Notes Scranton’s regular Joe: Electing Obama will lead to an international crisis. Not may, mind you, but will. “Mark my words,” Biden assures us. “I guarantee it will happen.” And when it does, Democrats need to circle the wagon around Barack. Because in the long term, peace through, uh, weakness? capitulation.? ..is the best way forward.
Or something.
Meantime, I sure do Hope that nobody is turned to a fine mist, or forced to leap from a skyscraper, in the name of Change…
Notes the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol:
So Biden expects a test of the kind Kennedy faced after his disastrous meeting with Khrushchev in Vienna in June, 1961, less than five months into Kennedy’s presidency. Biden’s presumably thinking of the Soviet-backed construction of the Berlin Wall a couple of months later. Kennedy did nothing, and was criticized for his weakness back home.
So — leaving aside the merits of what Kennedy did or didn’t do in 1961 — Biden is forecasting that Obama will have what seems to be a weak response to a provocation from, say, Iran or Russia, and he’s urging the liberals of Seattle and elsewhere to stand with Obama against the expected domestic criticism.
In other words, Biden is forecasting inaction by Obama in the face of testing by a dictator. I suspect he’s right in this forecast. McCain might want to clarify this point. It’s not just that Obama’s own running mate expects an international crisis early in his presidency. It’s not just that Obama has a weak foreign policy record. It’s that Biden himself expects what will appear to be a weak response from Obama to testing by a dictator.
Now Biden presumaby thinks such an apparently weak response would be in our long-term interest. But McCain needs to force that debate: “Sen. Obama, will you in fact do nothing in response to a Putin provocation against Ukraine or a final push by Ahmadinejad toward nuclear weapons? Isn’t that what your running mate has forecast? Isn’t it awfully dangerous to forecast weakness on the part of an American president?â€Â
Listen to Biden’s remarks below. Evidently, he didn’t believe media was present:
Coincidentally, Biden has no scheduled appearances today. Seems like the Obama campaign is giving their “experienced” member a bit of a time out.
A rare show of strength, that — and one I don’t expect to be repeated when the target is an enemy of the US.
(thanks to Kirk and Bob R, and to Terry H)
*****
update: More here.
Possible scenarios from my reckoning:
– Iran attempts to grab Shiite enclaves from Iraq
– Iran starts Hezbollah/Hamas proxy war round 2 v. Israel w/possible Syrian involvement (Syria has been stocking rockets as to able to fire ~100/day for 3-4 months)
– China goes for Taiwan (unlikely)
– Russia into Ukraine
Joe said that? Get some reporters on this, stat. We may need to dig into this, and I’m talkin’ high school transcripts, court docs, talk to everybody who knows him, dig, dig, dig. What? Oh Joe BIDEN said that, forget it, that’s just Joe.
-Chavez + Ecuador vs. Colombia?
I think too many people don’t remember or never knew what it was like to have Jimmy Carter in the White House. Joe Biden hasn’t forgotten.
I think Venezuela might grab those islands what belong to the (I think) Dutch. Baracky will nod approvingly I would think. He’s all kinds of useless when it comes to standing up for America and our allies. Ironically, this is why he’s beloved by millions in Europe. Probably not a wise choice for president. I’ve given this a lot of thought.
So the top dog is traveling over the ocean and through the islands to Grandmother’s house, while Mr. Foreign Policy Expert has a time-out.
I smell trouble for the team — this means the only people left to do real campaigning this week are the newspapers and the networks!
Baracky: “The sad legacy of colonialism has necessitated these acts by our comrades of the Bolivarian Revolution.”
Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.
That’s just flat-out terrifying, really.
It wasn’t a gaffe, he was just tellin’ it like it is. oh wait…
I have put my kids in “time out” for doing or saying really stupid things… YES!!! I can finally relate to O!!!
How odd is it that this story doesn’t show up on the front page of every newspaper in the country, let alone that it doesn’t show up on the front page of one? Er, well, it would be odd if it weren’t absolutely necessary to elect Barack “I’m not here from Central Casting” Obama to the Presidency.
Program, program, program, get with the program: I must remember, damnitall, I’ll get it sooner or later or die trying.
Dash, you forgot the part where France will help us kick Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon!
forgot we were talking about Joe “Barack didn’t say he would meet with the leaders of Iran, etc. without preconditions” Biden.
Least he didn’t call his own constituents racists.
Implementation of Baracky’s agenda is going to rely on a “generated crisis.” Ok. Sure. Jeez. Make it stop.
How can this be, Joe? I thought that Barack was The One who would bring balance to The Force, peace to the universe, the one before whom every knee would bow because he is The One who is a deity who allows us to touch the hem of his garments that we may be made whole (from Joe the Plumber’s taxes.)
Just wait, once Obama’s presidency becomes the disaster it will become, if he is elected, it will somehow be those evil Republicans’ faults.
The campaign spin on this is pretty amazing. “Joe was talking about whoever the next president is, they’re going to be tested. He wasn’t talking about Obama specifically.”
Oh, wait. The campaign spin on this is utter bullshit. And suddenly, Joey Hairplugs is taking a breather. Go figure.
Err, maybe it was Hezbollah will help us kick Lebanon out of southern France? But for reals, from the dept of “if an (R) said it” Donna Brazille would be all like “Reichstag Fire! OMG OMG, we always knew they were Nazified reptiles under that pasty white exterior,” or something.
I can’t wait until Obama is elected and the rest of the world respects us again!
About as odd as the One’s grinning mug appearing next to a glowing blurb on an Ayers book, Sdferr, and not one of that complicit media saying a word about the lies flowing out of the O! campaign about the Ayers connection.
In other words, not odd at all. Just chew and swallow politely.
I’ll see your world peace, Pablo, and raise you an entire library of upcoming Shakespearian-quality — and original — work by the next VP!
The man has a way with words; just check the VAWA.
Coincidentally, Biden has no scheduled appearances today. Seems like the Obama campaign is giving their “experienced†member a bit of a time out.
I’m too lazy to look for the link, but I recently read that Biden has not been meeting the press much at all lately, and Obama hasn’t taken any questions from the media since sometime in September. The same press which told us that Palin’s “coccooning” was imperiling our democracy is apparently fine with this, since they really didn’t have any questions for Obama/Biden anyway.
plus it’s gotta be exhausting keeping up with Biden’s, um, overheated comments.
There’s a two part anxiety here: one being that Joey Biden is so fucking stupid that this is just an innocuous Freudian slip in that he’s been around Washington to know a fool (Obama) when he sees one; that this will be some sort of “we told you as much that we had to go and do This Shit”
I would call this a double standard but it seems the only standard I see this election cycle is that they will print and push anything that makes Republicans look bad and have a total news blackout on anything that makes Democrtats look bad. No double standard if you look at it that way.
Joey B:
“…And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right…”
[emphasis added]
My money is on Isreal striking Iran’s nukie sites, and everything goin’ Hellz-a-poppin‘ in the mideast over it; complete with crude chemical and biological agents, and perhaps old Russian suitcase nukes or simple dirty bombs made from low grade pile, being used against Isreal by most of their adversarial neighbors…
And in the midst of it all, Obama would stand handwringing, and palaver on about Isreals unilateral action lacking UN approval and calling for all sides to play nice with each other. The Euro-zone would be impotent and quivering, in the face of losing their energy supplies from the middle east and Russia-who would be backing their new BFF’s in Tehran-and Obama would be loathe to employ any military force in aid of the Israeli’s; so our large airforce and fleet in the region would sit idle while we, along with the rest of the world, watched the surrounding Arabs turn Israel into an unlivable cesspool…
While Farrahkan and Wright, along with O!s former PLO buds here at home, sat back and toasted their Hennesy filled snifters to the end of the zionist scourge; because in their eyes, you know, the Joooooos did have it comin’…
I mean, they had engaged in apartheid for too many years vis-a-vis the Palestinians…
You know what the community organizers say, “no justice…no peace”…
A chilling scenario indeed…One that I hope never happens just as much as I hope that O! never gets elected POTUS…
Chewing strenuously has gotten me nowhere I want to go, JHoward, the stuff still tastes as bad as Biden saying in the debate that the US and France ran Hezbollah out of Lebanon and then, through inattention(!), have allowed, ALLOWED! them to insinuate themselves into the Lebanese Government they were already in to begin with, and come to find out there was no mention of Biden’s statement to be found in the subsequent days. And this nonsense from Baracky’s excellent foreign policy vice-presidential selection!
Oh, damnit, I forgot again. Program, get with the program. I swears, I’ll learn, just as soon as Biden quits saying stupid shit.
Here is the link I referred to in comment #22.
I think it’s about over, Sdferr. Seriously. Look who’s running the asylum.
On NPR, which I keep on when I can literally stand it without retching, it’s now nonstop analysis of govt programs. Didn’t use to be like that, but it is useful to monitor the moron quotient of one’s fellow voters.
Postmodernity elected central secular power as God some years ago. Now we’re about to elect the Son.
Racist.
Ooooh, that one’s a corker, innit?
My God. These guys have sat down and discussed what scenarios they see happening, have gamed them, and are preemptively congratulating themselves for how well they are going to do.
Pray for your country. We may have a clinical episode with a White House letterhead in the works.
This is so scary on so many levels, it practically defies explanation. No wonder they gave Slow Joe the day off.
If Israel strikes Iran… Hopefully it is before the election.. Just saying if its going to happen anyway…..
So Joe says “you’re [Dems] gonna have to rally in your communities and support us,” and Baracy says “Go out and get in their faces,” heck they’re just riffing.
Drudge had a story inked recently that both campaigns have begun their intelligence briefings. So it’s nice to see Biden’s not prone to telegraphing important vital matters. :-)
I remember seeing the headline and thinking those briefings sure must be short since there are no security/terror threats, no plots in the making, nothing to worry about since terror is just a Bush admin made up fear mongering tactic to keep up scaredy cat Republicans pissing in our diaper :-)
At least with Biden we probably know of all his associations. Because, as of late, he really seems to stupid or unwilling to keep his mouth shut on anything. Maybe the public will finally know the TRUTH about Roswell!!!!!
I think his surgeon implanted his plugs too deep!
A Republican surgeon —- of corse.
Who is racist…
This is really unnerving…I heard on the radio this a.m. that Powell and Lieberman also made reference to some critical event. Do they know something? Joe Biden needs to shut his yap.
said it before and i’ll say it again, the overwhelming amount of support for these jackasses comes from the huge population centers which coincidentally are the juiciest targets for attacks on US soil. these people may well end up reaping exactly what they are sowing.
This is really unnerving…I heard on the radio this a.m. that Powell and Lieberman also made reference to some critical event. Do they know something? Joe Biden needs to shut his yap.
If it’s sensitive and damaging enough, we’ll be reading about the Chimpy Katrinaburton’s efforts to thwart it any day now on the NYT front page.
Actually, I was thinking precisely about this scenario as it will apply to our new National Socialist overlords. The “unpopular” actions will most assuredly be implementing new overarching programs that give unprecedented power to the President. “But, we’re in a crisis, and it’s necessary!” they’ll claim.
We are so fucking screwed.
Gaffe? that’s the first time in 36 years SloJo’s been right about something.
And when the phone rings at 3 am, Barry will just roll over and hope someone else answers it so he doesn’t have to…
Iran starts Hezbollah/Hamas proxy war round 2 v. Israel w/possible Syrian involvement(Syria has been stocking rockets as to able to fire ~100/day for 3-4 months)
Dash, you forgot the part where France will help us kick Hezbollah out of that country that is to the north of Israel!
Sorry, but I’m a stickler for specificity.
I think there’s something scary going on. Maybe that Halloween vibe. But not even Joe Bitem is that dense. This RC shithead sure spews the venom like a well-calibrated sprinkler, but he/she can barely hide the hope for disaster on “population centers.” Well done; more grist for Hooterville.
Perhaps you read what you want to read, cynn. Even more, I can never figure out just why you spend any time here considering how much you seem to loathe the inhabitants and their ideas.
Would it kill you to say something nice about someone or something once in a while?
Here is why I have been here for lo these couple of years. You guys are smart, and you have experience, and some of you have even had a seismic change of philosophy. I always get newbies trying to run me off. But I will never lose my interest in why you think the way you do. This proclamation from Biden, and it seems at least Powell, is big.
If it were just JoeBlow, OK. But you guys seem to blow it off. Why?
I don’t know about blowing it off, but it isn’t really shocking. It’s just Joey Hairplugs spouting An Inconvenient Truth. On the one hand, I’m amused by the Kinsleyan gaffe, on the other I’m like “Yeah? And?”
It only matters to the extent that the electorate absorbs the truth behind it. Which depends on the media.
Pablo, for Christ sake; I know I’ve been a burr unto your heel, but isn’t this minimally important? Only to the extent that the media plays it? You really seem laissezfaire or whatever the hell it is. I’m not trying to be chicken little, but you’re being foghorn leghorn.
I don’t think this is idle political play, which I can gloss over. This is somehow rattling. I could be hysterical. Am taking a pre-emptive Xanax.
Well, cynn, I guess the proper response to your worry would be to ask yourself “Are our enemies more likely to attack the United States if Obama is at the helm, or McCain?”, and then vote accordingly.
Spies, babe, I already voted. And I voted for YOU! And I don’t have a clue when or which enemies will strike us next, because we’ve made so many.
Getting a little buyer’s remorse, are we?
When did we ever not have a lot of enemies, cynn?
And why should we be trying to “make friends” with Iran, North Korea, et al?
Why do you you thin we have so many enemies, Spies? I remember growing up relatively secure. If you want to talk about “making friends,” I refer you to your first hostile question.
I agree that Israel will make the first strike against Iran, on an insane gamble that the the U.S. will back them. I hope to God they don’t do it, because it will cause the latest apocalypse. And we can only handle one per millenium.
Why do you you thin we have so many enemies, Spies?
Because they’re evil?
I remember growing up relatively secure.
Really? I remember growing up with tens of thousands of MIRV warheads aimed at me, ready to launch at a moment’s notice.
What country did you grow up in?