Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Elections have consequences

—

by

DonR
in ,

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y9oVC-mGW8?rel=0]

by D.J. Rippert

What a difference two years make. In the run up to the 2012 election Barack Obama and Mitt Romney debated foreign affairs. Obama had recently been caught making an offhand comment over an open mike to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Obama promised the Russian that he (Obama) would have “more flexibility” with Russia after the election. Obama used the subsequent televised debate to ridicule Romney for considering Russia a geopolitical foe.

The liberal reaction. The liberal screech-o-sphere went into overdrive after the debate taking Romney to task for his obvious stupidity in considering Russia a potential problem for the United States.

From Mediaite.com:

  • “I don’t know what decade this guy’s living in,” MSNBC host Chris Matthews said with a sigh on March 28, 2012. “Is he trying to play Ronald Reagan here, or what?”
  • Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein agreed that Romney’s statement was evidence of an “antiquated worldview.” He fretted further about how Romney, should he become president, would enter the office having severely complicated America’s bilateral relations with Moscow given his carelessly provocative statement.
  • I can appreciate why the Romney campaign would try to make Obama’s “hot mic” story interesting, but the problem is the former governor just doesn’t have any real policy chops in this area. He’s out of his depth, and struggles when the subject takes center stage. (Rachael Maddow)
  • Calling Romney’s comments “a throwback to the Cold War,” [Andrea] Mitchell insisted that “we work with Russia all the time.” “Hardly an ally but certainly not an adversary,” she declared.

Crimea river.

 Russia, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, has effectively occupied Crimea.  He has armed rebels in Ukraine and those rebels used his arms to shoot down a passenger airliner.  The Russian backed rebels have prevented investigators from seeing the crash site or even recovering all the bodies of those who they murdered.  Today, U.S. and NATO countries are insisting that they will defend NATO countries with military force if confronted by Russia.

The pet theories of liberalism.  The next time some liberal advances one of their pet theories on say … immigration reform, global warming or medicaid expansion replay the clip from the 2012 debate.  Then, replay the MSNBC clips of various liberal media stooges ridiculing Romney for his warnings about Russia.  As my father used to say, “Liberals are often wrong but never in doubt.”

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

13 responses to “Elections have consequences”

  1. gorhamg Avatar
    gorhamg

    Well done.

  2. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    Does this mean we’re moving on from Benghazi?

    🙂

    1. DonR Avatar
      DonR

      Yes, the Obama Administration’s CIA spying on its own oversight committee in Congress is “the new black”. Or, the lost IRS e-mails. Or, the Veterans Administration lies about quality of care. Or, whatever the hell is going on on our southern border.

      I told you the guy lacked the requisite experience to be a capable president and I am proven right more and more every day. I don’t care about ideology, I care about competence. Obama is incompetent. He’s not up to the task of being President of the United States.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        re: ” Yes, the Obama Administration’s CIA spying on its own oversight committee in Congress is “the new black”. Or, the lost IRS e-mails. Or, the Veterans Administration lies about quality of care. Or, whatever the hell is going on on our southern border.”

        The CIA spying was to disrupt the oversight committee’s investigation and report on torture…. under Bush.

        Yes.. Bush sends a bunch of our young over to Iraq and Afghanistan and when they return in need of care – the GOP refuses to add funding ….

        and the IRS – yes – two points:

        1. – here you have tea party groups – totally and overtly involved in political activities who have filled out 501 c3 applications which ask the question – ” are you involved in political activities?” to which they answered “no”.

        2. – you understand IT guy. Let me ask you what emails only were on one computer? only the ones that person sent to themselves? Don’t you think any email with a distribution list – ended up on many other computers and servers? How DUMB does someone have to be – to BELIEVE that the emails were ONLY on Ms. Lerners computer? How DUMB?

        “I told you the guy lacked the requisite experience to be a capable president and I am proven right more and more every day. I don’t care about ideology, I care about competence. Obama is incompetent. He’s not up to the task of being President of the United States.”

        I thought you voted for Obama, no? and McDonnell? who else? Did you pick right or were you proven to have picked wrong?

        How can you call Obama incompetent when the House of Representatives just passed a Immigration bill that they knew would not be agreed to by the Senate – would never get out of Congress and if it did – would be vetoed?

        And less than a week after they sued Obama for making decisions – they told him that’s exactly what he needed to do about immigration because the GOP could not even agree among themselves what to do ?

        have you bothered to check the poll ratings of Congress and the GOP when you check Obama’s?

  3. LifeOnTheFallLine Avatar
    LifeOnTheFallLine

    Aw, has the heat on the front page for Bob McDonnell been too much? Now we need one non-issue (Tim Kaine took gifts, too! Terry Mcauliffe is shady, even if he’s never seen the inside of a courtroom!) and another that is a dodge (liberal screech-o-sphere! Obama was wrong! This is totally relevant to Virginia!).

    Unless Crimea and Ukraine became US territories while I was in the bathroom still don’t see how any of what’s happened makes Russia the United States’ problem, any more than the spread of Communism in VietNam was the first domino. Russia may still become our problem if they decide to break bad on a NATO country, but until then they’re no more our problem than any other aggressive country whose actions lead to innocent deaths on the planet (like, say, Israel).

    1. DonR Avatar
      DonR

      Gotta love the Obama apologists. Obama is totally and completely wrong on a critical foreign affairs topic. He’s arrogant and insulting in his attitude in the debate. Now, two of the world’s biggest militaries are in a faceoff. And, somehow, this doesn’t affect Virginia. I guess Virginia is no longer part of the United States and, therefore, not a party to the new cold war. Unfortunately, I have 5 draft age sons. Dismissing Obama’s arrogant incompetence isn’t so easy for me.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        DonR – have you heard? there is no draft guy… it’s an “all volunteer” Army and even then we have no shortage of young (often unemployed) fools who “volunteer” to go to god-forsaken places ostensibly for patriotic reasons to get sliced and diced or die – for what?

        you and Romney totally do not understand that the world is a very different place than when the USSR – consisted not only of Russia but the Ukraine and Crimea. what planet have you been on since the USSR went kaflooey?

        how can you and Romney be so out of touch with the current geo-political realities? Russia’s economy is comparable to Italy’s – 2.1 trillion which is one seventh of ours.

        This is a regional conflict – not a superpower standoff – and Europe has bigger interests than us – anyhow – and WHERE are their draftees to go defend the Ukraine?

        Yes.. if your buddy Cheney was still in office, we’d be in yet another senseless and unwinnable war but thank God he’s gone and Romney is on the sidelines where he can do no harm.

        this is not about “liberal” except in your own mind. A solid majority of American are opposed to these wars AND getting involved on the ground in the Ukraine, which includes more than “liberals” but most independents.

        Once again, Don, you have gone into the ditch….. on your perception of what “liberal” is. You’re all over the map on this stuff, guy.

      2. LifeOnTheFallLine Avatar
        LifeOnTheFallLine

        The United States and Russia are in a face off? Where? And since when? Did we relocate personnel and weapons to Eastern Europe from Afghanistan and no one told me? And did we also reinstate the draft while I wasn’t looking? Something we weren’t able to do at the height of the “War on Terror?”

    2. DonR Avatar
      DonR

      As far as McAuliffe never having seen the inside of a courtroom … I was a staunch supporter of Terry McAuliffe over Ken Cuccinelli in the last governor’s election. I know that picking the best person for the job is something that new age liberals can’t understand but it’s what I do. I also supported McDonnell over Deeds in the prior election. The simple fact is that Virginia is a very corrupt state that attracts very corrupt people into its political sphere. Most of that is due to the state’s Republican lawmakers. Lawmakers like Bill Howell who want to continue the gifts / spoils system so they can line their pockets with the resulting plunder.

      As far as equating Israel to Russia – really? Perhaps you should help the next Democratic presidential nominee with their debate preparation.

      1. LifeOnTheFallLine Avatar
        LifeOnTheFallLine

        Well, aren’t you so much better than me, picking a man for the job who lied about his willingness to raise taxes to fund transportation, floated an horrible idea to privatize the ABC, played numbers games with the budget year after year to create surpluses that never seemed to end up making good on the state’s obligation to the VRS and is now the first governor in the history of the commonwealth to be indicted for his actions while in office over Creigh Deeds. That’s certainly a principled track record you have there.

        You’re right, though, Russia and Israel are totally different and haven’t cited the “right of self-defense” when it comes to protecting their specifically ethnic people while seeking to expand their land holdings.

  4. Malcolm Baldwin Avatar
    Malcolm Baldwin

    It seems to me that what Romney’s assertion about Russia suggests is that, somehow, we need, whether “liberals” or “conservatives”, to be open to opinions voiced from either side. Obama didn’t refute Romney’s distrust of Russia’s clear drift toward nationalism and away from democracy. Obama’s foreign policy since his election has clearly suffered from its own dogma of disengagement, just as Republicans have offered nothing but inane concentration on Benghazi and other distractions.

    As long as we make political arguments based on prejudices against “liberals” and “conservatives” we’ll continue our disastrous drift into political polarization and paralysis.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      re: ” It seems to me that what Romney’s assertion about Russia suggests is that, somehow, we need, whether “liberals” or “conservatives”, to be open to opinions voiced from either side. Obama didn’t refute Romney’s distrust of Russia’s clear drift toward nationalism and away from democracy. ”

      Agree – but I felt that Romney was talking as if the USSR had not broken up and they were still engaged in a Cold War… and Romney never really made any distinction that clarified his assertion so to me he looked out of touch with the current world – as does Don here in my view.

      “Obama’s foreign policy since his election has clearly suffered from its own dogma of disengagement, just as Republicans have offered nothing but inane concentration on Benghazi and other distractions.”

      Obama rejected the Foreign Policy of the NeoCons and their view that we should be forcefully involved in other country’s affairs including topping regimes we do not agree with – and replacing them with truly odious folks that become essentially dictator puppets…

      The NeoCons and allies have never changed their views. They believe we should be directly involved in the affairs of other countries… especially the ones we can get away with without world condemnation or the kind of response we’d see from places like North Korea or Iran.

      Obama rejects that approach. The question is – has he got a viable sustainable alternative approach or are the Neocons right?

      “As long as we make political arguments based on prejudices against “liberals” and “conservatives” we’ll continue our disastrous drift into political polarization and paralysis.”

      and I totally agree and that’s exactly where we are – there is no middle ground.

  5. Richard Avatar
    Richard

    There are so many reasons why Romney would have been a disaster. Get over it.

Leave a Reply

Read More