Mitt Romney yesterday compared Barack Obama to Hamlet for his apparent hesitancy to commit more troops to Afghanistan.
The former Massachusetts governor and probable yet-again GOP presidential contender said: "This is not the time for Hamlet in the White House."
Note to Mitt: it is also not the time for another cowboy in the White House, itching for a fight against international evil-doers.
Shortly after he took office, Obama ordered more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan. In the wake of increased violence and a rigged election, the president is apparently having second thoughts about a future military build-up. That's in line with the American people.
A bigger question: What is a U.S. victory in Afghanistan? Is it the capture of bin Laden? Rooting-out Al Qaeda? Destruction of the Taliban? Transformation of a collection of warring tribes into a modern state?
After eight years of conflict, the public still doesn't have a clue about what our goal is in Afghanistan.
Obama was right to ask Gen. Stanley McChrystal to delay asking for more troops until the administration completes a review of U.S. policy. That's not mimicking Hamlet. It is being responsible for the lives of young Americans who may be sent to a military quagmire.
The president told the United Nations today that the U.S. can't fix all the world's problems. That applies to Afghanistan. Terrorism is a global problem. It requires a global solution. The U.S. shouldn't have to go it alone in Afghanistan with only token help from NATO allies.
Obama is right to think things through. If he okays more troops, he will have to give the speech of his life to justify that decision.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has excellent words of advice for the handful of ignorant loudmouths who either shut down or made a spectacle of Congressional and other "town hall" healthcare meetings held throughout the August recess. Those words are "behave," "respect the rights of others," "open debate" and "dialog."
The Joint Chiefs, in coordination with the Defense Department's public affairs unit, yesterday announced plans for a "virtual town hall" meeting via YouTube to hear out opponents. Military personnel and the general public are invited to submit video questions to Mullen. The deadline for questions is Aug. 31.
There is a chance that DOD might "cherry pick" questions, opting for softballs. That, however, would expose the town hall as a propaganda sham, killing its credibility. This blogger believes the Pentagon PA people are too media-savvy to let that happen.
Mullen, according to the Pentagon’s statement, "intends to use social media to expand two-way conversations with service members and the public. Mullen expects his conversations to be interactive, similar to the all-hands meetings he conducts in person at bases all over the world."
The admiral is a breath of fresh air, a sharp contrast to the healthcare reform opponents who shouted down congressmen and denied others their First Amendment rights to speak their piece. Those rabble-rousers say the last thing they want is a U.S. government-run "public option" to the healthcare system. They raise the Post Office as an example of a government-run operation run amok. Those same people forget that the U.S. government also runs the military, which is a pretty well-oiled operation, thanks to guys like Mullen.
Members of Congress would be pretty smart to adopt Mullen's virtual town hall strategy the next time they want to hear from constituents. The Admiral does have a few restrictions on his virtual town hall. He will ban "overly graphic, disturbing or offensive material."
It's a safe bet Mullen would tell healthcare reform crazies to leave their shameful anti-Barack Obama posters at home, especially the ones that characterize the U.S. President as the second coming of Adolph Hitler.
The PR geniuses in the White House fully understand the need to respond to outlandish charges and lies, no matter how far-fetched they may be.
For example, take President Obama’s healthcare initiative. Ask any conservative dead-ender (tip of the cap to Donald Rumsfeld), just how will health reform lower the nation’s Rx bill? The response: Obamacare plans to knock off the old folks, who tally up big health bills. They call it "mandatory euthanasia."
Talk about throwing grandma under the bus. How bizarre...
North Carolina Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx recently floored everyone in the House, warning fellow Members that Obamacare will put seniors in position to be put to death by their government. Alaska’s Sarah Palin went one further, gabbing about a “death panel” that would have forced her to argue before a committee of bureaucrats to make the case for her child born with Down Syndrome.
Foxx and Palin reside in fantasyland. Sadly, their inanities receive much play and support in the conservative press.
The White House today launched WhiteHouse.gov/Reality Check to dispel the “rumors and scare tactics” of the hard-right. There’s a nice video there of Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Council Director. She has the chore of assuring visitors that Obama’s plan does not require “mandatory end of life care” sessions for seniors, where counselors will advise people to take one for the country. It’s the patriotic thing to do.
Barnes explains Obama’s plan is far less dramatic. He wants Medicare to pay for one end of life session every five years. It's the first time that Uncle Sam will foot the bill for such a meeting with a doctor or counselor. It is not mandatory. A senior citizen can take it or leave it. Case closed.
The mobs storming town hall sessions this month, trampling the free speech rights of others, won’t spend any time at the White House’s reality check. Ignorance is bliss for those yahoos.
Everybody else should get the facts about healthcare before supporting or opposing Obama’s plan. That is what citizenship is about.
Political operative Roger Stone proudly stands among hatchet men once used by President Richard Nixon. Stone, in fact, sports a tattoo of his hero on his back.
That's why yours truly is aghast that Roger says Sarah Palin’s decision to resign as Governor of Alaska reminds him of the first time that Tricky Dick stepped away from the public eye in the aftermath of losing the California governor race in 1962.
On the commendable stonezone.com, Roger writes that Nixon was fed up with “elitist derision” and “had enough of the liberal media who consistently held him to a higher standard than his Democratic opponents and poked fun at his lack of sophistication — he being the son of a grocer.”
Nixon inscribed one into the record books when he said: “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” Six years later, he was inaugurated President.
Nixon didn’t waste that period wandering in the wilderness. He used the downtime to make money, build a contributor base and mend fences with the Republican grassroots. Nixon was tanned, rested and ready following the Goldwater blow-up debacle of 1964.
Stone believes Palin is following Tricky Dick’s playbook with an eye on the 2012 campaign. He’s got to be kidding.
Remember when VP candidate Lloyd Bentsen demolished Dan Quayle, when he had the audacity to compare his electoral inexperience with that of JFK? Said Bentsen: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy." The same applies to Sarah.
Palin is no Nixon. Stone insults the memory of his former boss by making such a whacky comparison. RMN served in the Pacific during WWII. Upon return, he won a California congressional (with plenty of spitballs) and senate seat. Dwight Eisenhower picked Nixon, whom he loathed, as his running mate. Though Ike and Tricky Dick weren’t the best of buddies, Nixon dutifully traveled the world as VP and had the famous kitchen debate with Russia’s Khrushchev before running as the GOP standard-bearer against Kennedy in 1960.
Nixon had cred.
Palin is former Mayor of nowhere Alaska and half-term governor of one of the country’s least populated states. The Wall Street Journal says Palin got out of the Great North just in the nick of time as energy revenues are drying and tourism tanks.
Stone knows better. He should stick to skewering former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer and the Empire State’s dysfunctional Senate.
*
Note to Roger: Check out odwyerpr.com’s poll on Sarah’s decision to blow Juneau:
33 percent believe she is interested in making millions via writing a book and making speeches;
27 percent believe she hears the rattling of skeletons in her closet;
25 percent agree that Palin is doing a Nixon. And
14 percent say she wants to spend more time with Todd and the family.
Liberals had great fun during 2001 leading up to 9/11, bashing Vice President Dick Cheney for holding secretive meetings with the oil and gas boys to plot national energy strategy.
It was suspected the Prince of Darkness was doling out sweet deals to Big Oil that were bound to hammer hapless consumers at the gas pumps. Hope was lost about progress on the global warming front. Alternative energy? Fuhgeddaboudit, as Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has written on highway signs leaving the sainted ground of Kings County.
But the shoe is certainly on the other foot these days. President Obama has snubbed the invaluable watchdog, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a group that wants the names of coal and energy industry visitors who have paid their respects at the White House.
The non-profit organization knocks the Obama White House for taking the exact position of Bush/Cheney on this matter. It contends the “records are Presidential, not agency records, and otherwise exempt in their entirety because of the possibility in some instance they could reveal information protected by the Presidential communications privilege.”
C'mon, drop the legalese. What are you hiding?
Oil/gas execs certainly have the right to lobby the White House. Undeterred CREW is suing to get the records. Best of luck to CREW. A little embarrassing disclosure about "paling around with energy lobbyists" will do the White House some good.
Obama’s stonewalling disappoints many who have put heart and soul into the “change you can believe in" mantra. Good government groups expected a lot more from “Mr. Transparency.” They stand beside gays and lesbian backers of the President who feel they have been stabbed in the back by Obama.
Gay rights people are livid with Obama's now apparent support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which he vowed to overturn as Senator and Presidential candidate. Democrats like Howard Dean promise the White House will act on gay issues near the end of Obama's term. That's just in time to raise campaign cash from gays, which is pretty sleazy.
Seeking to defuse criticism from gay supporters, Barry threw the gay community a small bone today with a directive that offers new benefits to same sex couples who work for the federal government.
National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske has been on the job for about six minutes, but that didn’t stop him from proclaiming today that the "war on drugs" is over.
Former "drug czar" Gen. Barry McCaffrey (now a member of Fleishman-Hillard's international advisory board and an ex-Pentagon shill who was part of its military analyst program) must be a tad jealous of Kerlikowski's rapid success. What exactly where you doing during those five years as drug czar, Barry?
“We should stop comparing this to a war and be much smarter about how we are dealing with it—and in a much more comprehensive way. I’ve ended the 'war on drugs."'
Bully for Gil, the ex-Seattle police chief. America can use a dose of his can-do spirit.
We also could use Gil in Baghdad, declaring that "war is over.” After a day or so adjusting to the Baghdad heat, Gil undoubtedly would order U.S. troops to pack their gear, and then say "see ya" to the Iraqis.
If Kerlikowske is needed more on the home front, President Obama should follow up on Plan B. Call your buddy, Nicholas Sarkozy.
The French apparently are tired of being taunted as cheese-eating, chocolate-loving, wine-swilling wimps. That’s why Sarko has just opened France’s first permanent military base in the Persian Gulf. The Abu Dhabi facility is the first fort that the French have built in 50 years. More importantly it's the first-ever French military complex constructed outside France or one of its former colonies. Sarko wants to show us and the Brits that France is itching to regain a measure of its former military “glory” (e.g., Waterloo, 1815).
There is a tremendous ego-stroking opportunity for the U.S. We have a ton of bases in the Middle East. Who needs 'em? Let Sarko have his pick.
We got some serious business in Afghanistan and Pakistan to tend to.
The Vice painted Obama as a naive wimp on the national security front, a guy who earns applause lines in Europe -- especially among Don Rumsfeld’s favorite chocolate-making countries of Belgium and France.
There are drawbacks to Cheney in '12. Age and health issues go against him. The guy is 68 and would be the oldest President voted into the White House. Ronald Reagan was 69 when first elected, but John McCain gave it a shot at 73. McCain did okay until the scary reality of Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from being Commander-in-Chief terrified millions of voters.
Cheney has heart issues, but he appears reinvigorated since leaving the White House. Age and health questions could be put to rest by selecting a younger and robust running mate. My vote goes to Rush Limbaugh, a virtual babe at 58.
The only question: Would RushBo be willing to stick it out for a possible eight years? No problem. Cheney, who recently praised Limbaugh as the leader of the GOP over the likes of people like Colin Powell, could cut a deal with Rush. He could say “Four for me and then it’s yours, Rush.”
A Cheney-Limbaugh candidacy would have hearts racing among hard-core GOPers. It also would have hearts racing among Obama supporters. Isn’t it interesting that Obama penciled in his Gitmo talk at the National Archives right before Cheney’s speech? The White House knew exactly when Cheney was scheduled to speak. Staffers expected Cheney to rebut the President. Media coverage was bound to present the back-to-back speeches a debate, one that Obama wins hands-down.
The Vice was set up. He got punk’d by political operatives in the White House.
"He's tan, rested and ready. Nixon in '88," read t-shirts at the Young Republican Convention by party-goers not exactly juiced by the prospects of Bob Dole heading the GOP ticket.
"Tricky Dick" didn’t come out of retirement then, but his reputation is set for a recovery with reports that Nixon is set for a surge in odwyerpr.com's poll of greatest White House communicators.
Okay, the disgraced Nixon is currently neck-in-neck with "The Anointed One." Nixon and Barack Obama are locked into the caboose position of the four-member Presidential train. Each man had 17 percent of the tally as of this writing.
This blogger threw Nixon, President during his formative years-- into the mix as a lark. I was certain poll results would be a battle between Ronald Reagan and Obama, masterful communicators from different sides of the spectrum.
Reagan used his Irish charm to gut the government while funding a huge Pentagon build-up that ultimately blew this country’s deficit through the roof and led to the bust of the Soviet Union.
Obama's earnestness is geared to re-establishing the authority of Uncle Sam. He is guiding the federal semi-takeover of the private sector and the rebuilding of regulatory institutions. Obama's polling numbers suffer perhaps from a backlash, while Reagan benefits from nostalgia.
O'Dwyer readers have given "The Great Communicator" a resounding 37 percent of their votes. Bill "I Feel Your Pain" Clinton trails Reagan with a 29 percent standing. But keep your eye on Nixon, the master of comebacks. Don’t be surprised if RMN winds up to top.
Rest assured though that O’Dwyer’s web team stands ready to counter any funny business attempted by the "dirty tricks" gang.
You have got to admire the Republican attack PR machine, which is in full throttle and gleefully steamrolling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Former Bush White House majordomo Karl Rove, taking a breather from prepping for the inquisition into whether he had a hand in the firing of federal prosecutors, branded Pelosi an “accomplice to torture.”
Touche, Karl.
Rove would have you believe Democrat Pelosi straddled suspected terrorists and forced water down the throats. Give it up for Karl. The guy's got a truckload of chutzpah.
Nancy Pinata hasn’t exactly been a rock during the smear campaign. Too cute for her own good is her problem. The Speaker danced around the issue, first saying the CIA didn’t come clean about waterboarding, and then shifting to the line that Democrats were powerless to stop torture. Pelosi now stands at loggerheads with the CIA, saying she was duped by the agency. She is spinning like a top.
Republicans will win some political points among the dwindling Fox TV crowd. The masters of diversion break it down to a question of trust. Who does America believe? Is it the lefty from scary ultra-liberal San Francisco? Or the men and women who are keeping Americans safe from terrorists?
The GOP playbook seeks to deflect blame from the Bush Administration for okaying torture, while positioning Pelosi as partner. The playbook is a little dusty. Do you really think America for one nanosecond is going to believe that Pelosi, GOP's antichrist, was invited by the White House to give input on torture policies?
The Republicans pile on Pelosi because they know as Bob Dylan sings “when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”
What’s the big fuss? The media are bursting with reports that former Vice President Dick Cheney likes Rush Limbaugh better than Colin Powell. That’s not news.
It would have been newsworthy — a Road to Damascus conversion — had Cheney picked Powell over El-Rushbo as the preferred leader of the Republican Party.
Cheney told “Face the Nation” he figured Powell bolted the Republican Party after he endorsed Barack Obama for President. That high-level support gave a mighty boost to the former Illinois state senator with zippo military credentials. It also was sweet payback for Powell, the guy duped by the Bush Administration (e.g., Cheney) and used as a stooge to argue for the whacking of Iraq before the United Nations.
As Republicans try to broaden their quickly shrinking base, Cheney stays true to form. He served as President Bush’s right-winger and maintains that line in “retirement.” Like Cheney or not, the guy is consistent. He may be consistently wrong, but...
Of the Republican move to moderation, Cheney said: “The suggestion our Democratic friends always make is somehow if you Republicans were just more like Democrats, you’d win elections. Well, I don't buy that. We win elections when we have good solid conservative principles to run upon.”
Team Obama should take the flip side of Cheney’s point to heart. Democrats in Congress aren’t going to generate a political groundswell by being Republican Lites. The President was elected as an agent of change. Embracing turncoats like Arlen Specter isn’t being an agent of change. It’s being an agent of political expediency.
Obama’s 100-day honeymoon with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is over. The President needs a big dose of Cheney-like certitude to get things done. Coming up with a rock solid plan to close Guantanamo, and assurances that Afghanistan is not going to turn into an Iraqi-like quagmire are places to start.
Note to Mitt: it is also not the time for another cowboy in the White House, itching for a fight against international evil-doers.
The Joint Chiefs, in coordination with the Defense Department's public affairs unit, 
Talk about throwing grandma under the bus. How bizarre...
On the 
But the shoe is certainly on the other foot these days. President Obama has snubbed the invaluable watchdog, 
The Vice painted Obama as a naive wimp on the national security front, a guy who earns applause lines in Europe -- especially among Don Rumsfeld’s favorite chocolate-making countries of Belgium and France.
"Tricky Dick" didn’t come out of retirement then, but his reputation is set for a recovery with reports that Nixon is set for a surge in 
Former Bush White House majordomo Karl Rove, taking a breather from prepping for the inquisition into whether he had a hand in the firing of federal prosecutors, 
Cheney 
