Karl Dean genuinely surprised me this morning by casually and yet confidently (almost over my protests) revealing that he had voted for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary. As proud as I am that our little show could generate a newsmaking remark of this sort, I’m left wondering. Considering how I was falling over myself to avoid forcing Mayor Dean to answer the question and hearing him answer it anyway, should I hear this as his participation in a subtle series of nudges encouraging Sen. Clinton to abandon her bid for the presidency? Or am I reading too much into it?
(For the record, I have no editorial role at SouthComm Communications, owners and publishers of NashvillePost.com.)
Update: A Friend of Liberadio(!) asks: Is he nudging Bredesen?
Update, Part Deux: Another FoL(!) suggests that maybe Dean isn’t as political as all that, and he might’ve been answering just as Joe Voter, which would be a refreshing amount of citizen candor to have witnessed for this particular political junkie.
Update the Third: Honestly, I’m glad he told us. I figured it would be a somewhat big deal, and it’s an indicator of judgment, but I think being comfortable speaking publicly about your political ideas and ideology is important. I prefer politicians who don’t try to hide everything behind doublespeak and hedging. And, as an Obama supporter, I’m pleased.
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Dana Perino is so uncomfortable answering for President Bush’s crimes against humanity that I almost feel sorry for her. Almost. Because what was the president doing on the day the 4000th soldier was killed in Iraq? Sure, he may have gone to church - after all, it was Easter Sunday - but he was also yukking it up with a 6-foot tall dude in a bunny suit. Shame on him.
And what did he say earlier in the month to our troops stationed in Afghanistan, where almost 500 of them have perished?
“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed….It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.”
Well, at least he remembered to say thank you. His mother must be so proud.
Part 1 - 4,000 dead U.S. soldiers and countless dead Iraqi civilians is a grim milestone, Mayor Dean presents his budget, and can E! save us? Plus, the Onions’ President Bush wants you to know that you can still protect yourself from chipmunks run amok of the law. (:23:27, 37.6MB)
Part 2 - Interview with the Rape & Sexual Abuse Center’s Education Director Jennifer Cantrell, therapist and Associate Clinical Director Eric Fogle, and volunteer Joe Bass. Their 7th annual Walk in Their Shoes annual event is Saturday morning, March 29, 2008. (:18:26, 29.6MB)
Part 3 - Everybody knows that it’s not easy to talk about race. Everybody except Rush Limbaugh, who finds it’s easy…if easy equals insulting. Way to continue to pollute the conversation Senator Obama is trying to elevate, El Dickbo! (:11:00, 17.6MB)
Part 4 - Interview with Paul Waldman, Senior Fellow with Media Matters and author of the new book, Free Ride: John McCain and the Media. He gives us the lowdown on the love affair between Senator McCain and the reporters that cover him. And then he agrees to play some “free association” with Freddie. (:18:13, 29.2MB)
Part 5 - Interview with Mike Wessler, Media/PR Director for Project Vote Smart, which has just completed its Voter’s Self-Defense System (no ninjas, sorry) and is in the middle of a bus tour to promote it. Get on the bus and get the facts on our future leaders. (:13:07, 21MB)
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Tonight I attended one of the final installments of Vanderbilt’s Iraq War Series, a screening of No End in Sight. This caps off an intense week of politically-themed viewing. Fortunately, I squeezed in a few episodes of the British version of Creature Comforts, so I’m not just completely depressed.
No End in Sight was a very different animal from Bush’s War. There was some overlapping footage. Both were bleak. But No End in Sight focused on how some very bad decision-making in the early days of the war led to an occupation that has been much more difficult than it might’ve been. The cast of characters was slightly different, too, as this documentary focused much more on the people who actually have been involved in the occupation and reconstruction efforts.
Considering the news out of the Green Zone this week and the abundance of films that have come out of Iraq in the past five years, I think it’s still a difficult argument to make that anything construed as negative ignores everything that’s positive. There have been positive developments in Iraq, and I’m optimistic that we won’t be there for John McCain’s 100 years. But I’m also optimistic that another generation has lost its stomach for war, which we should all come to view as much less necessary than Dick Cheney, with his One Percent Doctrine. But my optimism doesn’t mean there’s an end in sight. And the movie didn’t seem to share my optimism.
You can catch the final installment of the Iraq War Series on Sunday night at 7:00 p.m. at Sarratt, where they’ll be screening In the Valley of Elah.
Last night, I saw 4 months 3 weeks & 2 days at the Belcourt. I’ve written before about the difficulties of discussing abortion, and this movie puts those difficulties front and center in examining a scenario in late 1980s Romania under a repressive regime that outlawed abortion.
An anti-choice friend of mine once described abortion to me as “an inconvenience,” and I wonder what her perspective of this movie would be. There’s no exploration of how the pregnancy in question occurred, only that it is unwanted and leads to desperate measures. I think the lengths to which it is implied that women in this era would go to get an abortion strikes right at the heart of the notion that unwanted pregnancy is a mere “inconvenience.” It’s not a comment on a moral absolute, but it is a strong comment on the desperation that affects people experiencing more than “an inconvenience” on their own terms, if not those of the anti-choice community.
Considering the amount of overlap between the anti-choice and anti-immigrant communities (at least in terms of voting blocs), I’m curious about whether there is enough compassionate conservatism to accept the unwanted children of poor foreign nations? This is the same community, after all, that constantly votes to undo our welfare state. To me, there’s a lack of consistency in the democratically expressed world view of the anti-choice community.
I remain, by my own definitions, vigorously pro-life. And continue to wonder at how those who use that term for different purposes condone so much warmongering and gun-love from their elected leaders.
Anyway, I’m disappointed that I missed last year’s Lake of Fire, which also played at the Belcourt, as I understand it was a nice accounting of both sides of the debate. Still, for a thought-provoking look at abortion in a context that seems designed to evoke empathy, 4 months 3 weeks & 2 days is worth a careful look.
Unlike the poor protagonists from this movie, I think we will discuss this again.
Fred Kaplan, writing in Slate, incisively addresses a fundamental question I ask repeatedly: What the hell does “victory” constitute in Iraq? He discovers that the goalposts have moved repeatedly throughout the war. Most frustratingly, he concludes that in their current position, the goalposts are so far down the field as to make winning essentially impossible.
Republican hawks, like the neoconservative establishment that swarms like vultures in the upper echelons of the Bush administration, probably are drooling at McCain’s hints at 100 years of occupation and permanent military bases. There is a strain of foreign policy enthusiasts that equates our military with our democracy overseas. This idea should concern all Americans.
But Bush’s war should especially concern Democrats. Frustrated anti-war types who think we’re not withdrawing quickly enough should get ready for an infinite Indian summer. Obama’s “judgment” about going into Iraq might have been courageous and sound, but his track record in the Senate reveals just how unstable the ground in “on the ground” really is. And though Clinton reassures us that, as president, she never would’ve taken us into Iraq, she did, in fact, with her vote, do just that. And she, too, with subsequent votes, has had difficulty backing away from the fire that her 9/11 patriotic pyromania caused her to help spark.
Because the Bush administration has been so undefining, so abstract, about its vision for what it is on the ground that would allow us to consider reducing and ultimately removing our military presence from Iraq, Democrats and paleoconservative Republicans are going to find the hawkish mouthpieces in as much of an uproar as the conservative judicial establishment was when Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. These are the same people who cry out in patriotic pain when our military spending doesn’t increase fast enough to overtake our WWII levels and pushes us to outspending every other country in the world on defense combined.
Ultimately, I think Obama’s vision of engaging the world and returning to non-cowboy diplomacy with a rich diplomatic establishment could be the most refreshing restart of the 21st century for America. Using the State Department rather than the Department of Defense for strengthening democracies around the world would return us to a position of advocating our values without doing it at gunpoint. And while he does this, he’s actually going to go after terrorists, which would be a nice change of pace. Remember Osama bin Laden?
But even Obama is going to have to stare down the post-Cheney neoconservative bullies with tremendous courage. The Rush Limbaughs and Bill Kristols and Sean Hannitys of the world have tasted blood, and like sharks, they love it and are ready to frenzy. For these men, violence and aggression are so much the means that one is left to wonder whether they are also the end.
For those who, like me, would prefer to dismantle the military industrial complex (without sacrificing our national security) to honor Eisenhower, I present a short listing of resources worth a look as we pursue alternative pathways to peace:
Unfortunately, the anti-war movement always seems to draw from anti-establishment crowds (ANSWER, anyone?) that have no interest in ever engaging with mainstream Americans. If you know of any other credible organizations that specifically advocate forcefully for a reduction in our defense spending, please let me know.
I just finished watching the second installment of Frontline’s two-part series Bush’s War. It was a captivating look inside the personalities of the main players who mapped the path to war and then orchestrated the way it has taken place. Curiously, there was very little discussion of the cost of war, to America, to Iraq, or to any members of the coalition of the willing. But what was revealed was a nearly paranoid amount of in-fighting and a paranoia-inducing revelation of just how much power is wielded by the Cheney-led cabal surrounding Bush. Another point of curiosity: Bush himself was not even really a lead actor.
One striking thing was the number of players who participated in the series. Colin Powell, L. Paul Bremer, John Yoo all played themselves. Any number of supporting members of the CIA and various branches of the military and federal government were involved. It was extraordinarily thoroughly sourced, with primary sources and carefully selected media footage galore. Considering the principals involved, it can hardly be described as a leftist smear job.
In some ways, the series might just as easily have been called “Bush’s Legacy.” I mean, honestly, when all is said and done, what else will there be? I count the Iraq war as the most significant piece of the Bush legacy by a long shot, and it has, in some ways, subsumed Afghanistan. After that, Justices Roberts and Alito, certainly. And after that, what? No Child Left Behind? The Ownership Society was never realized in a way that will live up to the New Deal, the Great Society, or other such presidential domestic agendas. The Department of Homeland Security, while a major overhaul of federal bureaucracy, under Bush has generated a string of failures. His immigration policy has been left in tatters. His goal of simplifying the tax code has gone nowhere. His attempt to reform Social Security was an abject failure. I guess there’s a prescription drug benefit, but it’s got so many strings attached that it’s not likely to be a lasting piece of our federal healthcare system in its current form.
The Frontline piece accurately depicts Bush’s war, and I hope it gives future administrations greater pause before rushing to war for any purpose whatsoever. This is Bush’s war, but, as the conclusion of the series notes, it will soon be passed on to someone new. Bush’s legacy, on the other hand, is his alone. But, hey, at least he isn’t embroiled in any sex scandals!
On Sunday, four US soldiers were killed by an IED in Baghdad, bringing the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq to 4,000. To memorialize the day in which this grim milestone was reached, the Nashville Peace Coalition will gather in front of the Federal Building in Nashville today, Monday, March 24th from 5:30pm to 7:00pm to remember all those killed in the war, including an estimated 89,000 or more Iraqi civilians.
After weeks of dropping hints but remaining coy and quiet, Bill Richardson makes a 3:00 a.m. phone call that is guaranteed not to make Hillary’s day.
Is it possible that superdelegates will now stop fretting that some Americans a few weeks ago thought Obama was Muslim and that this week think Obama goes to church but is black and rally around the best speechmaker and inspiring candidate their party has seen in a generation and let him get on with the business of becoming president?
Based on their apparent willingness to live squarely within the Republican frame of a culture of fear, I doubt it. Now watch for John Edwards’s 3:00 a.m. phone call…
In a visit with the Grey Lady today, Bredesen offers a prescription for his party: a superdelegate primary.
It’s particularly interesting to see Bredesen calling for a common sense solution to help the Democratic Party considering his own comments on his party’s shallow bench in the upcoming race to challenge Lamar Alexander for U.S. Senate, which almost portended Hillary’s own remarks that McCain has made it more clear than Obama that he’s ready to serve as commander-in-chief. If his party mattered that much to him, Bredesen could’ve encouraged some young Democrat he’s impressed with to make a challenge to a statesman he admired. Or maybe he’s got his eye on a bigger prize…
Personally, while I don’t think Bredesen’s proposal is particularly problematic, I am not a fan of changing rules midstream after a lack of foresight has yielded an unexpected and unwelcome result. After all, does choosing a nominee sooner mean choosing a nominee better? Based on the closeness of the primary competition through and after Super Tuesday, I’d be surprised. I think any Democrats in either the Hillary or Obama camps who will unite behind any Democrat are going to do that regardless of whether they are asked to do so in August rather than June. And I think any undecideds are going to see a series of attacks and issues relating to both Hillary and Obama continue to be expressed by conservative mouthpieces well beyond the appearance of a clear nominee.
Ultimately, though, I think Democrats frustrated with this year’s process, where many, many states had their primaries and caucuses under the magnifying glass, need to scrutinize their nominating process to avoid, say, treating Republican states better.
Guests for Monday, June 29, 2009: John Spragens, District 24 Councilman Jason Holleman, Tony Cani of the SEIU Change That Works campaign, Michael Chapman, and Elbert Ventura, of Media Matters for America..
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Interview with Mayor Karl Dean - The One Where He Tells us Who He Voted For
