Not content to merely be cynical, “Big Media” Matt Yglesias takes a second swipe at the Bush visit to Iraq and decides that nothing goes with cynicism like a healthy dose of condescension:
Scanning around the web, it seems to me that too many of my liberal colleagues are willing to give the president credit for today’s little stunt supporting the troops. Consider, however, whether you think that the leaders of the Democratic Party would have been wildly opposed to taking a little Thanksgiving-time trip of their own to pose with the troops for photo ops. Seems to me that they would love to have done that. But they weren’t invited.
They didn’t have to be invited, foolio. For example, Hillary Clinton managed to find a way to Afghhanistan, and she managed to do so without a written invitation from the White House. If you will notice, the only person who went was the President. It wasn’t the President, Bill Frist, and Dennis Hastert. It wasn’t the President, every Republican in the Senate, and every Republican in the House. It wasn’t the President and every Republican from a swing state. It was simply the President, and, as he can not be a Republican and a Democrat at the same time, it appears that your keen Ivy league-honed skills of deduction are accurate- no Democratic politicians went along.
If, by chance, you were to attempt to research your vacuous claims, and during the course of that research, you had visited the popular search engine called “Google,” and typed the phrase Senate + Visit + Iraq, you would have noticed that numerous politicians from both political parties have managed to find their way to Iraq, all sans an offical ride on Air Force One. Why, gosh, that tricky web search even turned up this story:
“U.S. Sen. John Cornyn will join several Senate Armed Services Committee colleagues for a trip to Iraq and the surrounding region next week. The delegation will meet with U.S. and Iraqi officials involved in the reconstruction effort. While there, Cornyn will visit with and encourage the Texas troops and receive briefings from coalition forces and humanitarian organizations. The Committee
Kimmitt
I’m not a moderate; I’m a liberal. I hate Bush for two reasons: his policies and his general incompetence. My hatred will subside almost completely when he is no longer capable of worsening my life and the lives of those about whom I care.
Francis W. Porretto
Please see also this.
Susie
Funny, Kimmit–that’s exactly why I hated Clinton…only not as irrationally as you lefties seem to hate President Bush…
JadeGold
What kind of bizarro universe does Susie live in where she hates economic prosperity, relative peace in the world, and admiration for US global leadership?
Shrubby’s track record–in life–has alawys been to leave things worse than when he found them. This administration is no different.
Andrew Lazarus
I’m with Kimmitt, except he left out the smirk and the routine dishonesty. I don’t know why Susie hated Clinton—I guess that economy full of high-paid jobs didn’t excite her—but one trait he shares with Bush is that the ability to outsmart his political opponents, and I guess that drives us even angrier than usual.
My take on the Turkey Trip is that sure, it’s great PR for his campaign, but EVEN IF (big if) that were his primary motivation, it would STILL have been a good thing to do. Ditto for HRC’s trip.
capt joe
These lefties are pissed because they realize that they now have the fact bush for another 5 years.
As Nelson (Simpsons) would say, “Haa, Ha”.
Another legacy of the Clinton presidency is
-Rwanda,
-Srebrenica,
-the mess of the balkans,
-the somalia debacle,
-bombing the wrong factory in Sudan,
-letting Bin Laden get away
-the death of millions of Iraqis in futile pointless sanctions that never hurt Saddam
– a gazillion pointless resolutions in the UN on Iraq
Yep, a wonderful foreign policy
Andrew Lazarus
“letting Bin Laden get away” – I don’t think I would push this one too hard!
Pres. Bush counted his chickens before they hatched in Afghanistan, Iraq, and if we’re lucky, November 04. Keep up the good work, joe.
Atrios has a take on the trip similar to mine.
camber
It was a good thing to do for Bush to visit the troops. It was nice to see him finally do someting for the troops besides cut their benefits.
As far as whether this is the major PR move that everyone is saying(for good or bad), I see it as very similar to the carrier landing.
At the time the (R)s were head over heels in joy with what that did. I was with my very (R) brother and father at the time(actually met Ridge that weekend, he’s from my home town), and they were just glowing with glee at how well it played and how this is gonna kill the (D)s come election time campaign commercials. Well, we all know how that has played out over time.
We’ll see how/if this is becomes another carrier move or not. Only time will tell.
Besides, isn’t it some sort of tradition that the sitting president visits the troops, where ever they are, during at least one Thanskgiving?
Charlie
Speaking of counting chickens too early, I’d not count on the carrier landing being a negative. It still plays well with those of us who live more than 100 miles from the coast.
Slartibartfast
“Atrios has a take on the trip similar to mine.”
Good enough reason to reexamine your thinking on the matter, in my book.
Harry
Man the leftoids have some really big hate going on. I love it when they’re miserable. Think I’ll have a cocktail now.
triticale
Hey, people, drop it with this “cut their benefits” nonsense. What you are supposed to complain about, now that this has been disproven, is that the new spending on Veteran’s benefits is part of the largest (numerical) deficit.
athinkingmind
The real legacy of the Clinton administration was to allow the terror threat to grow and grow until it culminated in 9-11.
As former Clinton adviser Dick Morris wrote, “All our terrorist problems were born during the Clinton years.”
Clinton did nothing of serious consequence in the face of repeated and escalating terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda.
Clinton entered into a foolish agreement with the North Koreans to try to end their nuclear weapons program, only to have them cheat on the agreement and he do nothing about it.
Clinton allowed Saddam to bully the inspectors out and create a dangerous and uncertain situation.
Again, to quote Dick Morris, “All three critical situations America faces today
Bob Brown
Susie said: Funny, Kimmit–that’s exactly why I hated Clinton…only not as irrationally as you lefties seem to hate President Bush…
“Hi, I’m Susie! I hated Bill Clinton for RATIONAL REASONS, but Kimmitt and his kind are irrational for hating Bush!”
Jesus, you conservatives get dumber each and every day, and that’s too bad, because you weren’t all that bright to begin with.