Wow, talk about change!

[Keukasmallie]

For twenty-one months of the recent campaign, Obama and his minions ridiculed even the slightest suggestion that Hill'ry had any ability whatsoever in foreign policy. Recall the comments indicating that just being married to the Commander in Chief did not give her any credibility in international affairs. And that hosting foreign service teas did not cumulate as experience on the world stage. And meeting foreign dignitaries as First Lady did not mean she had credibility in foreign affairs.

 

Shazam! She is now the bes' we gots in the land! Damn, when the man said "change" I had no idea it meant a cranial implant for the girl!

[drnykterstein]

lol, he must be the anti-christ.

[molson_golden2002]

For twenty-one months of the recent campaign, Obama and his minions ridiculed even the slightest suggestion that Hill'ry had any ability whatsoever in foreign policy. Recall the comments indicating that just being married to the Commander in Chief did not give her any credibility in international affairs. And that hosting foreign service teas did not cumulate as experience on the world stage. And meeting foreign dignitaries as First Lady did not mean she had credibility in foreign affairs.

 

Shazam! She is now the bes' we gots in the land! Damn, when the man said "change" I had no idea it meant a cranial implant for the girl!

That's the best you got?

 

What a friggin loser

[elegantelliotoffen]

For twenty-one months of the recent campaign, Obama and his minions ridiculed even the slightest suggestion that Hill'ry had any ability whatsoever in foreign policy. Recall the comments indicating that just being married to the Commander in Chief did not give her any credibility in international affairs. And that hosting foreign service teas did not cumulate as experience on the world stage. And meeting foreign dignitaries as First Lady did not mean she had credibility in foreign affairs.

 

Shazam! She is now the bes' we gots in the land! Damn, when the man said "change" I had no idea it meant a cranial implant for the girl!

 

Who's McCain's Secratary of State?

[molson_golden2002]

Who's McCain's Secratary of State?

Who's McCain?

[Keukasmallie]

Yep, best I got 'cause it appears that's the best Obama's got....

[Fezmid]

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how "change" equates to keeping the same families in power yet again. Oh well.

[molson_golden2002]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/us/polit...l?th&emc=th

 

Yet all three of his choices — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the rival turned secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander, as national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, the current and future defense secretary — have embraced a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena.

 

The shift would create a greatly expanded corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states. However, it is unclear whether the financing would be shifted from the Pentagon; Mr. Obama has also committed to increasing the number of American combat troops. Whether they can make the change — one that Mr. Obama started talking about in the summer of 2007, when his candidacy was a long shot at best — “will be the great foreign policy experiment of the Obama presidency,” one of his senior advisers said recently.

 

“This is not an experiment, but a pragmatic solution to a long-acknowledged problem,” he said. “During the campaign the then-senator invested a lot of time reaching out to retired military and also younger officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to draw on lessons learned. There wasn’t a meeting that didn’t include a discussion of the need to strengthen and integrate the other tools of national power to succeed against unconventional threats. It is critical to a long-term successful and sustainable national security strategy in the 21st century.”

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

Who's McCain?

 

Just another historical footnote fading into obscurity.

[/dev/null]

Who's McCain?

 

John McCain or John McClain

 

Yippie Kay Yay

[DC Tom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/us/polit...l?th&emc=th

 

What a load of bull sh--. Not only IS it an experiment...it's an experiment that once again ignores the fundamental reailty that we have to deal with people who have their own agendas running counter to ours to accomplish anything. Sounds like Exporting Democracy, sans democracy.

 

And Clinton's just the person to run it, given her rather extensive experience in alienating and disengaging from failed states.

[The Big Cat]

How bout we !@#$ing wait until he's inaugurated! Jesus!

 

You're like Kiper giving draft grades on St. Patty's Day! Give it a rest!

[molson_golden2002]

What a load of bull sh--. Not only IS it an experiment...it's an experiment that once again ignores the fundamental reailty that we have to deal with people who have their own agendas running counter to ours to accomplish anything. Sounds like Exporting Democracy, sans democracy.

 

And Clinton's just the person to run it, given her rather extensive experience in alienating and disengaging from failed states.

I'm thinking we are looking at a bottom up approach, education, public facilities, infrastructure etc. Creating hope.

 

Yes we can

[DC Tom]

I'm thinking we are looking at a bottom up approach, education, public facilities, infrastructure etc. Creating hope.

 

Yes we can

 

Considering that "failed states" is pretty much synonymous with "ungoverned states", I suspect there's a precondition of stabilizing such states first. Iraq demonstrated pretty conclusively the futility of a "bottom-up" approach in an unstable security situation. So I have to wonder, then...when we try to stabilize Somalia so we can build schools, are we going to un-ass the country AGAIN once a few Americans die? Or are we going to completely ignore Afghanistan AGAIN because women wear burkas (the true crown jewel of Clinton foreign policy).

 

 

The "building infrastructure" approach is overrated, anyway. How much infrastructure can the Somali economy support? How much of an infrastructure can even be secured in an overwhelmingly tribal and ungovernable region like Afghanistan? The only people to do that in the past twenty years are...the Taleban.

[Chef Jim]

I'm thinking we are looking at a bottom up approach

 

And Hillary's got a big bottom so things should work out just great.

[molson_golden2002]

Considering that "failed states" is pretty much synonymous with "ungoverned states", I suspect there's a precondition of stabilizing such states first. Iraq demonstrated pretty conclusively the futility of a "bottom-up" approach in an unstable security situation. So I have to wonder, then...when we try to stabilize Somalia so we can build schools, are we going to un-ass the country AGAIN once a few Americans die? Or are we going to completely ignore Afghanistan AGAIN because women wear burkas (the true crown jewel of Clinton foreign policy).

 

 

The "building infrastructure" approach is overrated, anyway. How much infrastructure can the Somali economy support? How much of an infrastructure can even be secured in an overwhelmingly tribal and ungovernable region like Afghanistan? The only people to do that in the past twenty years are...the Taleban.

Of course this is all guessing on my part, but I figured they were going to go after the "soft targets" where these things could work. If you can weaken extremeism on the edges, you hurt it in the middle. Will be interesting to see which way he goes

[IDBillzFan]

For twenty-one months of the recent campaign, Obama and his minions ridiculed even the slightest suggestion that Hill'ry had any ability whatsoever in foreign policy. Recall the comments indicating that just being married to the Commander in Chief did not give her any credibility in international affairs. And that hosting foreign service teas did not cumulate as experience on the world stage. And meeting foreign dignitaries as First Lady did not mean she had credibility in foreign affairs.

 

Shazam! She is now the bes' we gots in the land! Damn, when the man said "change" I had no idea it meant a cranial implant for the girl!

You clearly misunderstood what he meant by change. What he meant was change from the past 8 years, not real change. You obviously didn't vote for him or you'd have gotten the ultra-secret text message explaining this.

[The Dean]

You clearly misunderstood what he meant by change. What he meant was change from the past 8 years, not real change. You obviously didn't vote for him or you'd have gotten the ultra-secret text message explaining this.

 

 

Why isn't change from the last 8 years "real"?

[DC Tom]

Why isn't change from the last 8 years "real"?

 

Because the last eight years wasn't much of a change from the eight years before that, which we're changing back in to now...

[The Dean]

Because the last eight years wasn't much of a change from the eight years before that, which we're changing back in to now...

 

 

Well, I think that remains to be seen, actually. Some of the same players, but a new coach with a different game plan. I'll let them run a few plays before I make any judgments. Still, changing back is change. If McCain got elected, I expect his change would be less of a change, but also a change back...just further back.

 

I'm going to hold out hope that, mixed in with the bulls#it that comes with politics, Obama will work toward his vision of a different, and better, country...and may actually get some of it accomplished. It's not a one term, or even one administration job, though.