Letters to the Editor
Ricardo Malocchio
Published Letters: 151 Editor's Choice: 2
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It's true - Obama responded poorly.
[Read the article: The fallout from the Democratic debate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I did wonder why he failed to react as he has so well in the past: acknowledge a negative but then diminish it as irrelevant; pivot to a positive flipside; unleash topic-appropriate rhetoric from the stump speeches. Standard stuff, true, but he's quite adept at it.
Except he wasn't last night.
But I've given up any attempt at sussing out the public's reaction. I see this as a poor performance on his part - and I'm an avid Obama supporter - but I'm not so sure how this will play out. When Hillary lays a glove on him, it very often tags him first but then smacks her even harder on the follow-through. Damned if I know what anything means anymore.
In other news, Obama picked up a +5 superdelegates in the past two days (including one formerly committed to Clinton). I see high undecideds in the PA polls, and I suspect you can put the majority of them in the Clinton column (Bradley effect or whatever) which means I suspect she's up 5 points + 11 points undecided = 16 points. Unless she pushes that number much higher, she'll net only a meager number of pledged delegates.
Finally, I think we'd all do well to use the anger towards ABC NEWS *not* to attack the other Democratic candidate, but rather as evidence of the way the mainstream media is incorporating the worst of the right-wing noise machine along with the free ride it's giving McCain. Come Fall, that's all that will matter.
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@deepertruth
[Read the article: Obama and Clinton fizzle in Philly]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Quit your whining. If HRC can't take the heat, she has no business running for the office.
Her bellicosity vis-a-vis Iran in the debate, and her absurd further-to-the-right-than-W notion of a NATO-like security umbrella over a variety of Middle Eastern nations - not to mention her support of Kyl-Lieberman - shows conclusively that she's both a foreign policy hack and chickenhawk.
She's becoming far more scary than McCain - who, by the way, will rake her over the coals. Perhaps then she'll shed a few tears, insinuate sexism, and boo-hoo her way to an even higher negative rating.
Come to your senses.
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Words have meaning. Hers are irresponsible. Indefensible.
[Read the article: Iran complains about Clinton comments]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]HRC opens mouth, and Cheney's most illicit fantasies tumble forth. And so few express concern, much less outrage. And others among you defend them.
Let me remind you: words have meaning.
Even if our military wasn't in its present weakened state, the notion of casting a NATO-like security umbrella over the majority of the middle east is as poor a policy as any devised by Bush/Cheney, and indeed far further to the right. Who needs reminding that this is the most volatile region in the world where our "allies" do not share our values and are such only because of our reliance on the bounty of their oil fields? These relationships have distorted our foreign policy, and placed us on the side of tyrants. And now HRC declares that an attack on any of these states would trigger an automatic US response?
But how does putting our military at the behest of such volatile, aggressive states in such an enormous, far-reaching re-orientation of our stated foreign policy in that region do anything to further American interests? It is damn near impossible to even imagine a conception of American interests broad enough to render this policy a prudent one.
No. Simply put, such a policy is irresponsible and indefensible.
Words have meaning. When we do not do as we say, our reputation and prestige suffer. Should war erupt in the Middle East, U.S. involvement would be automatic under HRC's policy. Any more measured response would put the lie to that policy.
Words have meaning. HRC's words have now progressed from "massive retaliation" to "obliteration". Not "defend". Not "protect". Rather, "obliterate." Moreover, when asked to more clearly define her terms, she clarified that it was, in fact, "a nuclear response" she was referring to.
Irresponsible. Indefensible.
Some see her words as a pander to the bloodlust of the American voters, a transparent attempt to run to the right of McCain. Some view them as a sop to the Israeli lobby. They are both and neither. They are, in fact, the natural outgrowth of each and every one of HRC's increasingly hawkish foreign policy votes. And equally irresponsible and indefensible.
HRC's refrain at one time was "actions, not words", as though words were insignificant. So, let us look at her actions. For example, her vote to authorize force again Iraq without even having read the NIE. Likewise, her vote against the Levin amendment which put the lie to her post-hoc justification.
As indefensible as either of those votes was her vote in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which reads in pertinent part: "that the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224".
And yet there are those of you who would defend her? There's no need to mince words. If you support this, you are either a neocon-hawk or a complete ignoramous. There is no respectable middle ground here. The shame of history will be yours.
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Re "the North Carolina story"
[Read the article: Dem candidates weigh in on "Mission Accomplished"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It would be beyond admirable if Obama and McCain made a joint statement denouncing these abominable actions.
Of course, that would be easy for Obama, and much more difficult for McCain given that it would require him to publicly denounce those parties responsible for the South Carolina 2000 travesties - the very forces that he has since sold-out to.