Wisconsin Primary

[BallHawk]

F*ck Ralph Nader.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Speaking of ralphing, I watched Nader's presidential announcement on "Meet the Press." Who would have thought that guy could be 74 years old? That's a long time to avoid marriage.

I am notoriously hostile to spoilers, so I have mixed feelings about a Nader candidacy. But I'm sticking tenuously to my prediction that Obama will win in a landslide, so maybe it won't be a problem.

Nader is a national treasure, really, I don't know anybody else that speaks so clearly about what REALLY needs to change. They will have the interview online:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

I disagree with him on a few points of emphasis, like the holdup in solving the Palestinean problem is not really due to the Isreali lobby, but mostly he is on the mark.

[Freak Out]

F*ck Ralph Nader.

And you said I needed to go back to Russia.

[Harlan Huckleby]

F*ck Ralph Nader.

The intercourse you really have to be concerned with involves Larry Sinclair. Polygraph results in later today:

http://www.whitehouse.com/index.aspx

Actually I am just harassing Obamaphiles with links to that sex scandal, such behavior is in my nature. I think there is zero to scant chance that Barack's midnight flings will make the news. From my standpoint, a little gay sex and cocaine in Obama's past is a point in his favor. But more importantly, I think the Clinton impeachment has sapped all the public's taste for political sex scandals. Most people don't care, and most of those who might care would prefer not to know.

[BallHawk]

The media wouldn't touch that story if they were paid to. Sex and drugs with a media darling like Obama? No way.

Of course, the story has absolutely no basis behind it, but so does the NYT story about McCain.

[BallHawk]

F*ck Ralph Nader.

And you said I needed to go back to Russia.

You just like him because he was the only dude that came to visit your icebox of a state.

And the only reason Alaska is in this country is so we can have an even number of states. 49 is an ugly number. 50 is much better.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Of course, the story has absolutely no basis behind it, but so does the NYT story about McCain.

The meat of the NYT story is that McCain favored a lobbyist with writing letters for her client. That is true. And its probably true that some of his aids were suspicious that McCain was diddling the lady. All in all, not a huge story, but I think it is OK to report the above. People can draw their own conclusions, most won't care much.

I listened to the extended interview with Larry Sinclair on youtube, he sounds rather specific and credible. He's donating his polygraph dough to charity, and I do think that test is strong evidence.

I suspect that Obama/Sinclair tryst happened. And I think most people would believe it if they looked into it. Few would care.

My main reason to doubt the story is that if Obama did some dick smoking with one guy, there would be more out there coming forward.

[Harlan Huckleby]

F*ck Ralph Nader.

And you said I needed to go back to Russia.

You just like him because he was the only dude that came to visit your icebox of a state.

And the only reason Alaska is in this country is so we can have an even number of states. 49 is an ugly number. 50 is much better.

I would trade Alaska for Cuba in a heart beat. (A friend of mine who was in Cuba recently said many people there told him they would like to be a U.S. state.) The only trouble with cutting Alaska loose would be we'd lose all that oil. Wait, we could invade alaska and take their oil! lets do it, it's a win-win.

[Freak Out]

F*ck Ralph Nader.

And you said I needed to go back to Russia.

You just like him because he was the only dude that came to visit your icebox of a state.

And the only reason Alaska is in this country is so we can have an even number of states. 49 is an ugly number. 50 is much better.

Hawaii was the 50th dark Barney...Alaska was the 49th.

BTW...Cuba has some proven oil reserves.

[Freak Out]

F*ck Ralph Nader.

And you said I needed to go back to Russia.

You just like him because he was the only dude that came to visit your icebox of a state.

And the only reason Alaska is in this country is so we can have an even number of states. 49 is an ugly number. 50 is much better.

I would trade Alaska for Cuba in a heart beat. (A friend of mine who was in Cuba recently said many people there told him they would like to be a U.S. state.) The only trouble with cutting Alaska loose would be we'd lose all that oil. Wait, we could invade alaska and take their oil! lets do it, it's a win-win.

I've been to Cuba and nobody told me they wanted to join the US....almost everyone said they wanted an open relationship with the US. Free trade, borders and so on.

[Joemailman]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/sun_sets_on_cold_war_mentality.html

February 24, 2008
Sun Sets on Cold War Mentality
By David Ignatius

WASHINGTON -- "When it comes to foreign policy, experience is a highly overrated asset." So says a former British foreign service officer named Jonathan Clarke, who has created a blog called theswoop.net that has dedicated itself to undermining Washington's fondness for conventional wisdom.

What my friend Clarke means is that the set of issues and strategies that shaped the Cold War generation has passed. He's a product of that generation himself, having served at the sharp end of the spear for the British government in various Cold War hot spots. But that era is over. The intellectual matrix formed by the Soviet threat, and before that by Hitler's rise in Germany, needs to be reworked. There is a new set of problems and personalities -- and if America keeps trotting out the same cast of characters and policy papers, we will fail to make sense of where the world is moving.

The experience issue will dominate the final weeks of the Democratic primary campaign. Hillary Clinton's only remaining trump card is that she has been in the White House before and will be ready, as she repeats so tirelessly, from Day One. But ready for what? For a recapitulation of the people and policies that guided the country in the past? That's an attractive proposition only if you think that the world of the 1990s -- or '80s, or '70s -- can be re-created.

The experience gap will overshadow even more the general election race against John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. With his every sinew, McCain embodies the idea of a wise, battle-tested man. "I'm not the youngest candidate, but I am the most experienced," he said after winning the Wisconsin primary Tuesday night. It's clear he hopes this pitch will carry him all the way to the White House. He's the tough old fighter pilot; he has fought the Cold War battles; he knows how to protect the nation in a time of danger. That's the McCain strategy in one compound sentence.

The assumption that experience equates with good judgment is a hard one to shake. We tend naturally to defer to the person who has been there before, measured the adversary, learned how the game is played. Yet if ever there were a test of the efficacy of experience, it was the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq and its subsequent management of the postwar occupation. Bush's national security advisers were arguably the most experienced in modern times. But their performance was often very poor. That was partly, I think, because they overlaid the post-9/11 challenges on a Cold War template about the uses of military power.

We are the last major nation to make the transition from Cold War thinking to something new. China and India are rising thanks to new leadership elites that understand how to succeed in global markets; Russia is about to elect a new president whose formative experiences came after the fall of the Soviet Union; Pakistan has just rebuffed its own durable Cold Warrior, Gen. Pervez Musharraf; even Fidel Castro, perhaps the iconic survivor of the Cold War, has decided to step down. Only in America could John McCain seriously campaign for leadership as a symbol of the past.

The utility of inexperience was explained to me this week by Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russia's President Putin. He said that what's attractive for Russians about Dmitry Medvedev, who is certain to be elected as Putin's successor in presidential elections March 3, is that he embodies "a generation that was not shaped by the Soviet Cold War way of thinking."

Putin himself is a transition figure, a man formed by his experiences as a KGB officer. But after him, explained Peskov, comes a generation of Russians who don't carry the same baggage. They have traveled the world, seen things their parents could never imagine, looked at problems with fresh eyes.

To prepare for the next stage of the U.S. presidential campaign, try this thought experiment: Imagine the television footage of Barack Obama's first trip abroad as president -- the crowds in the streets of Moscow, Cairo, Nairobi, Shanghai, Paris, Islamabad. Now try to imagine the first visit by President John McCain to those same cities. McCain is a great man, and he would be welcomed with respect, deference, perhaps a bit of fear.
Obama would generate different and more intense reactions -- surprise and uncertainty, to be sure, but also idealism and hope. Now tell me which image would foster a stronger and safer America in the 21st century.

Obama has liabilities as a candidate, but his inexperience paradoxically may actually bolster one of his core arguments -- that he would give America a fresh start.
davidignatius@washpost.com

Ignatius explains better than I could why many of us prefer Obama over Clinton or McCain. His lack of experience does not scare me off because what is needed is for our leaders to start thinking differently. Absent that, I think the decline in U.S. prestige and power is likely to continue.

[Harlan Huckleby]

*** BREAKING NEWS ***

Larry Sinclair has failed his polygraph.



Retest! Retest!

[Harlan Huckleby]

The assumption that experience equates with good judgment is a hard one to shake.

Especially since 10,000 years of recorded human experience documents that experience is required for good judgement. Not to mention that we know this to be true from our own lives.

Ahhh, but we have a tricky statement: "experience EQUATES with good judgement" Well, of course not. The saying "there's no fool like an old fool" didn't get popular for nothing.

Barack Obama is a beginner as a leader. There is every reason to believe that he will be a wiser and more capable person 5 or ten years from now. From what I've seen of him in the Senate, there's no way he should be running for president now.

[Scott Campbell]

There is every reason to believe that he will be a wiser and more capable person 5 or ten years from now.

I see. So you're saying that he should be even better during his second term?

[Joemailman]

The assumption that experience equates with good judgment is a hard one to shake.

Especially since 10,000 years of recorded human experience documents that experience is required for good judgement. Not to mention that we know this to be true from our own lives.

Ahhh, but we have a tricky statement: "experience EQUATES with good judgement" Well, of course not. The saying "there's no fool like an old fool" didn't get popular for nothing.

Barack Obama is a beginner as a leader. There is every reason to believe that he will be a wiser and more capable person 5 or ten years from now. From what I've seen of him in the Senate, there's no way he should be running for president now.

First of all, I better point out that the quote in bold isn't actually my quote. Wouldn't want any Hillary backers accusing me of plagiarism. I don't think it would take Obama 5-10 years to become wiser. He seems like a pretty quick study to me who will learn very quickly. Some people act like he's some kid just out of college. He's the same age Bill Clinton was when he became President, and is older than Kennedy was. He has more Washington experience (for what it's worth) than either Reagan or Clinton had when they became President. But I guess for some there's a certain comfort level in riding an old plowhorse instead of a young stallion.