by John Crewdson
Swamp watches the Sunday talk shows, so you can play croquet with the family.
The issues this Sunday: "flip-flopping," Phil Gramm's "mental recession," "flip-flopping," timetables for bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, "flip-flopping," potential vice-presidential candidates, and did we mention "flip-flopping"?
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, on ABC's This Week, observed that Barack Obama is "more and more going to the right," but that "flip-flopping is getting a bad rap."
Schwarzenegger pointed out "You can change your mind. I've changed my mind on things." The Swamp was waiting for The Governorator to quote Edmund Burke's speech to the electors of Bristol, which essentially boils down to "elect me, but don't be telling me how to vote."
Obama said last week that those who call him a flip-flopper "apparently haven't been listening to me." But they have. According to NBC's Andrea Mitchell, on Meet the Press, something like 22,000 Obama supporters have used the candidate's own web site to express their unhappiness over his vote in the Senate last week to approve a new federal law that makes it easier for the government to wiretap suspected terrorists.
MTP's interim host, Tom Brokaw, noted that in several of his public positions Obama has been "moving smartly to the center," and asked: "Is that a good idea?"
Former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford Jr., who now chairs the National Democratic Leadership Council, conceded that, during the primary elections, "Obama was labeled as more to the left than he probably is."
Republic strategist Mike Murphy added that "every candidate does this. You play to the base in the primary, then you go towards the center."
During the primaries, Obama was talking to Democrats and Independents. Now he's talking to the whole country, including moderate Republicans who are leaning toward McCain. "He had to move to center," Murphy said, "but how fast and how artfully?"
Make the move too quickly and voters will begin to wonder what the candidate really does stand for, besides getting elected. It becomes, Murphy said, "a character issue."
John McCain lost no time cutting the cord with former Texas senator Phil Gramm, a conservative Republican and former professor of economics, who declared last week that the country was in a "mental recession." Obama assured his supporters that "this economic downturn is not in your head," and Gramm is no longer an advisor to the McCain campaign.
But practically any economist will tell you that expectations play a huge role in how people behave with their money, how much they save or spend or invest, and that people don't always behave rationally. Predictions and fears become self-fulfilling: if we think there's a recession, or there's about to be a recession, we will behave in ways that may create the very recession we fear.
Also discussed at some length were stories in today's editions of the New York Times and Washington Post. The Times reported that the White House is "considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq, beginning in September."
Such considerations were presented as aimed at easing the strain on the over-stretched military, and also freeing more troops for Afghanistan, and what the Bush administration described as "potentially other missions." The latter phrase was no doubt intended for readers in Iran, which worried Western analysts last week by firing an undetermined number of missiles in a televised military exercise whose purpose remains unclear.
Scenes of war-weary but smiling American soldiers disembarking from airplanes in September and October would not harm the chances of John McCain in the November presidential election.
At the same time, the Post suggests that U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have given up on reaching a "comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S. troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency." In other words, the question of how many U.S. troops will remain in Iraq, and for how long, will be left sitting on the desk in the Oval Office for President McCain or President Obama to deal with after one of them takes the oath of office next January 20.
As for who is likely to take the oath of office as vice-president, both candidates are reliably said to have developed "short lists." Names, mostly those of governors, are being thrown around with abandon, with the notable exception of New York Sen. Hilary Clinton.
The liability with Hilary, it's said, is not the senator herself, but her husband Bill. In addition to persistent rumors about Bill's philandering, there's the millions of dollars he's reportedly raised in speaking and consulting fees from a number of dubious clients, including the government of Dubai. Obama's advisors, it was said, don't want Bill anywhere near the White House.
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Comments
Obama = Republican Lite
Posted by: The Outer | July 13, 2008 5:34 PM
McCain = third term of Bush
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http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r163/InsultComicDog/?action=view¤t=mcsame-1.jpg
McCain is the McSame as Bush - On tax cuts...
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In 2001, McCain voted against Bush's tax cuts, saying "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief." McCain also voted against additional tax cuts in 2003, later saying that "I just thought it was too tilted to the wealthy, and I still do."
Today, McCain wants to make the Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent.
McCain is the McSame as Bush - On immigration...
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In 2005, McCain supported comprehensive immigration reform, which included a pathway to citizenship.
Now, McCain claims that "if his original immigration proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor, he would not vote for it."
McCain is the McSame as Bush - On abortion and Roe v. Wade...
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In 1999, McCain said that he would not support overturning Roe v. Wade "in the short term, or even the long term," because that would "force X number of women in America" to undergo "illegal and dangerous operations."
Today, McCain has campaigned for overturning Roe v. Wade.
McCain - On his revisionist history regarding Donald Rumsfeld...
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In 2004, McCain refused to call for Rumsfeld's resignation, saying that Bush "can have the team around him that he wants around him." In 2006, retired generals called for Rumseld's resignation, but McCain did not.
Now, while running for president, McCain has claimed that "I'm the only one that said that Rumsfeld had to go."
McCain is McSame as Bush - On torture...
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McCain has traditionally been against torture, citing his experience as a POW for his decision.
Now, McCain voted last month "against a bill that would require the Central Intelligence Agency to abide by the restrictions on interrogating prisoners outlined in the Army Field Manual."
Ever since McCain started running for President he has missed more Senate votes than any other Senator and when he has showed up to vote he has voted with the Neocon Bush/Cheney Republican party line between 95% and 100% of the time:
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2005: 81%
2006: 86%
2007: 95%
2008: 100%
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Posted by: Joe Perry | July 13, 2008 5:51 PM
Obama = Neville Chamberlain = Appeasement of Terrorists.
VJ Machiavelli
http://www.vjmachiavelli.blogspot.com
Posted by: VJ Machiavelli | July 13, 2008 9:11 PM
The Outer = MJ
Posted by: MJ | July 13, 2008 9:41 PM
NO ONE flip-flops and lies more than John McSame does. He's making John Kerry look like a straight-shooter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c
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Posted by: The Outer = MJ | July 13, 2008 9:47 PM
McCain's economic advisor Phil Gramm obviously had the dumbest quote of the week.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/10/mccain-adviser-americans_n_111857.html
American Voters dealing with skyrocketing gas prices and collapsing home values just "love" being called "whiners" by a couple of millionaires like McCain and Gramm.
This kind of out-of-touch "elitist" condescension comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed Gramm's career. He's left his fingerprints on some of the worst economic debacles in U.S. history. He was a champion of energy deregulation, which gave us Enron and blackouts and price gouging. He was a champion of deregulating the savings-and-loan industry, the bailout of which cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. And his leadership on banking deregulation helped create the current sub-prime mortgage crisis. Republicans love to talk about Obama's lack of experience. I'll take fresh blood over McCain and Gramm's kind of track record any day of the week.
Posted by: Jack White | July 13, 2008 10:28 PM
Flip-flop was a republican stunt to frame John Kerry's positions in the 2004 election. It has now evolved into a statement used by light thinkers on all sides of measuring previous sound bites against new sound bites. People, use your heads, have you ever came across new or different information that caused you to reconsider your opinion? Even George Jr. who has been praised for staying the course on most issues is now adopting compromise as a tactic to get at least some of his agendas approved by Congress. Let's drop flip-flop and think of it as progressive thinking.
Posted by: Gene | July 13, 2008 11:56 PM
The Repuglicans have posted a $100000 reward for a photo of Barack from college days wearing flip-flops.
Kerry, of course, obliged them with that ridiculous wind surfing stunt of his. What was he thinking? Joe Sixpack doesn't windsurf anyway, and probably is too out of shape to throw around a soft ball.
FDR asked Garner about this time in 1932 what he needed to do to beat Hoover. "Stay alive" was the response.
I think Barack should limit himself to basketball with tall, tall white guys who can jump.
And leave it at that. The trip to Iraq could be an exploding cigar. Remember who really controls the turf he'll be on. Many opportunities to make him look foolish. Who thought this one up?
Anyway, what us peons is hearing is: More and more, it's the economy.
Tell us specifically what you will do to improve the economy in the first, say, 100 days.
Posted by: ornery | July 14, 2008 1:13 AM
To read about, yes another flip-flop by Obama on Cyberspace Defense check out the comparison of Obama's web site positions with his voiced opinions on YouTube - which position is the real one.
http://brokengovernment.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/obama-on-cyberspace-defense/
Posted by: Ken Moyes | July 14, 2008 2:12 AM
I'm still not convinced on any candidate. However, I want a president who will change his mind if need be. I want nothing like the last eight years of a stubborn brat who has to have his way like our current administration. A person who can think on their feet would be a great president. Let's put the flip-flops back where they belong...on the beach.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | July 14, 2008 7:06 AM
While searching for posts on the recent Iranian missile launch, I came across yours. I recently posted on the subject myself and was wondering what others thought.
What’s going on in the Middle East is not about Israel, the U.S. occupation of Iraq, or even Europe or Russia. It’s about an age-old war that has been going long before there was an Israel or even U.S. Europe was in the midst of the Dark Ages, and the land that is Russia was ruled by Mongols when this Mid-East struggle began.
It would have surfaced sooner if not for the Israel situation that arose in the middle of the previous century. The insurgency that Saddam feared more than some possible U.S. takeover was always bubbling just below the surface. The U.S. overthrow of Saddam has caused a rebalancing of age-old rivalries in the Middle East that will affect us all.
Posted by: scout29c | July 14, 2008 8:28 AM
scout29c @ 8:28 a.m.,
You may be waaaaaaaay too deep for the Swamp Lands. So much easier to just blame somebody and leave it out there like that. You may also have gone to a real school and had real classes in World History. That would give u a distinct, unfair advantage. There are rarely any Epiphanies in the Swamp.
Posted by: Django Scott - Houston Tx | July 14, 2008 9:55 AM