Submitted to a Candid World

The “Country First” crap started sounding ridiculously hollow when he picked Palin: say what you will about her, but she’s clearly a pick for the election, not the presidency (and Biden is vice versa).

Saying something to get elected is one thing. Everybody does that. Picking a running mate to get elected, with no intention of that person contributing anything to your White House, is another.

I mean, I don’t know their personal relationship (Biden and Obama), I think Obama had spoke favorly of Biden during the primaries and before… and as I’ve said before, he does have something to offer him as a senior experienced statesmen.

So I could guess that it was purely a political move, and for some reason Obama would be bull headed and ignore Biden (which validly sometimes a President should d0), but the main thing would be…those things would still be guesses.

I mean, I think most Democrats are friends with the Clintons since they were pretty much the figureheads of the party. And I don’t personally think Obama blew anything in his trips abroad and handled himself quite well, despite everyone looking for him to trip up. Or in some cases, trying to find things to trivialize and make into issues.

But I’m not sure of what you were getting at there.

In the end, we can presuppose all day, but I do think that Biden has things to offer, whether or not Obama uses it, more than image. Which I would argue is only what Palin is for.

And last I heard, the RNC/Palin bounce is almost gone? http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/15/cnn-poll-of-polls-mccains-convention-bounce-gone/

Biden addressed one concern..and Obama wouldn’t have even done that if he hadn’t blew it with his World Tour.

Blew it with his World Tour? Do you get all your political analysis from Pravda, sorry Fox News and Rush Limbaugh? Only from the nattering nabobs of the right was his trip a failure. Now if you had argued that the Georgia-Russia conflict had a great deal to do with the choice of Biden, that would be one thing, but to associate the choice with Obama’s trip is ludicrous even for you. Really, that is almost at Schalfly level. You used to be better than that.

It’s true it doesn’t impress many Americans, but it probably should: like it or not, we have to deal with these people on the international stage, and just because middle America construes exceptionalism to mean, “we’re better than them, screw them all,” doesn’t mean that our President should do the same. Attempting to act as a peaceful envoy of American democracy to Europe was a “presidential” thing to do, and it wasn’t necessarily the popular thing to do.

PC, your reply is typical of style over substance “conservatism” that wins elections, but is congenitally incapable of prudent governance.

And what is the point of you pointing out you were against Obama making that trip? You have made it clear you hate him and will criticize him for anything and everything.

And frankly, I didn’t care about “legions of screaming Europeans”. I was, however, very impressed by the willingness to go and thoughtfully listen to foreign leaders, to see trouble spots, and to learn from those who are at those spots. Only to a “conservative” could the focus of the trip be entirely on the photo ops. Again, no wonder your side of the aisle consistently drives the country into the ditch.

So, let me make sure that i’m clear on this: if Palin heads off on one of these PR tours next week, then we should all admire her thoughtful listening to world leaders and not take it as pandering, right?

Obama’s move was politics…nothing more. And what’s more, he meddled in US diplomacy while over there (http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/09/15/obama-tried-to-stall-gis-iraq-withdrawal/)

And Ames, there is nothing impressive about a huge crowd that was there for a free rock concert and free food and watched a speech by the person that may be the next president of the US. You put a couple of my favorite bands on stage for free, give me free food and beer and I’ll watch Obama too. I snapped photos of Kerry in Boston on Election Day 2004. Curiosity makes us do all sorts of things.

I don’t criticize him for going abroad. I thought that was a responsible move. But there was no need for speeches and I also think it was not appropriate for him to meet with heads of state. If the entire trip would have been low-key and he had met with his foreign counterparts or maybe the foreign equivelant of a Sec. of State I wouldn’t have complained. As it was he did the same thing Kerry did in 2004 which was to attempt to undercut foreign policy. I would have criticized John McCain just as much if he had done the same.