Obama the busybody
This is shocking, if true.
I wish I knew how reliable Amir Taheri’s source is. But at least the foundation for the charge is a named person (unlike so much else in the news lately)—Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari:
While campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence…Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.
Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”
This would have happened at what in retrospect may have been the peak (one can only hope it’s peaked) of Obama’s pride and arrogance, around the time of the fake Presidential seal and the address to the adoring German crowds. These were signs and portents that Obama may have progressed in his own mind to being the President-elect already, and that he saw Bush as impotently playing out his last few months before the inevitable Obama inaugural.
I don’t know whether or not Zebari is telling the truth. But if the MSM were doing what it’s supposed to, an investigation of this allegation would be front-page news on every paper and magazine in America. Instead, we have the NY Times riffling through the linen of McCain’s Vice-Presidential pick in a concerted effort to find that—lo and behold!—Palin made some personnel changes when she came to office. No doubt she’s the only Mayor or Governor to ever have done such a thing, and America needs to know all about it.
[Update. And Obama seems to back up something very similar here.]
The NYpost is only useful for lining the cat box.
The conversation took place in the US, in June, and all Obama said was that it would be wiser for the Iraqis to work out an agreement with the government that would be in place for the next four years, instead of the one that is ending in January. It’s the Iraqis who refused to sign an agreement with Bush; because they don’t want what Bush is pushing, like 60 permanent bases, immunity for foreign contractors (like Blackwater), control over Iraqi airspace, and cooperation in a war with Iran.
It’s highly unlikely the Bush administration is being prevented from pulling the troops out in December. And it’s ridiculous to suppose that Barack Obama has any control over what happens between the two countries until January 20th. All he was saying was, don’t sign an agreement you don’t like, that will tie you and the next administration to a deal you don’t want. All Zabari said was, something is better than nothing. But what he’s doing is not signing.
Makes no sense, as with most Post articles.
sashal: You’re amusing. If the Post is good only for lining the cat box, I’m wondering what the Times might be good for.
The point of the Taheri article is not that Obama had the power to change anything in Iraq when he went to Iraq. If you don’t see what’s wrong with what he is alleged to have said—and how it would be wrong if any politician or candidate who was not an official representative of the Bush administration acting at Bush’s behest had said such a thing to an Iraqi official—then there’s no point in wasting time trying to explain it to you.
I’m not willing to believe this without further investigation, but it absolutely deserves thorough investigation (too bad all investigative reporters are vetting Palin’s neighbor’s cat) — just remember how much play the various Republican “October Surprises” eventually got.
This is stuff that impacts National Security — we should get the full story.
If the press doesn’t jump on this, after not jumping on the Ayers story, I’m going to start thinking they aren’t treating all candidates the same…
Amir Taheri is a often considered a source of disinformation
Libertarian blogger Jim Henley has a examples.couple of examples
Here’s some commentary by conservative blogger http:Daniel Larison
Apologies for the problems I’ve had formatting this comment!!
Besides, New Yorkers know how many times NYPost retracted it’s comments.
garbage paper…
Neo, this is why I believe that internal enemies in America are just as important as external enemies. The problem is, AQ’s threat is being offset by America’s superior front line military defenses.
But what the hell is offsetting our internal threats? Nothing. Luck maybe. Divine providence, perhaps.
It doesn’t matter which one is the greater threat when we have zero defence against one and 99% defense against the other.
THe idea of a loyal opposition, of a balance of powers, of sharing power because losing doesn’t mean dying or getting exiled, were supposed to be principles of strength for our Republic, Neo. But look at what people have done to it simply because of their megalomaniacal desire for power and wealth to crush those weaker than they.
Unfortunately, it’s no longer news when Democrat politicians hold meetings with officials of foreign governments. Nancy Pelosi did that last year when she met with the president of Syria. After all, the Iraq Study group–the one that predicted the Surge would fail–encouraged just such free lance diplomacy.
hey, Dan.
in what capacity McCain send his buddy Lieberman to Georgia?
in what capacity McCain send his buddy Lieberman to Georgia?
Same capacity Bush sent Rice in as. Human shields.
it is one to to go, talk, and get information
it is quite another thing to go, talk, advise, and suggests that a better deal could be had if they waited till he is in office.
sashal, try this on for size.
Suppose in a parallel universe Obama actually becomes President in January. (I know, I know, but pretend he could.) Suppose he’s conducting what we will charitably characterize as his foreign policy, when a Republican travels to that country to tell them to dig in their heels against Obama’s policy and they’ll see him right later. (E.g., suppose Obama tells Georgia to cave to Russia, while McCain told them to fight.)
Problem?
It’s a problem for me, regardless of which way around the situation. There’s a very good reason why we don’t want unauthorized people to make foreign policy, and Obama is of this moment unauthorized to do so (as are you, Nancy Pelosi).
Wee hee hee hee hee eelll, interesting.
Beating Obama in this election won’t be good enough for me. This man needs his ass kicked out of America.
I’m sure the Times will look into this very soon, but first they have to investigate the charge that when Sarah Palin was in high school she didn’t clean her cheerleader uniform before she turned it in at the end of the school year.
Ronald Hayden:
“(too bad all investigative reporters are vetting Palin’s neighbor’s cat)”
They’re now going thru Palin’s garbage to see if she’s using hairpray containing dangerous ozone depleting CFCs.
They’ll soon get the goods on Sarah, if that’s her real name. You’ll see.
“I’m sure the Times will look into this very soon, but first they have to investigate the charge that when Sarah Palin was in high school she didn’t clean her cheerleader uniform before she turned it in at the end of the school year.”
And what’s even worse, there was a stain on it. And Sarah was sooooo secretive, she wouldn’t even tell them what it was.
If this sedition occurred, Barack will never admit it. He’ll fight back in Clintonian fashion. I predict innumerable James Carville rantings on cable news:
This episode, which has the appearance of the Barack operating style to it*, is the perfect example of cynical and naive working in concert. It’s also an example of why I don’t trust Barack as caretaker of our nation.
Media will attempt to draw a parallel with McCain commenting about Russia, and with McCain frequently meeting with Georgia’s Saakashvili. Media will point to various Repubs who have visited Syria and Vietnam and other places. Those comparisons will be invalid. McCain and Repubs were not attempting to conspire with a foreign nation against a sitting U.S. Administration.
*Examples:
#1 Barack spoke out for Israel while privately assuring a Palestinian activist he was only speaking for public attribution, and would be with the Palestinians after the election.
#2 Barack spoke about strongly rewriting NAFTA procedures; his campaign operative privately assured Canadian officials that Barack’s words were just for electoral purposes, and he did not want to strongly change NAFTA rules.
Nothing Hussein does is ever laid to his charge by the whoring Fourth Estate. This won’t be, either. He could personally orchestrate the bombing of the Capitol building, and the toadies and sycophants in the press would keep licking his arse.
Racist and America-hating “spiritual mentor”? Nada.
Close associations with radical terrorists? Nada.
Lied about having been schooled as a Muslim child? Nada.
Lied about being in bed with corrupt Chicago financier? Nada.
Politics to the left of Ted Kennedy? calls himself a “centrist” and even Fox News doesn’t call him on the blatant lie. Nada.
Never calls a meeting of his Senate committee? Nada.
Thinks there are “57 states” in the Union? making Quayle look smart?? Nada.
Lies constantly about Palin and McCain, and when caught, throws out more lies? Nada.
Thinks Americans are redneck scum? Nada.
Despises real Christians? Nada.
Hates honkies? Double nada.
Sells out the Jews? Nada.
The Only reason this creature is still afloat is because the chattering classes are working like navvies to keep him going. And it’s frightening to see how effective they are at propaganda. This jerk should be nowhere near fifty percent: he and his cohorts should have been run out of town on a rail.
This comes under the heading of something that is probably not provable one way or the other. Were there any records kept of the meetings? Any kind of recordings made during the meetings? Who are the “Iraqi leaders”(other than Zebari) that were a part of the “discussions” with Obama? If it comes down to just Zebari’s word against Obama’s then nothing will come of it.
Well, well. It looks as if it IS true, after all. But is it really damaging? If this gets to be anywhere near a controversy the MSM will fall all over themselves to absolve Obama. If I were McCain I would run an ad using quotes from the link below:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/16/1146329.aspx
In dealing and arguing with the Left and followers of Democrat propaganda, I have found that it saves enormous amounts of time to switch around the target of their accusations. Whenever they are accusing the Republicans or Bush of dong something, just switch it around to Democrats and Democrat leaders.
It solves a lot of mental backflips.
Don’t worry! The MSM is on the case, diligently investigating politicians’ unsavory associations. Case in point:
Even though there’s no evidence that Sarah Palin ever belonged to a white supremacist group, she actually lived within a thousand miles of people who did. So we had to publish it, just so you’d know.
OK, I obviously suck at HTML. That comment didn’t come out the way it should have, although the link works. I guess I should count my blessings.
Oh come on rickl, don’t you realize that is the *opinion page* and they have no control over that all? I mean, were this something like an actual vetted and approved article then we may have a case, but they publish all the opinion articles that they receive and (being an opinion) they do not count anyway.
I also find it amusing that they list mostly left wing radicals and tie them to Palin. They then go on to give a *totally unrelated* paragraph describing right wing radicals that has no association whatsoever with those leftiwng crazies and it is our own faults for being so stupid that we associate the two things together.
Plus, as we all know, the Captain is responsible for those in their ship. As senator Obama was only the first mate it follows it wasn’t his fault that Rezko, Wright, and Ayers were the ones that brought him into power and he attended their parties and accepted their money and attended their church (he had no other choice). However as governor Palin is responsible for every single nutjob in Alaska and if she were better there would be none of them.
Obviously them living in the same state as her is more important than attending their parties and calling them close friends and mentors – were you enlightened then you would also know this. As is you are a Republican rube who not only doesn’t understand opinion pages but can’t even accept that your elected candidates are the seed of the Devil and responsible for All Wrong in the World. Pfft, I feel sorry for you in this election as Obamania rolls across the country, so out of touch that you don’t even realize that the other rubes have finally found their better.
sashal, I issued my challenge to you on the economy thread. You may take it as applying in general to any topic you comment on. Put up or shut up.
“That comment didn’t come out the way it should have, although the link works.”
Rickl:
I think what is now showing in that comment is perfect.
Unless Neo did a fix to make it that way, I can only you did fine.
This kind of reminds me of when Barak’s foreign trade advisor was meeting with the Canadians, telling them one thing about NAFTA and saying something different in public.
Two words:
Logan Act
We need to start using it for elected officials operating out of school.