Thursday, May 15, 2008

Biden for VP

Busy week here... wish I was posting more. Meanwhile, interesting stuff keeps happening in the world. For example, today George Bush celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Israeli state by giving a blatantly partisan speech overseas comparing Obama to Nazi sympathizers. Nice move Georgie. Best response so far?

"This is bullsh**t. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset…and make this kind of ridiculous statement" - Joe Biden

h/t Americablog.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for entertainment, Purple State does it again this week with a week of Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard and otherwise) themed Daily Diversions. My favorite so far is here.

While you're there, Purple State also has some great coverage the fallout from the NARAL and Edwards endorsements, and a post with clips of former undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith appearing on Daily Show, both things I found incredibly interesting and worth a little of your time.

6 comments:

Stamford Talk said...

I didn't hear about the Bush speech, but from what I found on Politico blog, Bush wasn't really referring to Obama:

Democratic House leaders are calling out President Bush for a speech in Israel in which he seemed to suggest that Sen. Barack Obama wants the United States to "negotiate with terrorists."
In his speech, Bush said: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."


Why was that referring to Obama? I vaguely recall Obama being criticized a few months ago bc he said somthing that could be construed as that... so maybe people see Bush's comment as a reference to that, but it's not that obvious even to me, an avid Bush-hater.

But, if we decide Bush was saying that, well, that just confirms what an unprofessional loser he is.

John said...

I think it's a pretty pointed statement, likely well crafted so they can say, "What? Oh, it sounded like we were talking about somebody specific... well that's just silly."

Obama and Clinton had a major flap over his insistence that within the first year of an Obama administration he would seek out opportunities for direct dialog with states such as Iran, North Korea, basically folks Bush has refused to talk with directly. Clinton and others who were still in the race for the Democratic nomination at the time took issue with Obama's stance on this, but he maintained his outspoken support of open dialog even with folks who are considered our worst enemies.

The debate among Dems around this issue hasn't been all that hot lately, but here's a recent post from Andrew Sullivan on the impact of Obama's outspoken ideas:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05/an-iranian-diss.html

To me, there's no question that they were referring to Obama, but I also don't guess we'll hear them admit that anytime soon.

John said...

p.s. I love the title, "unprofessional loser" it's captures a lot

Venice said...

Speaking for myself, I definitely saw those as a direct reference to Obama. If I were running Obama's campaign, I'd be thrilled. Having Bush attack your foreign policy is probably priceless. Hell, I would love him to go after McCain, as he has in the past. If only Kerry had won in '04, McCain would be trouncing him in the general right now and Obama would be waiting for 2012.
Biden would probably be my top pick for Obama's VP, though I still think Biden-Obama would be better. Ah well, can't have everything right?

John said...

Any thoughts on Obama-Webb? I think there are huge upshots, but the big downside would be losing Webb in the Senate, where I think he's incredibly valuable especially if November is as big as it could be for the Dems.

Venice said...

Actually, I almost wrote something about Webb! I think he would be great. He's got strong security credentials, he's from a swing state. Plus, I believe he's a published author, war vet and isn't his wife Vietnamese? (not that it matters but I think it's cool). Nico worked on his campaign (which you probably already knew). On the other hand, he is pretty valuable in VA,as you said. On the third hand, the Democrats won't need any help in November.