Multidimensional chess players, here's your man's chance. What will come of it?

[JackRiddler]

Interesting past week:

Obama -- born! (In 1961!) A muscular, lightly ironic video at the White House press dinner shows NFL hits and baseball victory celebrations, intercut with a dancing birth certificate set to the tune of a song called, "I AM A REAL AMERICAN."

Trump -- naked! Republican dwarf candidates -- laughing stocks!

Osama -- dead! Buried at sea, case closed. Americans chanting USA! USA! and primed for closure on the era of 9/11.

Reelection 2012 -- a wrap, if it were today. Obama administration, reset and popular, "political capital" restored.

The Bush man at the Pentagon, Gates -- retired. Obama's choice, Panetta, is in. Petraeus -- neutralized, withdrawn from his Afghanistan flag-waving photo-ops and sent into the bowels of the CIA, an agency with a proven history of stimying and dispensing with directors considered hostile to it.

Afghan government -- practically inviting a drawdown, the July 2011 date for beginning a withdrawal almost here. Pakistan urging Karzai to get the Americans out. Supposed mission in Pakistan can be declared a victory right now.

Iraq -- the Status of Forces Agreement negotiated between Iraq and the Bush regime calls for all US troops out by December 31st.

A report by top ranking members of the Navy and Marine Corps officers serving Adm. Mullen at the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the US has been wrong to pursue military solutions instead of political ones, spent its treasure on war when it should have invested in education. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are ready to entertain this!
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/25/what-in-the-world-the-militarys-secret-plan-to-shrink/

The next budget -- not just a crisis but an open book. Ryan proposal -- now anathema to most. Initiative can be seized by the liberals, if the executive is willing to provide leadership.

Arab Spring -- an opportunity to redefine all relations there. The US can stop playing Big Cheese and let an Egypt on the Turkish model show the way to new possibilities.

So here's the big chance. No more excuses. The chess pieces are positioned for action. Iraq can be over, this year. Afghanistan and Pakistan can be declared almost over, this year. A shift in spending from the wars and the "defense" budget toward human needs and investment at home can begin, this year. Even Yemen can be vacated, this year. (Dare we even dream that pressure can be applied for a real peace in Palestine?)

Obama has the position and the pieces to make these moves, this year. The neocon rationalizations of why the terror wars must continue forever ring hollow, can be counteracted. Obama can declare a bunch of victories and GET OUT OF THE MESSES.

Is your man going to live up to that? Does he really want to?

You don't have to convince me.

It's much more important that if YOU want that, if you really want it, you show that you do. Calls and letters are nice, but there will be rallies and strikes and public pressure for it... if YOU want it.

.

[Zoeisright]

1. YOUR man?

He's YOUR President, Bud. A Democratic President. What is this shit?

[cameozalaznick]

2. Why do you keep saying "your man?" eom

[Bucky]

3. Why is there an exclamation point after "1961!"? Was it that exciting a year?

(No, it wasn't)

[JackRiddler]

10. Just playing town cryer. Did I get the year wrong?

I mean, I hear it was a big news story this week that Obama was born. Apparently there was some kind of mystery about it.

[MineralMan]

4. Who is "your man?" That seems an appropriate question

here. Do you have one?

[JackRiddler]

7. Bradley Manning.

A hero who lived up to his oath to protect the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic by exposing criminality to the public when he saw it, and who has paid a stiff price, caged in solitary while the ones responsible for the crimes are not even investigated.

Who's your man, MineralMan? Does it have to be a politician? Are we cheerleaders?

[MineralMan]

9. Thanks for your interesting response.

I did not claim to have a man. I support President Obama, Al Franken, Betty McCollum, all of whom I have worked hard for to get elected. There are others who I support, as well. Bradley Manning would not be among them. I, like him, held a security clearance while serving in the military. Unlike, him, I was never accused of misusing it, because I did not. :shrug:

I am my own man, you see.

[JackRiddler]

12. So if I am also my own man, I don't have to choose your phraseology, right?

So we're settled then.

[MineralMan]

21. You don't have to do anything.

Not my call.

[dionysus]

14. rofl....

[Atman]

5. I, too, am suspicious of your language.

Why is Obama "your man," not "our man?" Repeatedly. You sound like Joe Scarborough a couple of years ago, when he was still trying to pretend he wasn't a Republican, but always referred to Democrats as "them" and "those people."

Hmmmm.

[JackRiddler]

8. Curses, I am exposed!

You got me. After 15,000 posts over 10 years here, my insufficient enthusiasm for the political leadership of a Democrat has finally exposed me as equivalent to Scarborough. I am shocked to discover that there is no other alternative, by your impeccable logic, but that I am a Republican!

No, no, nooooooooooo! (Falls into pits of hell.)

:eyes:

[Armstead]

15. YOU ARE GUILTY! OF.....

a use of language that requires a modicum of subtlety to comprehend.....(Or is it to want to comprehend?)

With a half-seconds of thought, the reason you used the phrase "your" is quite straightforward. But I guess a half-second of anything but knee-jerk response is something some here are unwilling to exercise.

[JackRiddler]

41. The funny thing is...

I still get surprised sometimes at how some triviality in a headline is grabbed as a cudgel to obliterate the thread subject and reproduce the usual debate of falsely dichotomous talking points.

[Stinky The Clown]

42. I recently had a thread locked for suggesting that very thing

It remains, however, unobliterated.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x988029

[JackRiddler]

43. My sympathies.

[Atman]

23. Calm down...I didn't say you are a Republican.

One can use comparisons to make a point without said point being an accusation. All I was saying, as several others did, that your language was odd.

.

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. I have come to realize, in the 8 years that I have been here...

this poster is pretty much anti whatever is being posted about. What ever you think, this poster doesn't think. It's like a fun game. Some of the players last longer than others. :hi:

[JackRiddler]

16. Whereas in the same 8 years...

I'm afraid I don't recall ever noticing your posts. Sorry about that.

You don't get to define "whatever" "we" think. Actually, there is a happy division over most of what is thought. Debate, amazing. I've noticed that I represent a number of majority views here, and a number of minority ones, and I'm content with both... even including the occasional discovery that I was wrong about something or other. You?

I'd love to be wrong about "multi-dimensional" chess as an excuse for Obama so far. Here's his chance to show what he can do. And a chance for all of us to, as he himself put it, make him do it.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. I'm not hurt by that.

I (formerly MrsGrumpy and I don't really care if you know that name either. It shows that I tend not to be derisive) just make observations on what I see. You proved (to me) what you were last week.

Have a nice week this week. :hi:

[JackRiddler]

25. You shouldn't be, nor am I by your comment.

Now we're all unhurt here together. Yay!

:wave:

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. But I'll still call you on it every time.

:P

[JackRiddler]

28. Ah, okay...

maybe I have a passing acquaintance with a Mrs Grumpy. (I think she was the one on the other side of the bed this morning?)

[JackRiddler]

6. To the first few responses: What's the problem?

I am among those not positively impressed with the first two years of Obama. There seem to be a few thousand of us here among the thousands of active DU members. That's right, he's not "my man," although I voted for him. So? No president has ever been "my president."

Can you stick to the point?

There are many here who say the consolidation of the Bush homeland and security policies, the clampdown on whistleblowers, the refusal to investigate Bush regime crimes against humanity, the continuation of the wars (and the opening of new fronts) and other capitulations to Republican policy like the billionaire tax cut extensions are all part of a chess game in which Obama will secure a good position so that he can pragmatically start drawing down the wars and shifting to a more progressive set of policies without being undermined as weak or unpatriotic.

In that case, we've reached an interesting moment. Obama's in charge, the chess position is good, the opportunities are there. Do you want to see him use this opportunity to start ending the perpetual war and the self-destructive wastes of empire?

[Poboy]

11. I find your lack of sufficient praise to our great leader disturbing.

I eagerly await Patriot Act III!

[MilesColtrane]

17. "your man"

So, who will you be voting for next year?

[JackRiddler]

24. Whoever I damn please, with the full rights of an American citizen.

You?

[MilesColtrane]

30. My voting philosophy is to select the person who will do the least amount of damage, yet...

still has a good chance of winning.

That is almost always a Democrat, and in 2012 it will be Obama.

[JackRiddler]

33. That's quite a devastating implicit critique of the system as it stands, if you re-read yourself.

[MilesColtrane]

36. I am comfortable criticizing the system.

For it is fucked.

But, I draw the line at wailing on the best choice available before an election.

[JackRiddler]

39. Look, I'm not going to argue with Miles Coltrane.

The hybrid of M. Davis and John C.? No way. I'll just listen, and learn.

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. Clean-up bitter tears in aisle 6

Not having a good day, sweetie pie?

:rofl:

[JackRiddler]

27. Cheerleader syndrome patient suffering projection episode in TV room, orderlies respond.

[LoZoccolo]

20. I think that Obama will have so much political capital

that he won't have to listen to the 15% of liberals who will only reward his acquiesence to their demands with more complaints and falsehoods anyways.

[JackRiddler]

31. No problem, it's not like he listened to most of the people who voted for him so far...

Which would be that "15 percent" as you characterize it.

But maybe he can stop catering to the 15 percent of Homeland Warriors who didn't vote for him?

Actually, moments of opportunity don't last forever. Do you really want to see how things will be if in a year and a half these wars aren't done but escalated?

I hear even Bush had a 90 percent approval rating at one point. It's all what you do with it.

[LoZoccolo]

34. No, the 15% I speak of are the people other than the 85% of liberals

who approve of him in presidential approval polls. As liberals generally make up 20% of the electorate, this would make the 15% of 20% to be 3% of the total electorate. I believe about 52%-53% of the electorate voted for Obama, and we don't know how much of the 15% of 20% (or 3%) even voted for him in 2008.

But there are consequences to making yourself too expensive. Why would Obama do anything for the people who've shown that if they get one thing, they'll just start complaining about another? Especially now, when he doesn't have to? And when they lie ("oh, Democrats are no better than Republicans").

[JackRiddler]

35. Wait a minute, in all this number play of yours...

are you supposed to be among the "85 percent" of liberals?

Because we're going to need some dictionary revisions, if so.

[LoZoccolo]

37. Yes, I am a liberal and I support Obama.

[LoZoccolo]

38. And we can argue over the dictionary definitions, but it doesn't matter.

It does not change the fact that the group of liberals who disapproves of him is only about 3%. Whether or not the rest of the self-declared "liberals" fit your definition doesn't make the group who disapproves bigger.

Nor does it change the fact that his political capital doesn't come from a group who will continue to find fault with him anyways. It's not political capital of the group won't vote for him.

[DevonRex]

22. Aww. Bless your heart.

[Javaman]

29. If spending is shifted back to the people and not war...

I don't give a fuck if OBL was real or fake. As long as the money gets spent on fixing this nation.

If however, we are still in Iraq after the 31st of December and we haven't started rotating people of Afghanistan/Pakistan by the end of this year, then everything is like it was: bullshit.

[JackRiddler]

32. Agreed.

[JackRiddler]

40. You want the TL;DR? Declare victory and get the hell out of those countries.

Doesn't matter who "your man" is.

Who's down with that?

[JackRiddler]

44. Here's the TL;DR version of this thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1017597

[JackRiddler]

45. here's the next-day kick of this thread

[JackRiddler]

46. and here's the kick after that...

[mhatrw]

47. So nobody here but the OP+1 wants out of our Middle East messes?

Really?

[JackRiddler]

48. Don't think so. But the defense of a leadership figure seems to be a higher priority for many.