Thread: President-elect promised change, picking insiders

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Ever heard the expression: 'It's better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt'. Now stop embarrassing yourself.

it's almost sad.

almost.

Originally Posted by raycarey

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Ever heard the expression: 'It's better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt'. Now stop embarrassing yourself.

it's almost sad.

almost.

Heh...takes one to know one eh, reach-around?

and of course my answer to peckerwoods response ended up in MKP without his prior caustic and ignorant posts which started the entire exchange..so no bias here at all..

Originally Posted by DrivingForce

Originally Posted by spiff

I don't know enough about him nor the alternative choices to comment more specifically, but it does seem odd to pick the same SoD after all the hot air about changes.

well that is really the point that had been made isn't it?

Erm, no, there's been a lot more. How did you miss the false claims and personal attacks towards members here?

all of the rest of your pedantic, hot air and blustering is just about you being your typically obtuse persona then wasn't it?? Ok, understood....

It must be frustrating to have one's lack of reasoning and the baselessness of one's attacks pointed out. Present your thoughts more coherently and you'll be critised less.

Originally Posted by Texpat

The Surge, which was roundly ridiculed by the TD numb skulls, yet turned out spectacularly successful -- all Gates.

of course this is slightly off topic, but the gross inaccuracies in this statement merit a quick debunking.

1. the escalation of troops in iraq (nice capitalization of the surge, btw ) is not known to have had any direct influence on the current decrease in violence in iraq. in fact, it is significantly more likely that a combination of the al anbar awakening, moqtada al sadr ordering his militia to stand down, and the tragic results of years of ethnic cleansing are what decreased the chaos within iraq's borders. of course it is entirely possible that the increased troop presence may have also contributed to this, but to imply that it was the impetus, is either absurd or dishonest...and perhaps both.

2. all gates, eh? utterly ridiculous.

good rebuttal.

Originally Posted by Texpat

Gates might well be the shining star on the Obama team.
He's got a few good years of experience...
But you'd never know it reading through Reach Around's trash in the Iraq News thread.

April 17, 2008:

Originally Posted by Reach Around

with each passing day it's becoming more clear how much of a failure the troop escalation (you may know it as 'the surge') was.

This is too easy.

Originally Posted by raycarey

good rebuttal.

Incapable of admitting to even one of your many errors, reach around? Shame on you. What a pansy.

enlighten me to my 'error', oh desiccated one.

It's a tradeoff -- but Obama holds the cards.

If he cages her as SecState, she's the diplomatic face of the nation. A loose cannon? Probably.
If she remains in the Senate, she pushes her agendas which may not suit the Obama administration and will likely cause Dem-Dem friction at some point.

If I were Obama, I'd prefer her in State.

BTW -- Gates' soft-power approach was begun years ago. We shouldn't expect to see it as a breakthrough of the Obama miracle. I've already read one article attributing the new approach to the Messiah.

Originally Posted by Texpat

If I were Obama, I'd prefer her in State.

Agree. Much easier to control if she's in State job. Will be near impossible for her to mount any support in running against Obama next election and if she doesn't follow Obama policy her "resigning" would have long term negative impact on political future. Hillary must know this as well. Maybe why it is taking so long for an announcement. Possibly Hillary is considering a Supreme Court job?

Issues and disagreements will arise between her and Gates as they always do between State and Defense. Gen James as NSA has the job of keeping these disagreements from getting out of hand. Something I believe he is very capable of doing. Big failure/weakness on Condi's part as NSA in letting the rift between Rumsfeld and Powell reach the level it did. Led to many bad decisions IMO.

while it certainly has its political advantages on the domestic front, i think there are more qualified people for the job who don't carry nearly as much baggage as she does.....john kerry for instance.

and as far as her 'going off the reservation' is concerned, i think it was thomas friedman in a recent op-ed who said that a foreign president or PM can spot daylight between a US pres and sec. of state from a thousand miles. she is, if nothing else, a political animal to her core....from where is it, picking her is just not worth the potential trouble.

and on top of all that, IMO she's far too hawkish.

i don't know if she's truly qualified, but if i were obama, i think i'd rather have her on the supreme court.....and out of politics forever.

Originally Posted by Texpat

If I were Obama, I'd prefer her in State.

Truth be told, there's lots of folks who'd like to see her with cement wellies at the bottom of the Hudson River...

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Truth be told, there's lots of folks who'd like to see her with cement wellies at the bottom of the Hudson River...

Oh really? In the tolerant US where everybody is guaranteed the Liberty to think and speak whatever takes their fancy? Some wish to censor and punish those who do?

Just an odd thought which crossed my mind, but you would not happen to be one of those?

Originally Posted by Bugs

I posted some comments earlier about Hillary as SoS. But the other night I was talking with a fellow American and he posed an interesting theory about Hillary and the SoS position. Maybe Obama is putting her in the position to control her. As his SoS she is suposed to say what he wants said and better yet she is out of the senate where she could have some real influence on what goes on over there. As a topper if she does not say what he wants said he can puplicly bitch slap her by removing her from the position for not doing what he wanted done.

I posted that same view as your friend's awhile back. Mebbe you got me on ignore and didn't read it.

Susan Rice's Resume -

U.N.-Ambassador-Designate Susan Rice's Greatest Hits

Link