Barack Obama, the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate last year, has done a brilliant job of presenting himself as a moderate during the course of the presidential campaign, and nowhere more so than on defense issues. Although he has been eager to end the war in Iraq at all costs–even willing to accept a disastrous defeat with his trademark equanimity–he has tried to burnish his credentials as a hawk by calling for more military action in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has also advertised his closeness with Republicans such as Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar. And, as this Washington Post article notes, he has called for an increase in the size of the armed forces. He hasn’t said how he would pay for this increase, and he certainly hasn’t called for cuts in other defense programs. He is far too smart to say what Barney Frank just said–that we should cut the military budget by 25%. But it tells you something that Morgan Stanley has just downgraded the entire aerospace and defense sector ahead of the presidential election Obama is heavily favored to win.
Wonder why they figure that we won’t be spending so much on defense in the future? Maybe the financial analysts aren’t buying Obama’s centrist makeover?
wow, Marty Peretz is having second thoughts. I think that is a bigger story than Santelli!
Once again I would like to point out that Jake Tapper is the only MSM journalist asking pertinent questions of this administration. I quote from the ABC Web site transcript of the exchange between Tapper and Robert Gibbs:
JT: “…isn’t it true that the people who we’re talking about raising their taxes, people who make more than $250,000 a year, whether it’s going from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, or the hedge fund managers going from 15 percent to 35 percent or 39.6 percent, or capital gains taxes going from 15 percent to 20 percent, that these are the people who will invest to create the new jobs and, at a time of recession, taking their money and giving it to the government or giving it to other people actually could impede the cause of job growth?”
GIBBS: “Well, I — I think the president talked about this extensively in the campaign. I…I think there’s an element, first, of tax fairness. And I think that — I think this president understands that there have been many benefits for the few at the expense of a few benefits for the many, that, through the recovery plan and in the coming years, the — the president believes it’s important that those that have not seen much in the way of an increase in their paycheck have more money in their pockets. That may require those that shared in great benefits, huge benefits in the tax cuts from 2001 and 2003, again, importantly, for those making more than $250,000 a year — I think the top 1 percent of all wage-earners in this country — is — is fairness that the president believes is important.”
Okay, so let me get this straight: the $52 I’m going to get per month from the Obama tax cut “benefits for the many” is supposed to compensate me for the fact that I’ve lost my job? And this is fair……how?
Rupert Murdoch finally apologizes for the Post’s chimp cartoon:
“As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.
“Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.
“Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you – without a doubt – that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.
“We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.”
Murdoch should defend his paper. The chimp was representing multiple doofuses in congress, and by definition it did NOT represent Obama, as it is public knowledge that he handed responsibility for writing this bill to Pelosi et al. Anyone who claims it was racist against Obama needs to be told he or she is an idiot or pushing an agenda. Instead, Murdoch crawled on his belly. Stupid, and another wasted opportunity to speak for common sense and the truth.
As to Iran, Israel et al, Obama is either inattentive or deliberately disengaged from the most critical foreign policy issues. Clearly, in the end he will not defend Israel with rhetoric or otherwise. He’s on record as having said, in the instance of any kind of world conflict involving Islam he will ‘be on the side of the Muslims’. He will never defend Israel, period.
And the only reason he had a fiscal responsibility summit was to be on public record speaking in favor of the concept he never meant to follow and is not following, so that the Obamoids will throw that in the face of whoever brings up all the spending.
if I was a player in the market, I’d be OUT by now.
More on the Amazin’ Mets and today’s analog:
The last place ’62 Mets included many famous names well past their prime. Sorta like the Clinton retreads who’ve flocked to DC. In addition, the Mets had young, not-ready-for-prime-time players, such as we see now in the Administration, even at very highest levels.
Casey Stengel was later a banker who probably knew more about that than Obama will ever know.
what irans jews say
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/22/opinion/edcohen.php?page=1
if anyone is still interested in jewish issues…
I don’t indulge in television so this extensive newspaper coverage of the return of the Guantanamo detainee to Britain may be common knowledge to everybody but it’s definitely worth a look. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1152505/Freed-Guantanamo-prisoners-return-luxury-jet-cost-160-000–claim-thousands-benefits.html
Israel should defend herself. Israel must defend herself.
Have a look at the drooling Jew haters at Glenn Greenwald’s “salon.com” site. He is the pied piper of Jew haters-Zionism-haters over there, and their biggest beef is how they think “the Israel Lobby” forces American taxpayers to subsidize Israel.
zoltan- they do. we don’t get to decide where our tax money goes and billions of it goes to israel. how do you think muslim americans feel about having their taxes go to support israel?
Obama gets 70% of the Jewish American vote, MoLester.
American Jews and Muslims are in agreement– DIE, ISRAEL, DIE.
It’s a sick, twisted and utterly decaying world we live in.
dave- you gotta know when to hold em and when to fold em