Comments Posted By michael reynolds
Displaying 661 To 670 Of 839 Comments
I agree. He's still the President of the United States. Our president. If anyone's going to throw a shoe at him it'll be one of us.
It may surprise you but I agree. And throw a flip flop sandal for me while you're at it.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 15.12.2008 @ 10:33
We fell in a hole and managed to pull ourselves back out. That's not victory, that's us getting back to the starting point -- but muddier.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.12.2008 @ 14:58
JHarp:
I was talking about conservatism as a political philosophy, not the Republican party. The GOP isn't conservative, in any real sense of the word, it's a mish-mash of bigot populists, neo-conservative adventurists and Wall Street greed-heads led for the last eight years by an arrogant frat boy who knows not thing one about serious conservative thought. Or any other kind of thought.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.12.2008 @ 14:54
It's absolutely true that there was nothing genuinely "conservative" going on here. Conservatives don't generally favor ambitious efforts to reshape the course of history.
Unfortunately, once we'd set off on a course of nation-building it was absurd to belatedly apply conservative small-government, magic-of-the-marketplace thinking to the task at hand. Iraq's problem was not too much regulation. It was a chaotic basket case occupied by a foreign power. At that point we needed people who wanted to use government in an active, interventionist, constructive way. Liberals.
But I doubt this will be a big story. 50 billion pissed away no longer has the impact it used to. Not when we've moved on to pissing away trillions.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.12.2008 @ 13:25
Retire:
Before you accuse me of being a gloom n' doom, "the war is lost" liberal, I'm curious: how long did it take you to figure out that we needed more men in Iraq? Because I was writing it within a month of the invasion. And I kept at it despite loudmouth right-wing yahoos telling me I was "gloom n' dooming' the war.
I was also right 2 years ago when I said we'd essentially lost the war in Afghanistan. 70% of the country is in enemy hands, we're rushing troops in, and we have no strategy for winning.
And I was right that the GOP's attacks on Obama during the election would fail to gain traction. I'm right a fair bit of the time, Retire, because I don't twist reality to fit ideology.
Now, I'm telling you this stuff won't fly. The GOP new needs ideas and a new approach. You can't win by announcing the death of Hope and Change, because until you figure out where you're actually going it puts you in the position of representing Despair and Stasis. You can't drive the country into a ditch and then sit on the side of the road criticizing the folks who come along and try to pull it back out. It will make your party even more despised than it already is.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 13.12.2008 @ 22:33
I think you're right that Emmanuel is about chest deep in this. I doubt he's dumb enough to have said anything he shouldn't on a phone line. And I doubt he'd be speaking for Obama if he made any unethical offer.
But we'll see. And I've overestimated the IQ of pols before -- we all thought Nixon was too smart to bug the Dem offices at the Watergate.
What I find fascinating is the eagerness of so many on the right to crow about the end of hope and change. I think you've given last rights to hope and change on half a dozen occasions already.
Is that really where the GOP wants to go? You have nothing of your own to offer so you want to identify yourselves as the prophets of doom? And when doom doesn't arrive? What do have then?
You're fighting straw men. And you're going to lose your battle with straw men. And then what are you?
The end of hope and change means the end of hypocrisy. That's why we're "crowing." Lord even you say Obama is just another politician. Time everybody else - especially the press - acknowledged that.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 12.12.2008 @ 14:04
BLAGOJEVICH: BEYOND 'BUSINESS AS USUAL' IN ILLINOIS
Damn! I wish I'd known I could buy a Senate seat. That sounds like more fun being a writer. And the Senate has great benefits.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 10.12.2008 @ 14:05
ILLINOIS GOVERNOR ARRESTED TRYING TO SELL OBAMA'S SENATE SEAT
Jim:
I'll tell you the same thing I've been telling Republicans for months: you got nothing but your tinfoil hats.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 9.12.2008 @ 19:20
WHAT WE NEED IS A GOLDILOCKS GOVERNMENT
You're right about conservatism. You guys need a realistic update of "small" government.
But Obama isn't going to let you have that middle ground. He's taking the middle, despite your inflamed language about a "radical restructuring."
You don't do yourselves any favors by failing to understand your opponent. You haven't gotten Obama or his voters from the start. You still don't get him or us. It's one reason you guys lost the election. And continuing to substitute ideological animus for clear analysis will get you nowhere.
We are the middle. Obama and his voters are the middle. And we aren't radically restructuring or radically doing anything. There's nothing radical going on here. We're repairing the damage done by radicals. They just happen to be your radicals.
Issue by issue, we are the middle. Look at any poll you like. On the war, on the economy, on health care, on taxes, on environment, on social security, on abortion, on gay rights. On just about every issue you look at, Obama and the Democrats are the middle.
I suspect there's no market for your rational conservatism in the GOP. The only battlefield for you guys going forward is in the suburbs and I think you're a generation away from taking those back. So, I don't think you're going to peel your party away from the nutty religious fringe any time soon because the truth is the bulk of the GOP lives down a two-lane road and we have the freeways, the boulevards and the cul-de-sacs.
You need to face up to the awful truth: your future, Rick, is with us.
Gabba gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 8.12.2008 @ 16:11
I just moved from Italy back to the States in part for internet. We were in a rustic location and as best I can figure out they used a microwave connection to pick up signal from a distant mountain. It took three hours to download a half hour sitcom. Every Saturday night service would slow . . . and slow . . . until by Sunday internet was out. (No one works on Sunday in Italy. You want to have a heart attack? Do it on a week day.) Hulu's blocked for reasons of copyright, so we had to use a reach-around that slowed service further. We'd watch "The Office" with pauses, stalls and delays that more than doubled the running time.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 6.12.2008 @ 11:13
