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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (393986)	6/25/2008 7:29:31 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579369

Obama’s Detail Work By Chris Suellentrop Tags: Barack Obama “If Obama becomes president, he will have spent more time serving as a state legislator (eight years) than anyone who has occupied the White House since Abraham Lincoln,” writes Alan Ehrenhalt, the executive editor of Governing magazine, in Newsweek. He later adds, “[F]or a smart, curious and hard-working young legislator — for a Barack Obama in the Illinois Senate — can we be so sure that the skill set picked up over eight years in a state Capitol is inferior as presidential preparation to two decades in the pompous, cordoned-off environment of the U.S. Senate? I seriously doubt it.” Ehrenhalt explains: Twenty-first century U.S. senators are, virtually by the nature of the job, gadflies. They flit from one issue to another, generally developing little expertise on any of them; devote a large portion of their day to press conferences and other publicity opportunities; follow a daily schedule printed on a 3×5 card that a member of their staff has prepared; depend even more heavily on staff for detailed and time-consuming legislative negotiation that they are too busy to attend; and develop few close relationships with colleagues, nearly all of whom are as busy as they are. There are exceptions, of course — senators who beat the odds and develop an encyclopedic knowledge of topics that interest them — but they are the minority. I don’t doubt McCain’s instinct for global strategy, but a few months ago, when he had to be corrected on his statement that Iran was training Al Qaeda operatives, I wasn’t surprised at all. I’m surprised this doesn’t happen to senators more often. By contrast, what do state legislators do? At their worst, they are doggedly parochial, people who tend first and foremost to the interests of a relatively small constituency. At their best, they keep all the state’s significant issues in mind; it is possible to do that in a state legislature in a way that is not possible in Washington. During the years that Obama served in Springfield, 1997-2005, he was forced to wrestle with the minutiae of health-care policy, utility deregulation, transportation funding, school aid, and a host of other issues that are vitally important to America’s coming years, but that U.S. senators are usually able to dispose of with a quick once-over. State legislators have to do this largely on their own, without ubiquitous staff guidance, because staffing is not lavish even in the more professional state capitols. They enter into day-to-day bargaining relationships over the details of legislation with colleagues of both parties; there is no one else to do it for them. At the end of the session, they are likely to know the strengths and quirks of nearly everyone who serves in their chamber. And perhaps most important, there is simply more personal contact across the aisle than there is in Congress. Legislatures have grown more partisan in the past decade, as all of American politics has. But in most state capitols, the wall of partisan separation is nowhere near as high as it is in Washington. When Obama was in the Illinois Senate, he was obligated to sit down in a small room day after day with his Republican counterparts and work out the details of legislation expanding health-care coverage and revising campaign-finance law. He played in a regular poker game in which party and ideology were utterly irrelevant. Maybe there are still poker games in the U.S. Senate. I haven’t heard of one lately.

To: i-node who wrote (393986)	6/25/2008 7:33:05 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1579369

McCain’s Misguided Strategy? By Michael A. Cohen As the 2008 general election heats up, one of John McCain’s strongest political advantages is his opponent Barack Obama’s lack of political experience. No surprise there: when Mr. McCain began his political career, Mr. Obama was still a college student. But lately, Mr. McCain seems to be taking the experience argument in an extreme direction: intimating that Mr. Obama doesn’t actually know, well, much of anything. Here, for example, is Mr. McCain in a recent op-ed in The Detroit Free Press: “Those who would lead our countries must work to ensure that the benefits of NAFTA are understood throughout our countries, and not jeopardized through cowboy diplomacy. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama does not understand this.” Or how about the recent Supreme Court decision on granting the right of habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees: “Senator Obama is obviously confused about what the United States Supreme Court decided and what he is calling for,” Mr. McCain said in a blog entry posted on June 19. On the recently proposed extension of the G.I. Bill, the McCain campaign issued a statement blasting Senator Obama for failing to “take the time and trouble to understand this issue.” Or what about Mr. Obama’s knowledge of American foreign policy: He “either hasn’t read” or doesn’t understand “the history of this country in warfare, and the way that we secure alliances and secure the peace,” Mr. McCain said from his campaign plane in May. Reading these comments, one can only wonder how Mr. Obama won the Democratic nomination! Of course, this is smart politics for Mr. McCain. According to a recent Zogby poll, more than half of all Americans think Mr. Obama lacks the necessary experience to serve as president. The numbers are even more troubling among white voters. According to a Washington Post poll, about half of them think Mr. Obama would be a risky pick and only 43 percent think he has the experience needed for the nation’s highest office. Mr. McCain’s ability to build on these poll numbers may be his best, and only, hope for victory in November. But there is a danger for Mr. McCain when he veers from questioning his opponent’s experience to questioning his intellect. Indeed, Mr. McCain’s recent comments verge into the realm of condescension toward the Democratic candidate and his supporters. Mr. McCain would be wise to remember Al Gore’s sighing during the 2000 presidential debates or George H.W. Bush’s declaration in 1992 that “My dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos” in talking about the Democratic ticket. Voters didn’t exactly warm to these demeaning words. What’s worse, by continually attacking Mr. Obama’s understanding of policy issues, John McCain runs the risk of actually helping the Democrat neutralize the experience issue. In 1980, supporters of President Jimmy Carter regularly intimated that Ronald Reagan was an intellectual lightweight not to mention a warmonger and a racist. But when the two men debated, and Americans saw that Reagan wasn’t the caricature that he was being presented as, poll numbers showed a huge shift toward the Republican. A similar phenomenon occurred in 2000 when skeptical Democrats set the bar so low for George W. Bush. When Americans hear Mr. Obama in the presidential debates and realize that he does in fact understand many of the issues facing the country (or even worse that they agree with him), Mr. McCain’s attacks will ring hollow. Such a low threshold is being set for Mr. Obama that he will almost certainly top it and in the process pass the greatest test he will face from voters between now and November, namely, is he up to the job. But there is another, even greater, risk. Mr. McCain’s constant undermining of Mr. Obama’s intelligence and judgment smacks of disrespect and even seems a bit curmudgeonly. And curmudgeonly is most certainly the one word that Mr. McCain would be wise to avoid in this election.

To: i-node who wrote (393986)	6/25/2008 10:52:42 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Respond to of 1579369

"I certainly think there are many of you who don't know a damned thing about this subject " But some numbnutz like you does??? Where did you get you're "expertise"? "The entire world knew it. He had used them previously; there wasn't any doubt about it and still isn't." If the entire world knew it, they certainly weren't worried about it....we will always remember the ridiculous "Coalition of the Willing". Why didn't Bush listen to his self approved UN inspector Hans Blix who reported twice to the UN that there were no WMD....he was searching CIA suggested locations. Why wouldn'g Bush wait two more weeks so he complete his inspections??? "I would think the answer to that is obvious. What they want is substantially more than a suitcase nuke" If someone had one for sale in the black market, the US would be the first in line to buy it.... Why are you so naive to think that a rag tag terrorist would get it first? "The rest of the world was asleep at the switch." Of course, but you and Hannity and Limbaugh and Cheney werent' cause you're so much more informed than the rest of the world....to put it bluntly, you're an idiot.