Benghazi Will Screw Obama, Which He Deserves

[Imran Siddiqui]

He is not talking about your guns, sloww.

[snoopy369]

Personally I don't think that the overall culture of unpatriotic strife is race-related, at least not primarily. I don't doubt that there are racists who dislike Obama for being black; but I don't think it's the driving force, in part because it began well before Obama. Perhaps that has made it a little easier for many non-racists to dislike him; don't discount the clan factor here - it's easier to dislike someone who you don't identify with, and race plays a part there whether we like it or not.

But I think the strife dates back to 1994, or perhaps a bit earlier even (Reagan years? Before my time in terms of political awareness, though). It originated for two reasons, I'd guess; one, post-Soviet era we don't have anything to band together as a nation over, so we have more internal strife, and allow it to show on the surface more. Two, the Republican party realized it could have significant success with a strategy that included fairly aggressive campaigning at the local level (in the House in particular) and staunchly opposing every policy of the President so that they could present themselves as a better option. The Democrats had to change in a similar fashion in order to counter that strategy, leading to the current divisive political arena.

Even in 1994, though, there was still a genuine desire to work with the President to accomplish their goals once Newt and co. began their hundred days (as long as they did accomplish said goals). That doesn't seem to be there, anymore, and hasn't since 2000 or so. Rather too bad that the only thing that caused people to come together was 9/11, and that mostly just ended in expanding the state and restricting freedoms, rather than any great unified vision for improving America.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Jesus tap dancing Christ, kentonio.

DinoDoc and I agree on almost nothing when it comes to politics. But do I think he is a racist? Not for a ****ing second.

Get a grip, man.

I don't think DD is a racist either, FWIW. HOWEVER, I do think (like a lot of the Republican Party these days) that he is winking at racial animus against the President.

[DinoDoc]

HOWEVER, I do think ... that he is winking at racial animus against the President.

How so?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Jesus tap dancing Christ, kentonio.

DinoDoc and I agree on almost nothing when it comes to politics. But do I think he is a racist? Not for a ****ing second.

Get a grip, man.

All aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay

Crazy, but that's how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it's not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing
Life's a bitter shame
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

Let's Go!

I've listened to preachers
I've listened to fools
I've watched all the dropouts
Who make their own rules
One person conditioned to rule and control
The media sells it and you live the role

Mental wounds still screaming
Driving me insane
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I know that things are going wrong for me
You gotta listen to my words
Yeah

Heirs of a cold war
That's what we've become
Inheriting troubles I'm mentally numb
Crazy, I just cannot bear
I'm living with something' that just isn't fair

Mental wounds not healing
Who and what's to blame
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think you know better that:

that policy difference account for most of the so-called hate

simply isn't true.

Especially when you have a decent % of GOP folk thinking birther stuff.

[DinoDoc]

Especially when you have a decent % of GOP folk thinking birther stuff.

More than half of Democrats believed Bush knew

[Jon Miller]

Bad poll, it isn't clear whether they are saying 'Bush had been warned (but didn't believe it/etc)' or 'Bush knew and purposefully did nothing so that the US would get attacked'.

The first is arguable, the second not really.

JM

[DinoDoc]

Bad poll, it isn't clear whether they are saying 'Bush had been warned (but didn't believe it/etc)' or 'Bush knew and purposefully did nothing so that the US would get attacked'.

The first is arguable, the second not really.

JM

Additional information:

Democrats and Trutherism

Last week, in one of the latest failed attempts to close the loop on political conspiracies, Ben Smith blogged one of the internals from the definitive 2006 Scripps poll on "9/11 Trutherism."

"How likely is it that people in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East?" the poll asked.

A full 22.6% of Democrats said it was "very likely." Another 28.2% called it "somewhat likely."

This question is open to just a little misinterpretation. After all, it's well known, and true, that there were unspecific warnings about a mounting terrorist attack and they were not followed up on. But I've now seen the other questions and crosstabs from the poll. There were more specific conspiracy scenarios, and Democrats disproportionately agreed with them.

How likely is it that the Pentagon was not struck by an airliner captured by terrorists but instead was hit by a cruise missile fired by the United States military?

Only 11.9 percent of all voters believed that this was "somewhat" or "very" likely, but 21.1 percent of Democrats did.

How likely is it that the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the building?

A full 15.9 percent of all voters bought that; the number rose to 24.8 percent among Democrats.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Furthermore, if you want to use those poll results to state that Democrats irrationally hated Bush because they thought he valued oil profits over American lives, feel free.... as long as one can say that Republicans irrationally hate Obama because he's black (why else try to claim he was born somewhere else?)

[Elok]

I'm opposed to warfare in general, but okay with it if it involves super-intelligent robots. Maybe someday we can have drone politicians as well.

I'd say "drone" is a fair descriptor for a good number of our politicians already.

(I oppose drones mostly because they make it possible to prolong the stupid WoT virtually forever)

[Elok]

Also, given the frothing-at-the-mouth hatred directed at the last two presidents--and the toxicity of U.S. politics in general--it's totally unnecessary to assume racism.

[Dinner]

Yeah, it can't possibly be the fact that he's liberal and doesn't share any of their values.

If only he was a liberal.

[PLATO]

The most interesting part of the birther thing to me was that it was John McCain that really had the questionable birth credentials to be President.

[Zevico]

Barry Rubin and Bryan Preston, respectively, have two articles on this issue. They make for interesting reading.
Ironic that Hillary's "phone call at 2am" commercial became more a how-to-guide than a warning.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/05/08/seven-things-we-learned-from-the-benghazi-whistleblower-hearing/

http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2013/05/09/why-the-benghazi-issue-is-overwhelmingly-important/