itsmeeeeeee

John Eskow: Obama KOs Bush and McCain: Finally, a Democrat Who Knows How to Fight! - Politics on The Huffington Post


Somewhere today George Bush and John McCain are wandering around like two punch-drunk fighters, trying to explain to their dwindling entourages how they got KOed in this week's big fight. "I t'ought I had 'im on the ropes wit' my big 'Appeasement' Punch!" "He shoulda been a sucka for the ol' 'Naive' One-Two!"

Barack Obama, that wily counterpuncher, just shook up their world with a stunning combination.

Bush, of course, is Old News, both literally and figuratively, and McCain will be joining him sooner than he thinks. But at least Bush will be able to brag, in his dotage, that he was once the Heavyweight Champ of the World, even if he didn't win it on merit, but was installed by a kangaroo Supreme Court decision that ranks with boxing's worst mob-fixed fights. McCain will be reduced, in his more-imminent dotage, to doing "I coulda been a contender" monologues in backwoods VFW halls. You can already see the bewildered terror in his eyes . So blissfully convinced, just a few days ago, that foreign policy was a winner for him, he can sense -- like the rest of us -- that the fight's not going according to plan.

Finally -- a Democrat who hits back! And who not only hits back, but kicks serious ass!

"Styles make fights," the promoters say, and the contrast here is stark. Bush and McCain are old -- not in age, but in approach. They're stiff. They're clunky. They're "musclebound" without being strong. Obama's technique is dazzling: he's deft, fast, and blessed with Sugar Ray Robinson skills of improvisation that make Bush and McCain look even clumsier. Imagine: a candidate who's at ease dropping words like "amorphous" and "disingenuous" into one fluid sentence -- and who trusts the intelligence of the American people enough to do so.

But tactical brilliance is only truly worthy in the service of moral integrity -- and Obama earned his title shot by having the guts to speak out against this criminal "war" back when it was considered practically treason. He earned it, too, in the debates, by standing up for the simple proposition that diplomacy is preferable to war. Even when Clinton tried to mock him for it.

So it was good to hear Hillary rally to his defense against the creepiest of the Bush/McCain smears. But what if Clinton herself had been the nominee -- how would she have been able to fight back against that kind of cheap -- but previously lethal -- Republican suckerpunch?

When one candidate is threatening a hundred years of war, and his opponent is promising to obliterate entire populations, then where exactly is the debate? It's only over the details. Who to kill, how many of them to kill, and under what precise conditions to kill them.

A McCain vs. Clinton match-up would've been maddening that way -- a battle over who could show more "testicular fortitude" by threatening more destruction. Maddening -- but dull. With two opponents who both voted for George Bush's war -- and for his self-defeating saber-rattling against Iran -- it wouldn't exactly have been a thrilling battle of opposites. They're both, in a way, holdovers from another era.

This week we saw the first punches landed in a brand-new kind of fight. Obama gave the speech that Hillary Clinton could never have given. The speech that even John Kerry -- similarly hamstrung by his early support for the war in Iraq -- couldn't give. It signals the arrival of an innovative, cagey, and principled warrior in the ring.

Get your bets down now. Should be a helluva fight.

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Environment Man

A nice little piece of partisan fantasy. Defense is nothing to brag about. Note how the piece describes how Obama 'fights back.' This is the same old Dem appeasement in the political. The GOP drives the debate and the Dems 'answer.'

When is Obama going to pick a fight. When will the Dems show some imagination instead of simply reacting to what the smarter Repubs do?

slowhand

Translation:..When is Obama going to lower himself to his rivals level

aloysious

So what the hell did Obama say to KO Bush and McCain? This John Eskow guy, whoever he is , says a lot of nothing. Why did you post this? Why did Huffington put this article on her blog?

The_Heretic

Obama correctly pointed out that simply talking to hostile governments isn't capitulation and that McCain himself two years ago pointed out that dealing with the Hamas politcal branch power or the Iranian government might have to be done. Obama additionally pointed out that Reagan wasn't giving in by having talks with the Soviets or Nixon with the communist Chinese government.

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"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

itsmeeeeeee

after what the gop did to john kerry, why are you asking this question?

eskow isn't the ONLY person saying this about how he handled mc cain and bush last week!

i don't know how anyone who listened to his responses, one of which was an actual press conference devoted solely to the "appeasement" attack on him, which WERE immediate and where extremely effective in making both mc cain and bush look like complete idiots, could be confused about either the article or why it's on huffington post?

a lot of american's feel this is true.
even hillary backed obama up!
he must be doing something right - even if you don't "get it"!

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The_Heretic

There's a meeting among Obama's and Hillary's fundraisers over a possible merger. My vote's at stake if this produces anything.

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"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

Rollerball

I wanted to know more details too. I have to admit I've been out of touch for a few days so as I read this I was waiting to read exactly what Obama did to bitch slap the Dynamic Duo. Obviously this story isn't about the details.


I simply LOVE this line:

THAT will be Mr. Bush's entry in the big book of history.
And maybe if we're very very lucky, we will remember this disaster of a war, wrecked economy and trampled civil rights all happened because the democratic process was derailed by a bunch of thugs and their judges.

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Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein

Mithrall

I hope it will be a pop-up book, I think that would be the most appropriate.

itsmeeeeeee

i'm not absolutely positive about the details of this, but i think it's about all the money that they've raised FOR THE GE! most of hillary's donors have long ago maxed out the amount the amount of money they could donate to her PRIMARY campaign - and much of what she's been raising in recent months can ONLY be used for the GE.

if she's NOT the nominee, that money has to either be returned or released to the person who IS the nominee. and i think in EVERY general election, all the candidates have SOME money (above the primary limit from their donors) that needs to be incorporated into the PARTY'S GE fund.

i'm pretty sure that THIS is the process they are negotiating.
obama said okay to pooling his GE money over a month ago, and hillary, at the time, was refusing to meet with the DNC about it.

i know that i read last week that her campaign finally entered into the discussion with dean and the DNC.

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