Well, how about making the mea culpa unnecessary? Instead of saving it for the book, how about future author Biden unfetter his conscience in real time -- when it can actually do some good? If Biden truly believes that what we're doing in Afghanistan is not in the best interests of our national security -- and what issue is more important than that? -- it's simply not enough to claim retroactive righteousness in his memoirs.
Now, let's follow this logic to its conclusion. Presidents have hundreds of advisors. Imagine if each quit every time advice they felt passionately about didn't get followed. Every president would have McDonald's type turnover in their administration. In his interview with Chris Wallace, Dick Cheney strongly implied that he suggested to Bush that he take out Iran's nukes but that advice wasn't followed. By this logic, Cheney, too, should have quit.
War is dangerous business and most advice is given with passion, but to take Huffington seriously would mean chaos in all administrations. Many pundits believe that Huffington is trying to be provocative with this statement. They are saying that Huffington isn't really calling for Biden to quit. Of course, that's exactly what Huffington's own statements are.
What is clear is that the far left is attempting to exert its will on this president on Afghanistan. This statement appears to be as much a warning to Obama as it is a realistic call to Biden. That Biden is suddenly held as some sort of war expert speaks for itself. All pretense that Afghanistan was the "good war" has now dissipated. Every war is a bad war. What this article by Huffington indicates is that the far left is ready for their own political civil war if Obama doesn't take his marching orders from them.
The far left won't merely agree to disagree if Obama decides to go with McChrystal's orders. They will go into full attack mode. Arianna Huffington is ready to make Joe Biden the anti war hero for his stand.
Though it would be a crowning moment in a distinguished career, such an act of courage would likely be only the beginning. Biden would then become the natural leader of the movement to wind down this disastrous war and focus on the real dangers in Pakistan.
They will also attack ruthlessly and viciously any plan for Afghanistan that goes against their wishes for as quick and orderly a retreat as possible. That puts the president in a bind. That's because if he goes against them that will signal a political civil war within the party. The president can't afford to lose his base and so he is in a serious political bind.
6 comments:
If Obama was concerned about losing his base, why is he letting Rahm Emanuel and Olympia Snowe write his health care reform bill?
I'm not sure that he's letting them write the bill and I'm not sure that Emanuel isn't a liberal.
A few weeks ago, Emanuel was exposed as the source behind all those "anonymous" leaks from the White House criticizing the Progressive Caucus as "left of the left" and "f_cking stupid" for pushing their public option. He's been encouraging Blue Dogs and conservative Democrats to accept a triggered public option, which is the exact same thing Olympia Snowe has been pushing.
Rahm is a DLC'er, he was one of the Clinton (are you going to deny Clinton was a DLC'er, too?) Administration's top advisers on health care reform back in '94. And you see where his advice got Clinton and Co.
I don't know what those leaks are or what he said, and I don't care. Emanuel is from Chicago. We don't have moderates here, liberals and far left, that's it.
He's a deal maker. That's his main role. He tries to make sure that Obama's legislation passes. He doesn't say anything to hurt people he doesn't like. He says things to get deals done. period.
That doesn't change the fact that he's the most disloyal White House Chief of Staff ever. Everybody knows the only reason he's there is because he was too dangerous to leave in the House. As DCCC chair, he recruited the most conservative candidates he could find to run, even in relatively safe districts. Even know he's planning a return to the House to complete his plan to steal the Speaker's chair from Pelosi
Ever. Really. who was the Chief of Staff for Harding? Are you serious? It was Emanuel's strategy that brought in dozens of moderates to conservative districts and flipped them Democrat. I don't think he was a downer for the NDCC. He recruited conservatives to run in conservative districts and it worked. 2006 was a huge year. Are you actually saying that his strategy was a bad one?
In relatively safe districts recruiting a conservative would have been stupid and lead to losses. So, I don't think he did that. He recruited moderates in conservative districts.
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