Hey, I’ve got an idea! says Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic
And a novel one as well: Obama should diss Sarah Palin in order to fire up his base.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
And a novel one as well: Obama should diss Sarah Palin in order to fire up his base.
Great idea. Can’t miss.
Why hasn’t anyone tried that before? Time to take off the gloves toward Palin. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Only one thing, Barry. If she kicks your ass into next week – and I’m thinking she will – don’t blub about it on national TV.
I couldn’t get past the “Thank you, Captain Obvious,” comment. Does he draw a salary for this?
That would be fun to watch, Mister I’m too cool for mere mortals taking on Ms. You Betcha. Judging from her amazing shrewdness she could have the anointed one for lunch.
That is the most shocking item in modern US politics IMHO, the cleverness of this Wasilla, AK housewife. Poor Barack thriving his entire life to be Lenin and Trotsky rolled into one and 20 months in Ms. Wasilla beats him to the punch on the flag waving conservative right.
Briar patch time.
Buraq would have to be an idiot to do this, so odds are this is exactly what he will do.
He’d have to be an idiot because with a little introspection he’d realize that Palin is quintessentially American, whereas he himself has only a nodding acquaintanceship with Americana.
She instinctively understands the values and perspectives of ordinary Americans, whereas he taxes his memory to recall what his handlers have told him about that exotic species.
In a fight, it’ll be no contest. Mr. Brittle Entitlement, with his mnemonics for remembering the number of states (“How many states are there? Sure I know that. (sotto voce) Lessee, thirty days hath September…nah, that’s not it, wait…what did that nice Mr. Soros tell me? …hmmm ), up against a no nonsense American housewife?
Big Popcorn is behind this.
Palin is on CSPAN now (8 eastern) in Iowa.
“We can;t wait until 2012 to take our country back.”
How do you fire up a base that has there own doubts growing daily about how poverty stricken all this really hip marxism equality business is coming along? It’s all downhill for democrats. And that screeching sound you hear is their fingernails on the pavement in desperation to stop it.
The great thing is that Palin is not waiting for Obama to go after her and then reacting. In her speech tonight the best parts were when she was going after him. She has his number and is completely under his skin and in his head.
The truth is, he could not attack her if he wanted to. She’d tear him up and he knows it. He is afraid of her.
Palin has more courage and good cheer than exactly 100% of the male Conservatives on the national scene. That includes Pols and Pundits and the only one close is Rush.
Mike Mc. Says:
September 17th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
That’s the thing that impressed me the most about her during the 2008 campaign: her relentless cheerfulness in the face of the most outrageous personal attacks.
She makes quite a contrast with Obama in that department.
His “base” is receding to only “useful idiots” and perverts… Everyone else is likely to be even more repulsed if he attempts to attack Palin.
When Dufus (note the new logo…) figures out that personally going after Sarah may not be very smart, at least not right now, perhaps he’ll do the next best thing, helping his party comrades out by going after Allen West for the coming election…
If the election was next week and Palin, Huckabee or Romney ran against Obama, I’d write in Mitch Daniels.
I’m fine with Palin as a GOP power broker because she is a voice for voters whom the Republican establishment has egregiously stifled.
Palin for chief of the NRCC. DeMint for president. West for VP. Any Veruca Salt to the furnace. Obama for deportation to any of those places he came from, near as we can guess.
I was looking for articles earlier tonight about what certain commentators were saying immediately after the election in 2008. I remember somebdoy saying that the Democrats would likely pick up more seats in this election and there was talk of the Republicans being in the political wilderness for decades. And, of course, Newsweek (or was it TIME) declared that “We’re all socialsts now.”
So anyway, I found this article by Martin Sieff at UPI.com and it happens to have a bit in it about Sarah Palin.
Right now, despite the hallelujahs of the conservative Old Guard who hailed her in vain, she appears to be not the second coming of Margaret Thatcher but rather a Republican version of Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., Walter Mondale’s running mate in the ill-fated 1984 Democratic campaign.
Like Palin, Ferraro was a first-class local politician who sank like a stone when she was thrown suddenly into the deep end of the national political swimming pool.
Does that sound like Sarah Palin? I agree that Geraldine Ferraro sank like a stone but anyone who tried to make that argument about Sarah Palin in the fall of 2010 would be laughed out of the room as an idiot. She’s certainly, love her or hate her, one of the most influential politicians in the country today.
Our progrnosticator from 2008 also had this to say (emphasis mine):
Republican conservatives are fond of arguing that Obama is doomed to fail and that when he does, the American public will eagerly embrace the GOP in relief as it pitches its traditional message once again.
But this is a passive and even fantasy-world approach to political strategy. Obama and an awful lot of well-educated, ambitious and experienced people around him do not intend to fail.
I’m laughing just reading it. They don’t intend to fail (as if anyone does) and therefore it’s settled. What hubris.
I know this is long but I just have to quote this part, too. It’s a very clear case of the pot calling the kettle black:
It is quite common for political parties that have grown complacent, out of touch and ideologically rigid after too long in power to be forced to spend long years or even decades in the wilderness until they find a new way. The longer the effort to cling to old orthodoxies lasts, the longer and more painful will the years in the outer darkness be.
Republican conservatives should ponder those truths long and hard in the years that stretch ahead.
So it only took the Democrats two years to become “complacent, out of touch, and ideologically rigid.” That must be a new record.
Oh, and one more thing. He says the only ones on the national scene he sees who could help the Republicans would be Mike Huckabee and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah, right. Like we should take advice from someone who offers that kind of analysis.
Huckabee is a social-gospel (i.e., generally lefty) Southern Baptist. Which confuses people. From my POV, he offers what I like least about both parties: the moralistic tub-thumping, AND the moralistic tub-thumping.
Palin not only has the best chance to be the nominee, she has the best chance to win.
Besides that, of all the possible candidates out there in either party, she would make the best actual President.
Why? She has the right principles. She has amazing energy. She likes people and they like her. She is tough as nails. And several other good qualities.
Who, seriously, would defeat her in a two person race?
Before Condaleeza Rice went all squishy at State, the conservative blogs were clamoring for her to run for POTUS. Some, more prudent, thought VPOTUS first, for seasoning.
I looked forward, as I have said, to asking her opponents why they were frightened of a strong woman of color.
With Palin, I don’t get the “color” thing, but it will be almost as much fun.
Of course he should attack Sarah. Then he can have a meeting with Todd and explain that it is just “politics” after all.
OB, Ambinder’s piece is strong evidence for your thesis that the first prerequisite for being a progressive is invincible stupidity.
Mike Mc, neither principles or eloquence equate with competence so I would dispute whether Palin would make the best actual President. Our greatest problem now, in spite of the apparent lack of concern, is the Iranian bomb with the deficient running second (imagine bin Laden or Hitler with the bomb, the entire world seems to be in denial). Frankly the only person I trust to handle the Iranian bomb is McCain. If Palin could channel him I would agree whole-heartedly with your statement. Mitch Daniels is probably the best person to handle the deficient but he will probably kill himself in a motor cycle accident before the 2012,
which leaves Palin as the most likely nominee. Next question would the middle accept her.
My guess by 2012, they would vote for a dead parakeet to get rid of Obama.
kcom, thanks for reciting that UPI article. It confirms my opinion of pundits as Jerry Springer guests without the common sense.
kcom
The prognosticators didn’t do very well. Regarding why they didn’t, I turn now to Yog Berra, the Evil Empire’s homespun philosopher that even a member of Red Sox Nation can appreciate.
Yogi nails it, once again.
A 2008 Christmas messasge from an old family friend talked about how all the bright people Obama had assembled would set things right. We see how that turned out.
You can observe a lot just by watchin’.
Oblio, yep. That hypothesis has now been confirmed so many times it’s heading into “theory” country, alongside quantum mechanics, which has rather less evidence in its support.
Where to start on young Ambinder? First, Reds have been teeing off on Palin since about five minutes after her nomination. Hasn’t made much difference so far, apart from validating her political chops.
Second, if he gets into it with Palin, Buraq will cry. That’s painfully clear. He’s brittle, thin-skinned, a mediocre politician with a glass jaw and at best tenuous connection to ordinary Americans. A few good zingers from her and I bet he’ll either crumble or lash out vindictively, either way alienating all onlookers. No contest.
Third, firing up the base isn’t what the Reds need to do; it’s engage and appeal to ordinary Americans. Going after Palin yet again as an electoral strategy — when she isn’t running for anything — is madness. It’s reminiscent of those bitter doctrinal disputes to which Reds are uniquely susceptible, and so passionate about, but that are totally opaque and arcane to those who haven’t marinated in their theological minutiae, i.e., everyone else. They might as well start charging people with being Bukharinites.
Apart from that, a sound strategy, and of a piece with their persistent theme that they just need to spend more time explaining their policies better to people who detest them already.
Bob in Virginia,
Of all the issues out there today, domestic and foreign, I don’t see how you can say any one would do an actual (not theoretical) better job than Palin.
And I don’t see why you are implying that though she has the right principles, she is not competent. Your evidence for that is…???
And anyway, even if she were incompetent, a person with the right principles will do a great job anyway. Principles always trump competence by a million miles. It’s not even close.
Imagine a bad NFL quarterback leading their offense down the field. They might not be Joe Montana. Fine. But the right principles mean at least we are headed toward their goal line, and not in the opposite direction. Or trying to play basketball and not football. Or running sideways and backwards, and trying to swim down the field.
Obama can NEVER succeed (for America) because he has the wrong principles. He and the Dems will ALWAYS do harm because they have the wrong principles.
If a person with the right principles is incompetent, they won’t do good things as well. If people with the wrong principles are competent they will do the wrong things with great skill and alacrity.
Mike Mc, I would prefer someone with principles and “proven” competence. Two years as governor of a people-poor, money-rich state probably does not prepare one for the challenges of the Oval Office, although I repeat with McCain by her side she would do well. But without a more-experienced mentor she would a novice in a death match. Her greatest asset, IMHO, is her shrewdness, which is remarkable and commendable. It implies she is Machiavellian enough to do what is necessary while maintaining the appearance of decency. I can recall no other politician who so adequately positioned himself in front of a grass roots movement representing majority values and yet radically motivated. From nowhere she has become a kingmaker (or in the case of Delaware probable king-breaker). However, her behavior in Delaware and her support for an Air Force boondoggle airplane raised red flags that may be indicative of deeper weaknesses, such as impractically, even immaturity.
Mitch Daniels has a better resume and would be more acceptable to the middle. His main failing appears to be that he would make a less photogenic American Idol candidate (important since significant numbers of voters, if their stomachs are full, think with their genitals).
Palin would make a fine Secretary of the Interior. It would also give her a chance to learn and observe.
Odd isn’t it, that we are discussing the moral principles of potential nominees, something we could generally take for granted before the age of Obama.
Mike Mc wrote
“Obama can NEVER succeed (for America) because he has the wrong principles. He and the Dems will ALWAYS do harm because they have the wrong principles.
If a person with the right principles is incompetent, they won’t do good things as well. If people with the wrong principles are competent they will do the wrong things with great skill and alacrity.”
No argument, except when you condemn all the Dems, a lot having been playing Mussolini to Obama’s Hitler, in other words he is dominating them to the point when they are self-immolating. A lot have said no to him on different issues, but not enough.
Bob,
However, her behavior in Delaware and her support for an Air Force boondoggle airplane raised red flags that may be indicative of deeper weaknesses, such as impractically, even immaturity.
Mitch Daniels has a better resume and would be more acceptable to the middle. His main failing appears to be that he would make a less photogenic American Idol candidate (important since significant numbers of voters, if their stomachs are full, think with their genitals).
Palin would make a fine Secretary of the Interior. It would also give her a chance to learn and observe.
1. Her behavior in Delaware?
2. The air force?
3. Daniels has a better resume?
4. His main defect is that he is less photogenic?
5. Let give the chick Sec Interior so she can learn something?
Bob, sure you don’t want a do-over on those last three paragraphs? They seem to me to reflect an alternate universe of some sort.
Sarah Palin is NOT EVER NEVER going to be Sec Interior anywhere.
Mitch Daniel’s main defect right now is that he is totally unproven and unknown on the national scene relative to Palin and several others. If he has been fighting and leading the charge like her….well, he hasn’t been. period.
What the Air Force thing is I don’t know and I can’t see how it is a big deal or game-changer. If it was, everyone would know about it and have voiced an opinion.
Palin’s behavior in Delaware was decisive. O’Donnell won because Palin endorsed her. Therefore, she has more clout than the RNC. That’s something against her? I don’t get it.
Obama going after Palin directly would be a big mistake. It lowers him and reinforces the impression that he’s too ideological. In any case I think she’s smarter and more adept politically and would best him in any exchange. She’s still rising on a learning curve. He’s peaked and not temperamentally of any further improvement.
I doubt Palin will run. She’s going to make a lot of money and exercise a huge political influence without holding office. But if she does decide to run I wouldn’t count her out. She doesn’t have to win over the leftists – just enough of the independents to gain a majority.
Mike Mc: Palin probably LOST us Delaware (note I’m an anti-Obama ind. not a REPUB, although I prefer to call myself a Whig). If she returns there and wins for O’Donnell then fine, run her for Pres. (This RINO and purity stuff is bunk, it is like a starving man insisting on steak when only pasta is available.)
As for name recognition; if the Obama horror teaches us anything it is how quickly one can learn a name (exclusive of anything else). Daniels is the only governor who turned a state budget deficient into a surplus; that is a resume maker for me. By 2012 justifiably panicked Americans may care about that first.
Also I am unsure of Palin’s influence, that Weekly Standard article gave me the impression Castle lost on his own.
And whatever qualities she has she still has only two years experience; the ultimate big no no. Although recently 53% thought this was unimportant; many have probably learned their lesson by now.
What’s wrong with a Secretary of Interior position? She is easily extremely qualified for the role.
The boondoggle airplane refers to a planned aircraft whose canceling she decried. It was a bad call on her part. It showed lack of preparation or worse lack of appreciation.
Bob,
Palin had more experience than Hilary, Joe Biden, Obama, and McCain.
More executive experience, more real world experience, more family, real world, and merit based experience.
Her number one top quality as far as experience is concerned is that she has experience being a normal American and a normal person.
She has one other great quality, that is unlike Obama. With him, the more people know him the less they like him. He is basically a State Senator from Illinois who was given the Presidency by default and by the media and by the temporary insanity of the American people. Most of those people are beyond sick of him.
Palin is the opposite. The more people know her the more they like her. At the very least even her enemies are beginning to respect her. She is real. Obama is fake. That is a HUGE difference.
And who knows if she will run. But if she does I’d vote for her in a heartbeat and feel as if I was voting for the best person out there right now.
Good God, Bob, is that it? One bad call and you’re out? I’m agnostic on Palin, but this is ridiculous.
FDR interned the nisei.
Truman lost China.
JFK screwed up the Bay of Pigs and almost got us blasted into radioactive glass by causing the Cuban Missle Crisis.
LBJ put the Vietnam War on steroids, then prosecuted it in a half-assed fashion, all the while destroying the black family and wrecking the American economy.
Obama has been surrounded by flaming Reds, is now surrounded by such, spouts Marxist rhetoric, doesn’t know for certain how many states there are, bows to all and sundry as long as they’re not white Americans, and is in the process of spending us into the poorhouse.
And you’re worried about a call on a aircraft, a call that almost certainly admits of two perspectives?
Whoa. Unless the aircraft cost $787 billion, this issue doesn’t budge the needle, even in the worst case.
I don’t know which airplane Bob is referring to. This is the first I’ve heard of it.
Palin would make an excellent Secretary of the Interior, or Secretary of Energy (although the latter is one department I’d like to see abolished, along with Education).
I’d also like to see John Bolton as Secretary of State. But I don’t know whose administration would make such appointments.
Just to show you how I roll, I want the sissified name “Department of Defense” returned to its original name: “Department of War.”
Because that’s what it is.
Unfortunately, as I have said, too many of zero’s voters have too much invested to admit to anyone, including themselves, that they screwed up.
Thus, the issue of experience will remain immaterial to them. The issue of a vaunted Ivy education with hidden transcripts trumps actually accomplishing something, even though Bush I and II were equally well educated in the Ivies.
Someplace, deep in their hearts, they know better. But they can’t admit it, so they’ll double down on stupid.
Besides, it makes them superior to those who would vote for a rube.
Check out what this guy has to say about Obama and Palin: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/18/the-palin-card/
He makes a great point near the end of the piece: Palin is the one public figure who gets that Americans are about to attack the system. She is soooooo far ahead of the curve on this one, and in front of the crowd, it’s not even funny.
People think she is a rube from Alaska? Funny accent? Public University?
They have no idea what is about to hit them.
But I am getting clearer on a guess on what is about to hit them.
America is about to hit them. And when America hits something, it is well and truly hit.
Dare to struggle. Dare to win.
Occam wrote
“Good God, Bob, is that it? One bad call and you’re out? I’m agnostic on Palin, but this is ridiculous.”
It was a symptom of amateurishness. She is not out, but wariness should be among the first duties of a voter.
Mike Mc wrote “America is about to hit them. And when America hits something, it is well and truly hit.”
Let’s hope you are right. We have to accept one overwhelming horrifying and indisputable fact; Obama’s approval rating is still around 45% after 20 months of being the worse president in US history (also, since he wants to dis-empower the US, he is one of the most evil leaders in history). Most people function on emotion rather than logic. The fact that Obama is more urban and articulate than Palin is more important than the fact he threatens their freedom. Perhaps understandable for a people who cannot conceive of any other type of government. Ask Occam, he is from San Francisco, how many of his co-workers would choose Palin over Obama. Richard Aubrey is right about Obama supporters.
here is a link on the airplane story. It was about the F-22, a substandard aircraft that supported a lot of industry jobs. Perhaps Palin had an ulterior motive in attacking Obama for not continuing it? If so she is a lot more devious than I gave her credit for which is a good thing in my eyes. After-all Lincoln had to fringe indifference to slavery when he campaigned in southern Illinois.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/business/22defense.html?_r=1
OB, the War Department only supervised the Navy until 1798. From 1798 to 1947, the War Department only supervised the Army, including eventually the Army Air Corps. So Defense was not technically the successor to War within modern memory.
On the other hand there is something to your idea. Mrs. Oblio brought home some Peace Coffee a few months back. I asked her to find some War Coffee next time.
The F-22??? The best fighter plane in the world, a full generation ahead of anything else in the air? In mock combat tests, one F-22 went up against six F-15s (our current front-line fighter) and destroyed them all.
Damn straight we should have continued that program. Canceling it was borderline treason, especially when you consider China’s extensive industrial and military espionage efforts.
War Dept vs. Dept of Defense
No department of defense ever won a war. Check the history books.
From Heinlein, Starship Troopers
Just over two years ago, the media proclamed The Sarah Palin Phenomenon Is Doomed.
Today, Sarah Palin is so doomed they’re tracking her every move.
The last thing Obama needs to do is personally highlight Ms. Palin’s campaigning track record vs his.
“”This RINO and purity stuff is bunk, it is like a starving man insisting on steak when only pasta is available””
Bob in Virginia
I think it crucial the lines of demarcation between parties be distinct. Otherwise we continue down this apathy building and voter demoralizing road of “both parties are the same” which actually has SOME merit to it.
It is time to choose whether American individuals will save this republic or govt beauracrats will. It’s time to have politicians who instinctively know the less they “get done” the better off America will be.
SteveH,
A corollary to that rule is that the more politicians do, the worse things get.
That should be the starting position given of all pols and all voters.
If we had simple rules, like congress can pass no more than 3 laws in a year; that congress should repeal one law for every new law passed; that no law can be longer than 20 pages; that over-riding any of those previous requires a 60% majority in both houses and a Presidential signature.
We need to take this federal bureaucracy and its legal and regulatory leviathan apart.
Not tweak it.
Take it apart.
That is what the Tea Party is all about. That is what the insiders fear. They see a flashlight in the distance and do not realize it is a freight train coming through a tunnel and they are standing on the tracks.
CV laughs at that sort of sentiment or hope. And Palin will never be anything, and O’Donnell won’t win, and Brown has no shot, and, and, and….
There is a rule that often is good at predicting future events, even when they seem improbable.
That is, if something either cannot happen or must not happen, because if it did the results would be unthinkable, then it will not happen.
Examples:
1. To have lost in Iraq would have been unthinkable. The events that would have followed that for the whole world would have been intolerable. Therefore some few people were saying in the dark days that we would win, even if they had no idea how. They were right.
2. The return to constitutional rule in the US and the paring back of bloated federal laws, bureaucracy and regulation. It seems impossible. We never get rid of laws and programs. Until the failure to do so means an unthinkable result – the end of America, the end of the land of the free and the home of the brave, the end of the last best hope for humanity; the end of everything great America is. Since that cannot happen, it will not happen. How won’t it happen? Not sure yet, but it won’t.
SteveH:
Exactly. We need two sane political parties offering competing visions for America’s future, both firmly grounded in American values, principles, and traditions.
We can’t have one sane and one insane party, or one American party and one anti-American party. The Democrat party has been thoroughly subverted by the radical left, which despises everything America stands for. Even if we were able to drive them all out of power, we would then be left with one-party Republican government. That would not be healthy at all.
Some people, such as Libertarians, have been saying “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them” for years, and the reaction of the Republican establishment to the Tea Party insurgency lends credence to that view. The leadership of both parties increasingly see themselves as our natural rulers. They went to the same colleges and belong to the same country clubs. In office, they regard each other as “my esteemed colleague”. They are slowly but surely merging into the same entity: Codevilla’s ruling class.
At all levels of government, federal, state, and local; and in both parties, we’re seeing the emergence of family dynasties in political office. For most of human history, across all times, places, races, and cultures, rule by bloodline has been the norm. America’s Founders sought to abolish that type of government and replace it with a meritocracy chosen by the people. That experiment succeeded spectacularly, but we are clearly backsliding now. The Tea Partiers are trying to halt and reverse that trend.
Mike Mc. Says:
September 19th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Oh, they most certainly do realize it, which is why they’re lashing out the way they are.
Agreed, but re amateurishness, we’re talking about Palin generating here at most a few milliBarry.
Smash the teleprompter, and Palin will make mincemeat out of The Wizard of Uhs, and he knows it. A few good needles in a debate and I suspect Barry would come unglued. Again, I’m agnostic on Palin, but there’s a reason why Obama wouldn’t confront McCain in townhall meetings: McCain, and Palin alike, can easily and naturally speak to and engage with Americans, because they are Americans. Obama cannot; culturally he’s not an American. Not even close.
Not a one, no doubt, but then lots of people in SF would have qualms about Kucinich because he’s too right-wing. The growing opposition to Obama there comes from…his not being far enough left. There is no Republican candidate on earth that they would ever vote for, and thus no point in pandering to inmates of the People’s Republic.
Mike Mc wrote “That is, if something either cannot happen or must not happen, because if it did the results would be unthinkable, then it will not happen.”
An interesting statement Mike, but overly optimistic IMHO. The unthinkable has happened not often but enough. I refer to world wars and holocausts. I am afraid the unthinkable in the form of the debasing of our currency and Iranian nukes in our cities are very thinkable.
I knew we would win in Iraq when the pundits predicted inevitable defeat. G-d help us if they predict world peace and prosperity.
RE: the F-22, I am really no expert on the F-22. I don’t plan to buy one until I get a bigger driveway.
Oblio, interesting — I hadn’t known that.
Glad you like the “War Department” idea. It’s a little more euphonious than “Department to Kill People Who’ve Pissed Us Off, Or We Think Are Preparing to Do So,” although the latter has the truth in advertising thing going for it.
“We need two sane political parties offering competing visions for America’s future, both firmly grounded in American values, principles, and traditions.”
This describes the two parties prior to the Democrats going off the deep left end during the Viet-Nam war.
Up until that time a voter could vote Democratic and get a Joseph Lieberman liberal. Alas that time has passed.
Wishful thinking. Self-fulfilling prophecies are fickle beasts, aren’t they?
The Reds are obviously stark, raving terrified of her, which fascinates me no end. For reasons I don’t fully understand they see her as an existential threat to their dreams, which is her biggest draw for me right there. They’ve tried, are trying, and doubtless will try every smear in book to impede her. It’s easy to see the parallels with their treatment of Whitaker Chambers, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan (e.g., they’re stupid, they’re liars, they’re dangerous extremists, they’re out of the mainstream, they’re losing support, the rest of the world hates them, etc.), and from those parallels to divine the authorship of the smears.
Bob From Virginia Says:
September 19th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
I’m concerned that we may one day find ourselves in a shooting war with China, only to discover that they have developed advanced weapons that outclass ours; because they systematically stole the technology we developed at great expense, while we complacently assumed that our weapons were “good enough”.
I forgot to mention in my previous comment that every one of us just naturally assumes that the United States is the global leader in military technology, because it’s been that way all our lives. The notion that that could change is “unthinkable” to many Americans.
The political elites may well be coming unraveled, and the Tea Party movement may be fast gathering momentum across the country, but it’s also obvious that the “ruling class” or Old Boys’ Network comprising both Parties is both scared and enraged as it fights for its life of power, prestige, and wealth. It is not going to go away quietly.
Along the same line, y’all must read for inspiration this article in Canada Free Press:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/27844
The author, Christopher Massie, is tasked with vetting the stellar political career of Sarah Palin. He also points out that the Republican establishment has now unleashed once-respected pundits with the intent to destroy any attempt by genuine conservatives to take over the Republican establishment. Palin and O’Donnell are the first two intended victims of Krauthammer and Rove, for instance.
Forty-five days before Nov. 2nd, prepare for such betrayals.
Bob,
You need to do more research on the F-22.
Yes, it was expensive. Yes, the reasons for it’s expense has something to do with Congress changing priorities midstream.
Let’s do this. Let’s say Congress funded a bullet train (something that could go 200 MPH) with the intent on laying 300 million miles of track and buying 100 bullet train engines.
Then after all the research and development for this new train – they cut back repeatedly on the engines and track so that it was only 1 million miles and 10 engines.
If you did the math you could say that the program was more expensive per engine than any other train or track by a factor of 100 (after all research and development is factored in).
Then you use those facts to justify cutting the program.
The fact is that this plane (F-22) has the structure and the engines to propel it at over Mach 1 without afterburners keeping it’s engine heat signature cool. It’s able to go above Mach 2 easily.
The other current fighters (F-35) do not have this capability and are not up to production yet.
Leaving us with F-15’s and F-18’s, F-14’s and other aircraft that are two generations behind.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/07/Congress-Should-Support-the-Development-of-an-Allied-Variant-of-the-F-22A
“Leaving us with F-15’s and F-18’s, F-14’s and other aircraft that are two generations behind.”
And the real problem here is that in war second place is dead, you don’t get to fight another day or give it another try.
We loose air superiority and we loose our ability not just to project any will but an inability to defend against someone else imposing their will on us. There is *nothing* more important in today’s tactical operations that air superiority – it directly affects information gathering, ground support, logistics, communications – everything.
The f-22 represents the f-15 of the our future – there is not another plane on the planet that can compete with it. Yes, it costs a fortune but you have to pay for that. The f-15 has the best record of any fighter out there and is still a true air-superiority fighter but there are models from other nations (some not so friendly to us) that are going to be able to challenge that. When that happens if we have been sitting around doing nothing we are screwed.
Sadly this has never been a lesson learned from history – it is something repeated over and over and over and over and over by the superior fighting forces. They get complacent in their ability to project their will and can not see that state will someday end until it is too late.
The US is going to have some hard times and it isn’t just our current 3-d chess playing President that is the cause. Our military is still quite nimble as far as military’s go but our citizenry can not grasp the idea of a real attack/war at our borders so they see no real reason to keep the fences up. 9/11 was an anomaly and the great lengths gone to keep those fences strong can’t have had anything to do with that so lets tear them down (and those goes beyond the idea of the f-22 and encompasses the whole Open Borders idea too)! Sadly I live here and I should still be alive in the times span that I think this will truly bite us in.
F22.
Sheep and sheep dogs.
If the stuff hits the fan, the sheep dogs are going to have to die hard to provide time for us to get our stuff in order. Happened before.
And they’ll die knowing it’s because the feckless sheep were self-indulgent and playing feel-good head games.
I sometimes think Tommy ought to go on strike.
Frequently think Tommy ought to go on strike.
Somewhat back to politics: My guess is that the highly motivated right cost the moderate right two senate seats, Delaware and Nevada, both held by extreme leftist who would have been easy for a moderate to defeat.
It is conceivable a Palin Presidential candidacy could get Obama re-elected, remember he has 45% support after 20 months of being in the minority of every major issue the country has faced, and demonstrating incompetence and knavery at every turn. As much as Obama’s supporters have their egos invested in overlooking his deficiencies Palin’s detractors have equal amounts invested in proclaiming hers. He could win if the independent moderates stay home.
We’ll see in November.
I’m kind of optimistic. I’m feeling that the country is sort of at its first high school reunion, when you find out that the “Most Popular” guy is still flipping burgers and reminiscing about how cool high school was, while everyone else has grown up.
Bob from Va.
What good does it do to vote in a moderate rep? They vote with the dems anyway. It gives a veneer of bipartisanship to the same old crap.
As Limbaugh said, Arlen Specter and Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords were moderates. So is Snow from ME.
Let’s have the catastrophe have an unsullied dem label. Muddies the waters if “republicans” have their names on it, too.