Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (89467)	10/10/2008 10:30:29 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542009

I heard various conservative spinners trying to play the associations line last night on the cable chat shows, and it came across like beings from another universe. No one outside the McCain campaign and the red base is really very interested in the whole schtick, from what I can see.

To: Lane3 who wrote (89467)	10/10/2008 10:45:26 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542009

And that's why I like Krauthammer. He gets to the fundamental question without all the sturm und drang. How important are these associations to the voter? It's been apparent that there was nothing of the innocent in Obama's rise in Chicago politics. He was a newcomer without a lot of influence and he quickly targeted the ways he could get in and move up. I was struck reading the Rolling Stone story on McCain how very similar the two men were in their use of people to advance. McC's just happen to be more socially palatable. Having never seen Obama as Messiah or as The One, his lack of perfection was never an issue for me- never expected him to be. So point one: that he is cynical doesn't change my vote. IN fact, I view a certain degree of ruthlessness to be necessary for the job. Hey, he might even swim with some of those evil conservative extremists to get stuff done. The second point is an interesting one since it implies that if you approve Obama that your own character is suspect. I don't think sitting on a board with someone means one tolerates the obscene. The question is legitimate, though. How far do we extend tolerance? Are there boundaries?

To: Lane3 who wrote (89467)	10/10/2008 10:50:24 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542009

Addressing what seems to be to be the most serious of those charges, at least the only substantive one... and this isn't directed at you but at the post <g> He found these men useful, and use them he did. ...Would you even shake hands with -- let alone serve on two boards with -- an unrepentant terrorist, whether he bombed U.S. military installations or abortion clinics? Well, personally, no, I'd rather see all terrorist rot and die, ideally in pain and misery. However I do understand that other people have shaken hands with Gerry Adams, while making peace in Ulster. But let's look at another noted terrorist leader who gained some acceptance later, even from the strictest US eyes. He started as one of the leaders of the murderous Lehi, who negotiated with the Nazis to fight against the British. Even the UN condemned this gang as terrorists after WWII. But you may also know Yitzhak Shamir as PM of Israel. Twice. Quite a popular chappie with Reagan, I seem to recall. en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org. Then there were the Contras, the Taliban (while they were fighting the USSR, that is), UNITA (ditto by proxy)... George Washington, another famous terrorist from the past... <w> Shall we take it as a given that big boy politics unfortunately seems to involve accepting and working with people who deserved execution long ago? In other words you use what's there. That holier, absolutist stance Krauthammer puts on just doesn't work. BTW. If Ayers is/was such a terrorist, how is it he seems to be at large? Why hasn't he been arrested a long time ago - are the FBI acquiescing, accepting even, such a terrorist in high society? Purely on a technicality, which somehow absolved him of any possible crime with which he might be charged? Puh-lease.

To: Lane3 who wrote (89467)	10/10/2008 1:21:16 PM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542009

>>Obama & Friends: Judge Not?<< Karen - Thanks for posting that. I find Krauthammer to be wrong on this, but it was interesting reading. One problem I have with the piece is his take on Ayers - that no decent person would have shaken his hand and sat down with him, as if Obama served on the Annenberg Challenge Committee alone with Ayers. As if Ayers didn't have a job as a tenured professor at a major university, and didn't associate with all kinds of people in a major city. I do think it's too late to bring this stuff up. There is no aspect of Obama's relationship to Ayers that hasn't already been looked into and reported on. There just isn't much there. That makes certain types conclude that something is being hidden. - Allen