Had the so-called lunatics of the 2008 McCain-Palin rallies been caught saying that, in the course of one day, an Obama presidency would seize one-sixth of the private sector and describe East Jerusalem housing as "undermin[ing] mutual trust” and “expose[ing] daylight between Israel and the United States,” we’d have choked to death on headlines about “playing with fire” and “the politics of fear.”A provocative and interesting article by Abe Greenwald in Commentary Magazine.
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Shorter version
Let me ask, if Obama's goal was to reduce us from a superpower status and reduce our standard of living, what would he be doing any differently?
Bush Jr. did a pretty good job of reducing our power at home and abroad, along with our standard of living, through his trillion dollar war in Iraq and causing the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Obama through the stimulus and proposed financial reforms has been trying to repair the damage thirty years of de-regulation has done. Calling the passed Health Care reform bill, which is close to what Milt Romney got passed as Governor of Massachusetts, seizing control of one-sixth of the private sector is as accurate as the screaming hysterical denounciations of it as Socialism by the Republicans and Faux News.
As for East Jerusalem, this is the price Bibi & Co. pays for sticking their thumb in the Administration's eye last week during V.P. Biden's visit. When you do this to someone bigger than you, should not if your thumb gets broken. If Bibi had been smart and let this sleeping dog lie, none of this would have come about.
Note: That sentence you quote above certainly takes in a lot of territory. The first part is acutally the cover for the second about East Jerusalem, an issue that few Americans care about, one way or the other. Other than being right that the Oslo agreements would not work out, I cannot recall an issue in the last 25 years that "Commentary" has gotten right. No doubt this is an overstatement, but in my opinion. their record is not very good.
David subscribes to the Dem talking points newsletter. He may even write it, since he has all the code words down so well.
Re Jerusalem, Obamalot, oddly enough, seems to be replicating the elder Bush and his minion/contributor Baker in 1991. Is this history repeating itself, or stuttering?:
http://bit.ly/beXATv
No question, David, about Bibi's government sticking his finger in Administration's eye. As for the Health Care reform - I would withhold my own opinion, as I always do. The article still remains provocative, isn't it?
It's an interesting article, thanks Dick. And it actually reminds that it is in Washington power to remake Israeli government. It has already happened to Bibi once... so he could do with remembering it better this time.
Snoopy, you can see the article sure provoked me, so I agree it is provocative! (laughs)
Dick: You give me too much credit concerning my influence. That may be wishfull thinking re Bush Sr./Obama, we shall see.
That's the main idea behind provocative ;)
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