Where’s the Outrage?

I found this on one of the Talking Point Memo sites. I hope that you find it as thoughtful as I did.

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From TPM Cafe:

In paying very close attention to the Senate hearings yesterday a life-imitating-art moment occured to me. It was brought home in the difference between the questions posed to Crocker and Petraeus by John McCain and the questions posed by Barack Obama. The recent identification of the Clinton campaign to Rocky Balboa had me thinking of pop-culture characters where our candidates were concerned, but after yesterday I realized we were thinking about the wrong characters and the wrong movie.

While it was swell for Hillary to think of herself as the fighter who never gives up, and we were all busy reminding each other that HIllary/Syllvester loses in the end, the real problem is that Hillary not only missed the more applicable story line - she isn’t even in the movie. The screenplay we will have playing out before us is not “Rocky”, it is “Crimson Tide”.

The characters are so clear. John McCain is the grizzly, staunch, experienced commander (Gene Hackman) who in light of his cold-war mentality takes having his finger on the button very seriously. Unfortunately he is more inclined to take that serious mission to its logical conclusion - at some point you have to push the button. Barack Obama, however, is the Harvard educated, bright, clear thinking, philosophical younger officer of conscience (Denzel Washington) who refuses to react out of fear. His education informs the kind of decisions he makes, and the seriousness with which he dispatches his responsibilities is always tempered with a global perspective. It is the idea that unintended consequences are not situations that you fall victim to, if you are willing to think it through. If you are willing to apply what you have learned. [Read more →]

Tags: Election 2008 by ecthompson
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Keith Olbermann, host of the newscast Countdown, summarizes yesterday’s events. He interviews General William Odom, who delivered an excellent assessment of Iraq. I posted it here.

I have talked about this before. I don’t that that there will be any useful information handed out at these hearings. General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are intelligent people and they work for the Bush administration. As such, they are going to put forth the administration’s views on Iraq and Iran.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did us all a favor almost a year ago. She was on the Charlie Rose show and there was a moment of candor and clarity. It was brief, and if you weren’t paying attention you would have missed it. As a matter of fact, I think that Charlie Rose missed it. Rice said, “We are not looking to leave Iraq. That is not why this president went into Iraq…. We are not going to leave Iraq that is not capable of defending itself.” Boom. We are done.

There is no need for any more Petraeus’ testimonies because now we know what the end point is. Iraq must be able to defend itself. That isn’t going to happen in a year. Therefore, we will be in Iraq with a significant number of troops until the next president gets in office. Period. End of story.

Tags: Bush Administration, Congress, Iraq by ecthompson
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