000 for all of his gaffes, such as when he couldn’t name most of the major foreign leaders? This kind of shit played well in large swaths of the country and established his “everyman” credibility.
This whole “everyman” aspect of the election is one of the things I find so distressing. It’s the glorification of willful ignorance and represents a contempt for the world which is going to lead to a massive calamity in the next 10 years.
My own personal opinion about the interview is that Dan Quayle must be feeling pretty damn good about himself tonight.
LOL! ….I concur.
Sarah Palin is the biggest joke on America since George H. W. Bush elected to run with Indiana’s Dan Quayle in 1988.
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The Lost Palin Files
From NBC’s Jim Popkin
When federal judges in San Francisco ruled in 2002 that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because it included the phrase “under God,” Sarah Palin was not amused. Palin, who at the time was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, quickly drafted a terse letter to the editor of a San Francisco newspaper.
‘Dear Editor,’ Palin wrote in 2002. ‘San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase ‘under God’ away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words,’ Palin wrote.
‘God Bless America,’ she concluded.
Palin’s letter to the editor is one of hundreds of personal notes and letters written by the former Mayor, and obtained this week to NBC News and others. The documents shed light on the management style– and personality — of the small town mayor turned vice presidential candidate.
There are few headline grabbers in the lot. Even Palin’s Pledge-of-Allegiance rant was a commonly held view at the time. (The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the ruling on technical grounds. But not before Palin pushed through a city resolution stating that the Wasilla City Council ‘shall continue to recite America’s Pledge of Allegiance, in its entirety, including and especially the words, ‘…one nation, under God…’)
• I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican. — Dan Quayle
• I have made good judgements in the Past. I have made good judgements in the Future. — Dan Quayle
• People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history. — Dan Quayle
• Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child. — Dan Quayle
• The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make. — Dan Quayle
• The future will be better tomorrow. — Dan Quayle
• We don’t want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward. — Dan Quayle
• We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a *part* of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a *part* of Europe. — Dan Quayle
• We’re all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made. — Dan Quayle
FlashBack: George H.W. Bush’s V.P. pick – Indiana’s Dan
Quayle in 1988.
• Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts. — Dan Quayle
• What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is. — Dan Quayle
• When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame. — Dan Quayle
• [It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system. — Dan Quayle
• Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things. — Dan Quayle, 11/30/88
• One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’. — Dan Quayle, 12/6/89
• Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it. — Dan Quayle, 5/20/92 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
• I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change. — Dan Quayle, 5/22/89
• Mars is essentially in the same orbit… Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe. — Dan Quayle, 8/11/89
• Murphy Brown is doing better than I am. At least she knows she still has a job next year. — Dan Quayle, 8/18/92
• The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century. — Dan Quayle, 9/15/88
• Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children. — Dan Quayle, 9/18/90
• We’re going to have the best-educated American people in the world. — Dan Quayle, 9/21/88
• We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur. — Dan Quayle, 9/22/90
• For NASA, space is still a high priority. — Dan Quayle, 9/5/90
• Public speaking is very easy. — Dan Quayle, to reporters in 10/88
• I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made. — Dan Quayle, to Sam Donaldson, 8/17/89
