2012 Talking Points In Action: Obama Equals Surrender
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2012 Election, Barack, Foreign Policy, Republicans, Terrorism, The War On Terrorism
No sooner did I write this post about the two memes I think will be the Republicans’ bread and butter for the next four years, than I see this editorial from UK’s The Spectator.
Melanie Phillips attempts to make the “America Is Losing Its Superpower Status” argument against Obama…
The impact of the financial crisis on the American presidential election has somewhat obscured the most important reason why the prospect of an Obama presidency is giving so many people nightmares. This is the fear that, if he wins, US defences will be emasculated at a time of unprecedented international peril and the enemies of America and the free world will seize their opportunity to destroy the west.Personally, I don’t give any credence to the ‘support’ for one candidate over the other that has been expressed by the enemies of civilisation (Iran and Hamas ‘support’ Obama, while an al Qaeda blogger ‘supports’ McCain). Their agenda is simply to sow confusion and promote American recriminations and disarray. Nor do I set much store by many of the remarks made by either candidate during the latter stages of this election campaign, since under this kind of pressure both will now say pretty much anything to win it. The New York Times has run a useful analysis of the candidates’ foreign policy campaign statements which shows how Obama has carefully tacked to the ‘hard power’ agenda while McCain has in turn nodded towards ‘soft power’.
No, the only way to assess their position is to look at each man in the round, at what his general attitude is towards war and self-defence, aggression and appeasement, the values of the west and those of its enemies and – perhaps most crucially of all – the nature of the advisers and associates to whom he is listening. As I have said before, I do not trust McCain; I think his judgment is erratic and impetuous, and sometimes wrong. But on the big picture, he gets it. He will defend America and the free world whereas Obama will undermine them and aid their enemies.
And not only that…Phillips apparently thinks Obama feels it’s all America’s fault…
Here’s why. McCain believes in protecting and defending America as it is. Obama tells the world he is ashamed of America and wants to change it into something else. McCain stands for American exceptionalism, the belief that American values are superior to tyrannies. Obama stands for the expiation of America’s original sin in oppressing black people, the third world and the poor.
Quick question…does Phillip actually believe that Obama thinks this? Because you literally can’t point to anything that Obama has said that suggests this. And to express this opinion as if it’s a fact is not just dishonest…it’s lying. Obama has never told the world “he is ashamed of America” or anything close to it. What nonsense.
But hey…these are the talking points. Get used to them because you’ll be hearing them for the next four years. Guaranteed.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 and is filed under 2012 Election, Barack, Foreign Policy, Republicans, Terrorism, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:10 am
-Barack Obama, 08/06/2008
October 26th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I think it was very clear from the context of that statement that Obama was talking about America’s slipping standing in the world. And can anybody argue that it isn’t much less than it was 8 years ago?
Also, when he talks about the idea of what America was means that he has a deep love of country and he wants to get back there. So when Phillips talks about “original sins”, it’s obviously nonsense if this is the quote you’re arguing she’s pointing at.
What’s funny, and what pretty much any right-winger neo con won’t admit, is the fact that how we’ve conducted ourselves in the past 8 years actually hurts the idea of American exceptionalism. We DO make mistakes, and refusing to acknowledge this only hurts our long term prospects to fight the tyrannical.
October 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Which mistakes were not acknowledged? I would say completely overhauling the department of defense and changing the strategy from losing to winning in Iraq was certainly an acknowledgement. If the media wants to pretend it isn’t, well thats their problem.
What, you won’t accept anything other than a written apology by Bush, “I’m sorry I screwed up in Iraq for the first 4 years of the war,” just so you can say, “I told you so?” Then you are just another Keith Olbermann partisan hack.
Our longterm prospects to fight the tyrannical are hurt only when we consider tyrants to be legitamate global actors with agendas we should compromise with. Obama wants this compromise. He also wants to cut military and inteligence spending by 25% during a time of war – a war which Joe Biden does not believe even exists. Why is it Bush’s fault that Obama wants to do this?
October 26th, 2008 at 10:37 am
thanks for a good laugh Jimmy. Shall I present a list of the mistakes the administration has made for the past 8 years that have not only messed up our country on the world stage, but messed up our country internally? It’ll take a couple hours to do at least.
October 26th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Oh, I don’t know, maybe BUSH’S ENTIRE FOREIGN POLICY STRATEGY.
So it’s not just screwing up the Iraq war. It’s a utter lack of realization that we are part of the global community, we don’t run the global community.
See, Bush thinks our power and authority is pretty much absolute. Well, it isn’t. And the easiest way for us to lose it is to go around trying to spread freedom on borrowed money, thereby bankrupting us to the point where we can’t maintain our military budgets without falling massively into debt.
Seriously, you can’t see where that strategy leads?
Now, if you really ARE favor of American exceptionalism, you’d do well to abandon Bush’s tactics in favor of something more reasonable and workable. Because that exceptionalism isn’t just a military strategy…it’s the idea that America stands for everything that’s good and just..and that idea extends far beyond our military might. In fact, our military might is probably the worst instrument for spreading the idea of freedom because we end up killing tens of thousands of innocent people when going after the bad guys.
And as far as compromising with “tyrants”…didn’t Nixon meet with Mao? Didn’t Reagan meet with Gorbachev? Give me a break.
October 26th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
And I hate to break it to you, but tyrants are global actors. Just because I think that most republicans are morons doesn’t mean that I don’t acknowledge the impact they have on the country.