Nation-Building

cross-posted from City of Brass One of the major problems with the Bush Administration and its conservative Republican stalwarts regarding the Iraq War was the "stay the course" dogma which seemed immune to any attempt at an honest evaluation of the war's goals or purpose. There were no metrics for success, aside from a nebulous goal of "victory". Proponents of withdrawal were accused of defeatism and virtual treason. The bottom line was that " failure was not an option ", which in the absence of a well-defined success meant perpetual war for its own sake. President Obama promised a different approach, where success would be clearly defined and measured and the policy would be defined by the facts, not the other way around. The war in Afghanistan will put Obama's rhetoric to the test. Will he stay the course no matter the facts? Or will he be willing to adapt? It should be noted that the opportunity for genuine and timely intervention in Afghanista...

During the election, the McCain campaign slogan was "Country First". This was seized upon with glee by GOP partisans as a rebuke against Obama, who (it was implied) put himself first instead of his country. Now, however, in losing the election, these same fair-weather patriots would prefer that McCain put Party above Country - clearly their concept of Country was a subset - the so-called " Real America " - that shared their political views and agenda. John McCain's principles and patriotism have now become a point of contention instead of pride for these small-minded partisan fools. Case in point - RedState has already told McCain to go " suck a lemon ". A more official rebuke comes from Rick Santorum, former GOP Senator for PA, who frets that John McCain might seek to re-burnish his credentials as a maverick by working amicably with president Obama: McCain was once the mainstream media darling, back when he joined Democrats on a host of issues. H...

Obama's private election night photos - up on Flickr for all to share. Truly, Campaign 2.0. I love this sequence of photos:

Happy election day! (Some crazy towns in New Hampshire started voting at midnight). Courtesy of Nate Silver's simulations, here's how McCain might win . The most plausible (but still improbable) scenario: Obama takes all the Gore and Kerry states, and McCain takes everything else. Everything else in this case includes states like Colorado (9 EV), where Obama's lead is the widest it's ever been and early voting favors Obama heavily. In other words: not gonna happen. Also, Virginia (13 EV) is looking very, very good for Obama, too. However, continuing the scenario, if McCain can pick up Pennsylvania (21 EV), then he can compensate for VA and CO and win the election. This is probably Obama's worst-case, leaving him at 265, just shy of victory. However, despite McCain's late surge and heavy focus on PA, Obama still has a healthy lead . In fact, I think Obama will take PA, in part because of early voting, heavy turnout ( weather in PA today is high 40s - low 50s ...

The muslim smear continues in visual form. Note the convergence of racial and religious stereotype. Obama Waffles : The ODS billboard : and of course, from my previous post :

Given the remarkable assertion that the Left is insane, offensive, and totally without moral restraint, whereas the Right is beyond compare as scions of civil discourse, and any evidence to the contrary of either is utterly non-representative, let me offer some counter-examples culled from sources that I believe we can indeed reach consensus on as representing the "mainstream" right. Obama had a gay love affair (front page post by RedState.com Editor) Obama's memoir was written by William Ayers ( recommended diary at Redstate.com, post at The Corner @ National Review) Obama's got something to hide regarding his birth certificate (user diary at RedState.com, promoted to front page by Editors) Obama's got "ties" to Osama bin Laden - Virginia GOP Chairman Rick Frederick Obama guilt by association with Marxists , Communists and Terrorists , Islamic Radicals . Obama was a drug dealer (Dan Riehl) Obama desecrated the memory of the victims of 9-11 becau...

I have laid out the case for why I am voting for Barack Obama in as much detail as I could muster. I think there's a lot of room for disagreement and healthy discussion on the issues, and wanted to be specific as to what my support for Obama is based on (not just the "D" after his name alone). I freely confess that I am biased towards Democrats in general, but that bias is effect, not cause, of my principles and beliefs and positions on the issues, and they form the basis of my judgement here. I do hope someone else makes a similar detailedcase for support of McCain in response because I think these are useful. It's not directly relevant, but I think this earlier essay of mine , reflecting on what 9-11 and the 2000 election portended for America from a civic perspective, is useful in providing some context to my worldview. If you agree with me that Barack Obama is the change we need, then please join me in making a small contribution to his campaign:

I think the best question of last night's debate was about personal sacrifice. Obama's answer was actually very conservative, in all the right ways.

This report from the Chicago Tribune details the conclusion of the editors and journalists at the Chicago Tribune after sitting down with barack Obama and asking him detailed questions about his ties to convicted land mogul Tony Rezko. The original article at the Chicago Tribune's website is off-line, so I am reproducing it here in full below the fold for reference.   March 16, 2008 U.S. Sen. Barack Obama waited 16 months to attempt the exorcism. But when he finally sat down with the Tribune editorial board Friday, Obama offered a lengthy and, to us, plausible explanation for the presence of now-indicted businessman Tony Rezko in his personal and political lives. The most remarkable facet of Obama's 92-minute discussion was that, at the outset, he pledged to answer every question the three dozen Tribune journalists crammed into the room would put to him. And he did. Along the way he confronted the starkest innuendo that has dogged him and his campaign for the presidency: the...

Over at City of Brass, I offer my take on the first presidential debate . In a nutshell, the debate was really solely for the benefit of the undecided, low-information voter which both candidates are trying to woo. And I firmly believe that these voters are fully rational in their thought process - but if fed garbage, the end product of that rational thought process will also be garbage. McCain's strategy is to feed them garbage, and Obama's defense needs to be to factoidify his responses so that there is a better chance of his basic message making it through McCain's wall of FUD. I explain all this in more detail so go take a look! I even have a bonus picture of Vice Presidential Nominee Tina Fey in there.

Obama sealed the deal last night - see my initial thoughts on his nomination acceptance speech at City of Brass. I plugged the text of the speech transcript into wordle and got this result: The main theme of the speech is clear from the cloud: the promise of America. It's worth noting that Obama uses that word to refer to an ideal, a description of the American Dream, which put simply is that anyone can succeed here if they work hard. It's not a mere litany of government handouts, as others have insinuated , but rather an appeal to the idea of America, its immigrant roots, and it's fundamental character. And it's also worth noting that Obama drew a sharp distinction between himself and John McCain, firmly establishing the fundamental case for why Obama-Biden is indeed an agent of change, whereas John McCain would be in all respects a Bush Administration third term. As Obama forcefully said, "change doesn't come from Washington; change comes to Washington...

Barack Obama is " morally depraved " and a " liar ". He actively desires to dump unwanted babies in the toilet . His flip-flops matter while McCain's flip-flops don't. And, of course, the liberals- Dolchstoßlegende classic, He actively wants us to lose in Iraq .

The left is not used to winning. This is probably why we as a whole are particularly susceptible to concern trolling from right-wing punditry. The latest such to make the rounds is that Obama should be destroying McCain , and instead isn't leading by the margin you'd expect were the hype about the " Obamessiah " to be grounded in reality. Of course, were McCain not weak, his campaign strategists would not be trying to base an argument on how strong Obama is. In 2004, the Bush campaign attacked Kerry directly and via surrogates, and had strict message discipline about Bush's own inevitability (a similar confident stance by Obama today is characterized as "arrogant" by the right-wing today). In contrast, Kerry attempted to concern troll Bush by asking (more legitimately than McCain does now) why Bush's lead, as an incumbent wartime president, was not significant 1 . In fact, McCain's entire strategy hinges on tearing Obama down - and his camp...

Just one week ago, Patrick Ruffini at The Next Right was declaring the Obama campaign's decision to forgo public financing a " strategic miscalculation ". This analysis, made before the Obama campaign had actually released any actual numbers for June, was widely quoted and seized upon in almost desperate fashion by the increasingly panicked right-wing blogsphere. Ruffini made a case that the (predicted) poor fundraising numbers for June, rumored to be under $30 million, suggested that the 2008 general election was lacking in intensity relative to the primary or the 2004 general. It should be noted that the Obama campaign just released its numbers for June - and it was a doozy . $52 million, well above (reasonable) expectations. In fact, Jerome Armstrong argued it could have been higher: I believe that Obama could have raised $100M in June if that's what they wanted to do. In fact, there may have been plans to do just that too, but they changed. Notice that just $2M w...

Many liberal bloggers are up in arms about the cover of the New Yorker, which succinctly replicates every right-wing frame, stereotype, and smear against Barack Obama that has been trotted out to date: However, I have to disagree with the critiques - i think it’s brilliant satire. The rightwing pundits will try to argue that their critiques of Obama are “on the merits” but if you take their attacks literally (he's a crypto muslim, an extremist, a marxist, etc.) then the cartoon on the cover is in fact the logical portrait that results. Its a mirror reflecting all the ugliness about Obama in the right wing media at once. I think that the right cant be given a pass on the implications of their rhetoric. This is what they are describing on talk radio and The Washington Times and Fox News. Lets hang this around their neck. I think if we are too unforgiving of the risk that the New Yorker took in runnin this cover, we are part of the problem of diluting political discourse into “safe” c...

Flip Flops on the River Originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs Daily Kos diarist DaveFromQueens has compiled a list of 50 flip flops of John McCain , on the topics: Privatizing Social Security, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Tax Cuts, Judges, Torture, Negotiating With Hamas, Bush Third Term, Agents Of Intolerance, 527s, Gramm's Whiner Comments, Economic Expertise, Illegal Wiretapping, Habeas Corpus, Everglades Restoration, Gay Couple Legal Contracts, GI Bill, Military Service Exploitation, Roe v. Wade, States Rights On Abortion, ANWR, Offshore Drilling, Role of States in Drilling, MLK Holiday, Windfall Profits Tax, Filibustering of Judges, Confederate Flag, Civil Unions, Constitutional Ban On Gay Marriage, Yucca Mountain, Undue Lobbyist Influence, Abortion Exceptions, Defense Cuts, Waterboarding Mandatory Caps, Citizenship for Immigrants, Flying the Confederate Flag, Bush Tax Policies, South African Divestment, Alternative Minimum Tax, Estate Tax Repeal, NOrth Korea Negotiations, Iraq + S...

L.K. Advani, of India's BJP party, is better known for fiery, nationalist, partisan rhetoric than he is for unity and change. At 80 years old, he's more McCain than Obama. However, as he makes his bid to be India's Prime Minister, he's trying to poach from the Obama playbook : For a few months, a small team of political strategists, computer specialists and management graduates in New Delhi has been studying Obama's speeches and slogans, Web site, campus outreach and rhetoric of change. "About 100 million first-time voters will enter the election landscape next year. That is a staggering number of young people. And the Indian youth is impatient for change," said Sudheendra Kulkarni, who heads up strategy for the campaign. ... "We want to project the image of Advani around the idea of change the same way that Obama's message resonated with people's hunger for change," Kulkarni said. More than two-thirds of India's 1 billion-plu...

By all accounts , the symbolism of Obama declaring victory in the nomination - at the same convention center in Minneapolis where the GOP will hold their convention in the fall - utterly swamped and rendered pitiful the simultaneous speech by John McCain. Even conservative pundits were forced to grudgingly admit that McCain was outmatched, and even petty. DailyKos has a compilation but of these, the one that stood out the most was by Amy Holmes at National Review (emphasis mine); McCain's speech was creaky, ungracious, and unnecessary. I never understand why politicians don't take the opportunity, when so easily presented, to simply be gracious and hold their fire. Watching McCain, I couldn't help but think of the astonishing contrast Barack's triumphant speech to a massive and adoring crowd will be. It was not a comparison McCain should have invited. It would have been more statesmanlike ‹ precisely the profile McCain is attempting to craft ‹ to acknowledge this hist...