From an Obama aide: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”
P.S. As DRJ notes in the comments, this is not just any Obama aide, but rather one who “is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House.”
Tut, tut. It looks like rain.
UPDATE: Instapundit has more links.
Pronounced "Patter-EE-koh"
E-mail: Just use my moniker Patterico, followed by the @ symbol, followed by gmail.com
Disclaimer: Simpsons avatar may resemble a younger Patterico...
The statements made on this web site reflect the personal opinions of the author. They are not made in any official capacity, and do not represent the opinions of the author's employer.
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | ||||||
Powered by WordPress.
That aide is slated to become Obama’s National Security Advisor if Obama is elected President.
DRJ (1a5f9b) — 6/18/2008 @ 8:34 pmi’m so conflicted cause this guy does recognize the greatness of Star Wars and Luke Skywalker. if only we had more jedis in the state dept thing would be much better.
chas (12a229) — 6/18/2008 @ 8:38 pm…was slated to become Obama’s NSA.
If Obama has any sense, this aide is now slated to be in charge of the copy machine in the American embassy in Paraguay the rest of his life.
What a dolt.
Perfect Sense (cae014) — 6/18/2008 @ 8:40 pmI wonder if Disney is going to charge Obama for copyright infringement if they follow “The Pooh Policy”. Would it be by-the-word? Or per Heffalump?
Al (b624ac) — 6/18/2008 @ 8:43 pmDid you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
Winnie the Pooh
I don’t believe Obama and his advisers either stopped or started to think.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 6/18/2008 @ 8:49 pmThose who are clever, who have a Brain, never understand anything.
Winnie the Pooh
Another apt Pooh quote for the Obama team.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 6/18/2008 @ 8:52 pmSince when does Disney own the copyright on the Pooh books?
Missed It By THAT Much (a6fdbd) — 6/18/2008 @ 8:56 pm7 – disney has had the rights for years and years now! they were sued by the creator’s heirs back in the early 80’s for royalty issues and at that time it was a couple of decades they had allegedly been under paying.
chas (12a229) — 6/18/2008 @ 9:02 pmWhat an affront to A.A. Milne.
Dana (87e5fa) — 6/18/2008 @ 9:11 pmSomeone with a few childrens books can pick out the rest of his administration. I vote Charley Brown as SOD, he’s a tough little dude and is only scared of Lucy.
Scrapiron (d671ab) — 6/18/2008 @ 9:12 pmHow can anyone be worse than the morons who brought us Guantanamo? As far as I know, Pooh never CREATED terrorists.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080618/wl_mcclatchy/2969823
Then again, if you want/like/need endless war, like many neocons, Pooh probably isn’t someone you should look to for ideas.
Phil (0ef625) — 6/18/2008 @ 9:21 pmIn related news, Obama will announce tomorrow his choice for Secretary of State: Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
*Kidding.*
DRJ (1a5f9b) — 6/18/2008 @ 9:33 pm#8 – My point was that while Disney owns the licensing rights for use of the characters they have NEVER owned the copyrights on the original books, and since Richard Danzig was quoting from the first book . . .
Missed It By THAT Much (a6fdbd) — 6/18/2008 @ 9:47 pmObama could stand to read The Little Red Hen for some ideas on economics.
Kevin Murphy (df0a56) — 6/18/2008 @ 9:52 pmThis has got to be some kind of really bad joke that was then badly transcribed.
Are we going to have Pooh and Piglet marching around a pit, trying to trap the HeffaOsama? Pin the tale on a depressed Kim Jong-Il? An expedition to the Electric Pole?
htom (412a17) — 6/18/2008 @ 10:05 pmKevin – He might even consider incorporating The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss into that national conversation on race he wants to have, instead of giving a speech that he has to repudiate a month later.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 6/18/2008 @ 10:05 pmC’mon, now. I don’t look to P’s Ponts for cheap and uninformed ridicule, but that’s what this seems to be. (Note: For the record – I’m no DemTroll – Obama is the anti-Reagan.)
Have you read what the guy said? Yeah, he used Pooh, fer gawd’s sakes, (I mean, in an election year? c’mon, how could he not predict ridicule . . .) but the points he was making through Pooh – if something isn’t working, don’t just keep on keeping on, try something else – were valid, timely, and presented in a memorable way. (I’ve always loved that paragraph – ““Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”)
And, the Skywalker line? “He said one terrorist told him: “We have been raised on a theory of superheroes. We all want to be like Luke Skywalker.” Think we should know this about how the IEDers see themselves? I do. Think his point – that we need to know their self-image if we’re ever to hope for communication – might be valid? I do.
The Dems love out-of-context ridicule as a prime political tool. Let’s not do that.
bobby b (4f46a5) — 6/18/2008 @ 10:48 pmSorry, dude. If they’re gonna give me that quote, I’m gonna run with it.
Part of foreign policy is expressing yourself in a way that doesn’t sound really, really goofy. Bush hasn’t always passed that test, admittedly. But I’m not sure this fella would either.
Patterico (8a6a1f) — 6/18/2008 @ 11:05 pmThe fact that he’d link national security to a children’s book (particularly Pooh) is indicative of a tin ear, at a minimum. O’s greatest vulnerability to MC is a certain softness that he sometimes exudes. This won’t help.
Tech Lawyer (a22fa3) — 6/18/2008 @ 11:12 pmBobby B, you make some worthwhile points in #17, but the problem is really one of perception based upon what everyone concedes is Obama’s weakest attribute, namely his lack of experience. If McCain (or one of his advisors), with his years of experience in the Senate, were to make the Pooh analogy it wouldn’t strike as many people as being so callow and frivolous, but with Obama it just reinforces the image of someone who is not up to leading us during a time of war. There are plenty of silly analogies that the McCain camp can make — and perhaps they will soon get around to making a few of them — but this one was badly timed by Mr. Danzig.
Did anyone notice that yet another hint has allegedly been dropped that Obama won’t exactly keep his promises to Code Pink and the Kos Kids with regards to an
JVW (ce519b) — 6/18/2008 @ 11:22 pmimmediate withdrawl of troops from Iraq?
It has a goofy surface. I’ll give you that.
I’ll fault Danzig for the timing, for the lack of marketing instinct in election season.
But his points were completely correct, and if I could bury the substance in form, hell, I might as well be a Democrat.
bobby b (4f46a5) — 6/18/2008 @ 11:24 pmAbsolutely right. We should communicate with IEDers. For instance, we can send them all mirrors so that they can see themselves right before we blow their fucking heads off.
Missed It By THAT Much (a6fdbd) — 6/18/2008 @ 11:31 pmObama’s campaign isn’t going to be able to hide this cast of amateurs from the voters for 5 months.
Danzig was Clinton’s Sec. of the Navy, and runs in the same orbit as the Sandy Berger’s of the Dem. party. He’s a bigshot on their side.
To think that the guy did not foresee — and I don’t think that he did — that a reliance on Pooh by way of analogy is simply not the kind of thing a serious thinker does in a country at war simply reveals him to not be ready for prime time.
wls (0ee728) — 6/19/2008 @ 12:01 am“I’m just a little black rain cloud…”
Oh, wait, we can’t say black, McCain might accuse us of being racist.
“… hovering over the honey tree…”
Honey is accepted terminology. Sweetie, however, is not.
“Only a little black — um — little rain cloud. Pay no attention to little me…”
If only that were an option.
“Everyone knows that a rain cloud never eats honey, no, not a nip. I’m just floating around over the ground, wondering where I will drip.”
Drip being the operative word.
DubiousD (06f011) — 6/19/2008 @ 12:07 amHow can anyone be worse than the morons who brought us Guantanamo?
Teddy Roosevelt and Tomas Palma ?
Taltos (4dc0e8) — 6/19/2008 @ 1:23 amNo, but he never stopped any, either. I hold Pooh personally (ursinely?) responsible for allowing 9/11 to happen.
Xrlq (b71926) — 6/19/2008 @ 5:25 amGood grief, Charlie Brown!
It’s a fine speech–if you’re talking to third graders–but this was a national foreign policy conference!
Scary.
Patricia (f56a97) — 6/19/2008 @ 9:02 amThen again, Rabbit never had to deal with Heffilumps trying to set of a dirty bomb on the front step of Kanga and Roo’s place either…
Scott Jacobs (fa5e57) — 6/19/2008 @ 9:06 amIf you are running for POTUS and know that the most expressed reason for not taking you seriously is your lack of national security experience (and foreign affairs,) wouldn’t you determine do everything to dispel this and try to evidence that you do have the necessary discernment and creds?
That the next possible National Secty Advisor is referencing a lovable snuggly bear when discussing terrorism doesn’t make me feel confident at the prospect of him making massive decisions that would directly effect the free world.
(British officer A.A. Milne must be rolling over in his grave.)
Dana (b4a26c) — 6/19/2008 @ 9:32 amBoo fucking hoo. Doing anything other than making Islam the only legal religion in the US and nuking Tel Aviv is going to create more terrorists. We’re kicking their asses everywhere except Pakistan and there’s nothing we can do about that unless you want to invade Pakistan, and terrorist recruiting has dropped off spectacularly since Bush told people like you to fuck themselves and started finally kicking ass in Iraq.
chaos (9c54c6) — 6/19/2008 @ 10:21 amchaos –
Dang, man, don’t hold back.
No, seriously; I didn’t reply to the moron because I don’t think it will penetrate the many layers of tinfoil– that nuke you dropped just might, though.
Foxfier (15ac79) — 6/19/2008 @ 10:33 amHow can anyone be worse than the morons who brought us Guantanamo?
As far as I know, Pooh never CREATED terrorists
I seem to remember one very limp wristed, bunny-fearing , spineliess wimp…whose policies and trembling cowardice subjected us to 444 days of abject humiliation. Cowardice creates confrontation, it invites it.
What the Mommy Party wants everyone to believe especially the easily brainwashed Koz Kidz, is that playing nice-nice with mass murderers, rapists, and serial killers works and confronting them does not.
This is the way they talk to their constituency. It works for the Mommy Party because it fits the narrative as the anti-“macho”, anti-“cowboy”, anti-“warmongerer” strawman they want to be pretending to oppose.
When you are confronted with a danger in the form of someone who wants to kill you, rape you, maim you, physically do you greivous bodily harm…and they enter your home with the intent to do so…and you can’t run and hide…you are left with two options.
You can take the trembling hand of a coward and submit. Or you can stand up and say not in my house. But you can’t talk your way out of it, that a sham argument.
And, for anyone who suggests we “deserve” it, when terrorists come knocking on our door…you can explain your treason to the Israeli’s…who did absolutely nothing except be born Jewish and live on a strip of land before they were attacked…by the BAD GUYS.
If Pooh is into moral equivalency, then Pooh is a coward.
cfbleachers (4040c7) — 6/19/2008 @ 11:24 amThese guys make the Carter administration look brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/19/2008 @ 11:47 am#29
love2008 (1b037c) — 6/19/2008 @ 12:12 pmAnd how is this connectable to Obama. How does this statement prove his (Obama’s) incompetence on national security? After all who would have seen that coming? Besides as weak as the analogy seems, is it accurate? It’s a simple lesson of life: When what you are doing doesnt seem to be working, change strategy. It would seem that pooh has more brains than some people. Sometimes the most important lessons of life can be learnt from the most unexpected of places.
i molested winnie the pooh! he told me the experience was unbearable.
assistant devil's advocate (0cbed9) — 6/19/2008 @ 12:17 pm#34:
This connects to Obama by virtue of the cabinet members he is choosing to take over these roles and responsibilities.
Obama’s incompetence on national security is evidenced most in his inexperience of same, and further supported by the cabinet members he would encabinet.
Not all (myself included) believe that our present national security is not working; therefore there is no need to change strategy.
Pooh has no brains. Pooh is inanimate.
Learnt is not a word…unexpectedly.
EHeavenlyGads (f29174) — 6/19/2008 @ 12:20 pm#36
love2008 (1b037c) — 6/19/2008 @ 12:52 pmThat you very much for that correction. I meant “learned” not “learnt”. We never stop learning. Thank you again.
“How does this statement prove his (Obama’s) incompetence on national security?”
Nowhere did I say it proved incompetence. What is does do is reinforce doubt that he has the necessary discernment, experience and the ability to choose a viable select. Using Pooh in connection with national security issues is just ridiculous. I would feel much more confident if he cited anyone other than a stuffed bear.
“When what you are doing doesnt seem to be working, change strategy.”
The question is, do you want someone going into this position who relates to national security issues (think Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc) and what they might do to us, or how them may effect us, relating it to Pooh as if the United States were the Thousand Acre Wood and someone was trying to steal the honey again, or would you rather they relate it to the serious danger it is and refer to the great advisors who have actually worked to deflect wars and acts of terrorism and have strategic knowledge, insight, and brevity with these matters?
Why would our national security strategy even need to be changed since its evident what we are doing is working as America has been free from terrorist attack since 9/11? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
“Sometimes the most important lessons of life can be learnt from the most unexpected of places.”
Absolutely – and in this case it was from a Republican President!
Go figure.
Dana (b4a26c) — 6/19/2008 @ 1:00 pmxrlq @ 26
+1 for excellent use of the term ‘ursine’. Kudos to you ma’am/sir.
Tech Lawyer (a22fa3) — 6/19/2008 @ 1:38 pmlove2008, Obama’s incompetence on foreign policy was actually already conclusively demonstrated by his gaffe in discussing the status of Jerusalem recently.
This just shows the incompetence of his advisors.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/19/2008 @ 2:12 pm“do you want someone going into this position . . . relating it to Pooh as if the United States were the Thousand Acre Wood and someone was trying to steal the honey again . . . ”
If that’s what it took to get people thinking unconventionally, or to get them thinking about how a change in structural paradigms might be desirable, yes. I would. The key is this: “It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”
Sometimes, we get stuck in the pattern of “oh, that didn’t work – which of these other tools on my belt should I try?”, when we should be looking beyond our same-old-same-old toolbelt.
(And, yeah, I do understand that using unconventional analogy or discordant teaching tools does little for your conventionally-demanded image, and I also understand that there’s no worse time to screw with your image than during a campaign where your guy’s big problem is that he’s never established an image to begin with. My objection here stems from the same impulse that causes me to bitch that, no, the “appearance of impropriety” is NOT just as bad as the actual impropriety.)
bobby b (361921) — 6/19/2008 @ 2:47 pmAt least he didn’t plaster himself with makeup like a trollop. So he may not be a c…
dave heasman (746baa) — 6/20/2008 @ 1:39 ambobby b –
sometimes, things are conventionally because THEY WORK.
Unconventional is worse than a box of chocolates…because with chocolates, at least you know you’re GETTING chocolate!
Foxfier (15ac79) — 6/20/2008 @ 3:01 am