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The Iraq War- Six Months At A Time April 10, 2008

Posted by justingerman in 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, John McCain, US Foreign Policy.
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I’ve never been a fan of moveon.org. I think, in lots of instances, they actually do more harm than good. Take the “General Betray Us” ad that they ran in the New York Times the day before Gen. Petraeus testified a Capitol Hill in September. The ad was as harmful to the Democrats as it was corny because, after the ad, they couldn’t ask Petraeus hard questions without appearing to be personally questioning his loyalty. This incident honestly made me think that Republicans were running Move-On.

However, Move-On has shown an incredible ability to raise huge sums of money and to mobilize really well at the grass-roots level. They’re also pretty good at making TV ads, like this one about McCain and Iraq.

I think Democrats should probably get away from talking about this “100-year war” comment because people are starting to figure out that’s not exactly what McCain meant and it sort of compromises Obama’s ability to claim a higher quality dialogue. But either way this ad from move-on is exactly the way the Obama team should go about exposing McCain and the Republicans’ rhetoric on Iraq.

Dick Cheney Has No Feelings March 20, 2008

Posted by justingerman in George W. Bush, US Foreign Policy.
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In an excerpt from an ABC News interview today in the Washington Post, Martha Raddatz asks Vice President Dick Cheney about public opinion and the war in Iraq.

Raddatz: Let me go back to the Americans. Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting, and they’re looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly and Iraqi lives.

Cheney: So?

Raddatz: So you don’t care what the America people think?

Cheney: No, I think we cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls. Think about what would have happened if Abraham Lincoln had paid attention to polls, if they had had polls during the Civil War. He never would have succeeded if he hadn’t had a clear objective, a vision for where he wanted to go, and he was willing to withstand the slings and arrows of the political wars in order to get there.

Frankly, this is so infuriating I’m not sure where to start.

To me the most troubling part about this is not necessarily his lack of respect for representative government but the hypocrisy of the Bush administration when it comes to this idea of a “culture of life.” Cheney wins elections by talking about protecting life, but when a reporter asks him about the soldiers who have given their lives to the war he helped start he barely bats an eye. “So what,” he says. Also keep in mind Cheney was differed from military service five times during Vietnam.

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Not Particularly What We Want To See March 3, 2008

Posted by justingerman in US Foreign Policy.
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Said Ahmadinejad of the American presence, “Their only achievements are that regional nations further dislike them, it adds to the regional nations’ hatred. No one likes them.”