Posts by Craig Ranapia
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the real change will be from a Republican admistration to a Democrat one. Whether that's Obama or Clinton is on the level of hard vs soft pineapple lumps.
Any son of a bitch will do, as long as s/he's our son of a bitch? Let's just agree to disagree on that one, at least until we see where they stand on (say) trade policy and the precise make up of the next Congress. Distinctions there might me a little more important than confectionery preferences.
I actually agree with Pollitt on one point: Senator Obama's record is as open to rigorous scrutiny as Senator Clinton's. What a shame, then, she squandered the opportunity over the last year pushing a spectacularly obnoxious 'inevitability' meme (one, needless to add, the media was fully complicit with); and if she wants to stand on her experience, perhaps she could stop claiming credit for her husband's administration.
As Helen Clark used to be fond of saying, when you're in a hole the first thing to do is stop digging. If Clinton finds herself tagged as the status quo, establishment candidate could it be possible that its a trap of her own making?
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But the reality is always the prosaic business of getting legislation passed.
Yes, and I'd respectfully suggest you don't get much of that done if you treat half the electorate - and the people they elect - like malicious fuckwits. Don't know about you, Neil, but if was a Congressional leader on either side of the aisle I'd be having a good hard think about job approval ratings like this. When Dubya is pulling better job approval numbers than you, don't tell me the status quo is working.
I guess that kind of disdain is useful to a certain type of politician, because when citizens are disengaged from politics and regard all politicians as compulsive liars... well, they don't ask too many inconvenient questions, or expect much at all. And if we just oh so glibly shrug our shoulders and say 'that's just the way it is', we don't deserve any better.
To paraphrase Blake, perhaps Obama won't build Jerusalem on the Potomac's green and pleasant banks but there's a line between a healthy scepticism and a corrosive and cancerous cynicism towards government. Sorry if this sounds pompous, but I think Obama just gets that that cynicism is real and 'change' is more than a bumper sticker slogan.
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And here's another thought, Danyl: While folks on both sides are (quite understandably) focused on the primaries, they don't elect presidents. That happens in a general election where independents and ideological sluts (sorry, 'swing voters') are allowed to vote too. Turning up the partisan volume might play well to the nutroots, and get the media hard, but I can't see any scenario where the same old, same old is going to deliver anyone a credible victory. Treating citizens like grown ups might.
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The GOP is sailing towards the borders of clinical insanity (I cite the Iowa caucus nomination of Huckabee as evidence) - I really don't see the point of healing the gaps with a party that is praying itself into electoral annihilation.
Well, Danyl, I don't really see the point of a political culture where demented fucktards like Ann Coulter and Michael Moore are what passes for public intellectuals. But, hey, Clinton's new line is that she's the only one who can "stand up to the Republican attack machine" - and it looks like she's going to do it by out-Roving Rove. You're either with us, or against us; and if you dare have a different point of view, you're not only wrong but EVIL.
If that's the kind of politics you want to see, I hope you choke on it this year. Because I'm pretty sure our election season is going to make the last go round look like a Devonshire tea on the Rectory lawn.
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Hillary has more gravitas that Obama, and gravitas counts in foreign policy. That is simply the point I was making, and one I think most people and commentators agree with.
Morgan Freeman has gravitas. I'll respectfully agree to disagree whether Clinton has anything of the kind. Personally, and I may be wrong, but I think the novelty value of Senator Clinton's vagina and who her husband is is past its use-by. In the end, if she can't mount a straightforward and consistent defence of her own voting record on Iraq in the primaries, then I don't think Obama's the only one with a credibility deficit on foreign policy.
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8 years watching Bill deal with the world has to count for something.
Gee, I'd love to see John McCain remind folks of his twenty years in the Senate - which might just count for a little more. Seriously, if Clinton wants to play the gender card she would be wise to position herself as more Angela Merkel than Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
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Obama is an amazing guy, very charismatic and honest and decent as far as I know, but he just doesn't anything in the way of experience to prepare him for the worst, most brutal job in the world. I am no fan of Hillary, but I would prefer her to Obama, she is a nasty bitch, which is not a bad thing in government (i.e. Helen Clark) and definitely not a bad thing in foreign policy.
Yeah, cause being a 'nasty bitch' really gotthis puppy on the statute books on her watch, didn't it? And I thought the one thing the whole Democrat field agreed on was that alpha bitch approach to foreign affairs (particularly in the Middle East) doesn't really work. Then again, who the hell knows what Clinton really believes? She certainly learned how to triangulate and fudge from a master.
Yes, I agree with you that it would be foolish to assume the formidable organisation and fundraising machine Clinton has behind her is just going to curl up and die.
As for your assertion that "Putin, Armadinijad (sp?) etc. would just laugh at a President Obama. They wouldn't laugh at a President Hillary." I've remarkably little evidence that Putin has a grain of respect for anyone, or anything, that doesn't directly serve his self-interest. Ditto for Armadinijad.
Seriously, I think you're being more than a little naive if you think anyone is going to suddenly play nice with the Great Satan because the President is a woman who had a problem keeping her dog of a husband on the porch.
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Not that I think the US President elections are actually very democratic, just ask Al Gore
Take it as read that I wasn't a particularly happy chap on Sunday, September 18 2005. Just because a result is agonisingly close, and not to my liking, doesn't make an election 'undemocratic'.
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And I don't mean to thread jack, but I wonder if our domestic pollies are going to be taking the right lessons from Obama. After reading Ralston's... err, rather peculiar HoS column this week, I'm not feeling overly optimistic. Might be the year to keep in mothballs any smug superiority complex towards the Yanks.
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Obama's no firebrand, but I think he strikes a good balance as being calm, intelligent and generally nice, whereas - crass as it may sound - I don't think he wants to be seen as a fire-up black man.
Well, yes, it was crass - I think Obama just doesn't want to be seen a hellfire-and-brimstone hyper-partisan, full stop. Like Russell (I think), I'm still rather fuzzy about where he is on most policy areas, but I don't feel an intense urge to put my fist through the wall as soon as he opens his mouth. That's a start.
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