Wednesday February 15, 2012

shimajiro's past comments

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    shimajiro

    Romney is widely viewed as someone who could handle the economy. He's conservative, and with him coming from Massachusets, with deep roots in Michigan, he could quite possibly carried either or both of those states.

    He certainly would have had more appeal to a segment of the social conservatives - although not necessarily evangelicals like Huckabee who loathe the Mormons - but would he have had as much appeal as McCain to independents and disaffected Democrats. I don't think so. McCain had crossover appeal.

    It would have been tough to overcome the first black nominee regardless.

    I would agree that there was, if anything, a reverse-Bradley effect going on among whites and that black turn-out was exceptionally high. That said, I think Obama's victory had more to do with the political climate - and Obama's huge spending advantage. Let's not forget that. What proportion of the five percentage points that separated McCain and Obama in the popular vote do you suppose can be attributed to the fact that Obama outspent McCain by 2-1 or more?

    Posted in: Obama victory sets off jubilation across U.S.

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    shimajiro

    Perhaps the Democrats, in their zeal to muzzle mostly right-leaning talk-radio hosts, will reinact the Fairness Doctrine as some among their ranks seem to hope.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine

    I can't see why they would spare the mostly left-leaning comedians, playwrites and documentarians the same even-handed approach to the regulation of speech.

    Posted in: Comedians sharpen claws for Obama presidency

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    shimajiro

    Well, I would have preferred that McCain had won but my hat's off to Obama and his team. His campaign raised prodigous amounts of money in both the primary and general and the candidate himself stayed on message and comitted relatively few gaffes.

    I'm proud of my country for having elected its first black president and wish Mr. Obama well. I just hope he chooses not to indulge the protectionist wing of his party or pass card check legistlation. Such actions could only exacerbate the economic malaise.

    All in all, I think John McCain ran a creditable campaign. He did well to win 47% of the vote given the state of the economy, Bush's unpopularity and the unbalanced media coverage. I don't think any of his competitors for the Republican nominsation could have done as well.

    Posted in: Obama victory sets off jubilation across U.S.

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    shimajiro

    But it's the republicans that cried when he didn't wear the trinket on his lapel.

    Actually it was Obama who, over a year ago, took the affirmative step of stopping to wear the flag pin and ostentatiously explaining that he had done so because it "became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security."

    I think it is unreasonable for him or you to expect that he would not attract attention (and some criticism) for having done so. He was, afterall, criticizing others who continued to wear patriotic badges.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    Betzee -

    Shima, I simply think McCain looks a bit silly denouncing Wesley Clark's criticism of his record and how it relates to his ability to serve as president when he never denounced a personal smear campaign which finished his chances back in 2000.

    I don't recall, didn't he?

    If you make your military record an asset then it's fair game for others to question that or, more precisely, "fill in the details."

    Clark's effusive praise of Kerry's military service four years ago is in stark contrast to his current criticism of McCain's military service.

    John Kerry's mistake was in leaving out his anti-war activities, maybe the only principled stand he took in his career, leaving him vulnerable to the swift boat campaign.

    That and making certain mistatements of fact about his tour of duty and assuming that only those of his former comrades who held a high opinion of him would be heard.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    Betzee -

    LOL. Rather than simply agreeing with me that Sen. McCain is, in this one respect at least, admirable, you go into considerable length casting aspersions on elements of his party and then, lest anyone get the idea you might have gone soft on the Republican candidate himself, throw in a criticism to boot. Priceless. Don't worry, Betzee, no one would ever mistake you for a McCain supporter.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    adaydream

    I wasn't saying that you said anything of the such. I was just tagging onto your post.

    You were trying to associate me with beliefs I do not hold. I asked for evidence, suspecting (correctly, it now appears) you had none.

    I was only stating that there are those who would judge a person because of as trinket he may or may not be wearing.

    Clearly, there are such people - Obama among them, depending upon what day you ask him - but not I.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    Betzee-

    So you're saying we should trust McCain will do what he thinks is right after he's elected to office?...It would have meant taking on the GWB administration...

    He's long been an outspoken proponent of banning torture and closing Guantanamo. As you suggest, his position didn't win him many plaudits (or votes) in the Republican primaries. McCain deserves credit for taking a principled stand that was unpopular within his own party.

    He could have delivered those Republican votes in his capacity as a Senator.

    He'd have far more influence as president and leader of his party.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    A week or so ago when Sen. Obama was being criticized by one evangelist or another for comments he had made about faith in America, I had the opportunity to hear a lengthy excerpt from the speech in question (i.e, the one the evangelist was criticizing) on the radio. I was very impressed. Among other things I was happy to hear him acknowledge that there is a place within our society for godless heathens such as myself and that believers cannot expect non-believers to be persuaded by policy arguments grounded in faith. Good on him, as they say.

    Posted in: Obama courts conservatives with new faith program

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    shimajiro

    Betzee -

    Yet when McCain, presumably based on his own experience as a POW who was tortured, speaks out against torture he runs up against the party line.

    Only Nixon could go to China, as the saying goes. IMO, McCain is better positioned to champion detainees rights both because his personal experience grants him a measure of moral authority and because he's better positioned to deliver Republican support/votes for desirable legistlation that most Democrats will, in any case, support.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    Betzee: Yet when McCain, presumably based on his own experience as a POW who was tortured, speaks out against torture he runs up against the party line.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    adaydream -

    He started wearing his lapel flag pin again because people like yourself judge someone's heart and patritism based on trinkets worn.

    That's the kind of gratuitous ad hominem I have come to expect from people who lack a good argument. I trust you will be unable to substantiate your charge by producing any statement of mine that would suggest that I equate trinket wearing with patriotism. For in fact, I do not.

    Not the truths that he speaks. <

    Do you suppose, now that he's taken up wearing a flag pin again, that Sen. Obama still thinks that trinket wearing is an inauthentic expression of patriotism? Personally I doubt it and wonder to what to attribute the change. Does he lack the courage of his convictions or is he just willing to do anything to get elected? Your comment suggests you believe it is the latter. Could be.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    Silly stuff. After 9/11 Sen. Obama, like many other Am. pols, took to wearing a flag pin on his lapel. Sometime later he stopped wearing the thing and himself made a campaign issue of public displays of patriotism by desribing flag pin-wearing as a sign of inauthentic patriotism. Now he's taken to wearing one again - and criticizing pols (like his earlier self) for questioning others' patriotism.

    Although I have my doubts about his wife, I think Sen. Obama is admirably patriotic - but, given his recent flipflopping on the issue, I think it's a bit rich for him to be lecturing others on the subject now.

    Posted in: Obama vows not to question anyone's patriotism

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    shimajiro

    Oops - I had intended for my post above to begin: "The US should support Cuba's economic integration...

    Posted in: EU lifts Cuba sanctions

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    shimajiro

    The US Cuba's economic integration both to improve the sorry lot of Cubans and because it will tend to undermine the Castro brothers' authoritarian regime.

    Posted in: EU lifts Cuba sanctions

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    shimajiro

    If the Pew polls are to believed most foreigners back Obama in the General so perhaps they'll refrain from attacking the US between now and election day rather than give McCain a boost. But seriously, it's difficult to predict how a major attack would affect the election.

    In any case, the comment was irresponsible and McCain was right to distance himself from it.

    Posted in: McCain disavows aide's comment about terrorism

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    shimajiro

    Taka,

    I'm all for ending subsidies of all kinds - including those for corn ethanol aand other green energies (which Obama supports). But I'd oppose caps on salaries or profits. I'm afraid unintended consequences will leave us all worse off. We have only to look to Venezeula to see how quickly the unintended consequences of well-intended, socially-minded government economic reforms have run a nation's economy into the ground.

    Posted in: Obama details plan to tax excess oil company profits

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    shimajiro

    Taka:

    Instead of taxing windfall profits, why not cut the oil company's subsidies? The point of taxing windfall profits is to get more money.

    Now there's an idea.

    Will Obama propose to prop up oil industry profits if they dip too low, one wonders? Would President Obama similarly manage the profits of other industries within an acceptable ban?

    Posted in: Obama details plan to tax excess oil company profits

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    shimajiro

    Whatever else it may accomplish it has been a successful mission. It will be interesting to see what's suspended in the ice.

    Posted in: Phoenix lander confirms presence of ice on Mars

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    shimajiro

    Thanks, Taka.

    Posted in: Obama says he won't take public campaign funds

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