My Little Aloha Sweetie for Vice-President
[guest post by JVW]
Don’t pretend like you didn’t see this one coming.
With putative Democrat Presidential nominee Joe Biden zeroing in on his Vice-Presidential pick — and believe me, the leaked names under consideration are indeed a bunch of zeros — it’s time to make the argument for a bold, refreshing, unconventional pick that would establish Slow Joe as something other than a dinosaur who has spent a half-century mucking around Washington, DC and who is in complete thrall to the power players and elite opinion makers which sadly dominate his party. Various names have been bandied about over the past few months: Stacey Abrams, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Tammy Duckworth, and now Karen Bass. They each have something to offer the elderly white male Establishment figure around whom party pooh-bahs rallied during that harrowing point last winter when a nutty old socialist nearly stormed the gates and threw out everyone who wore a tailored suit.
But none of them offer the advantages that Mr. Biden stands to reap if he takes the bold step of naming the fourth-term Congresswoman from the islands of Hawai’i to his ticket. She matches and/or surpasses any of the strengths of the other potential candidates, and at worst her liabilities are no more troublesome than those of the rest of the field. Don’t believe me? Let’s consider:
Stacey Abrams
Pros: Almost managed to get herself elected governor of Georgia.
Cons: Garden variety leftist of the Sanders stripe. It’s hard to see her winning over voters in the Rust Belt.
Karen Bass
Pros: Apparently she and Biden get along well together, though Biden might have mistaken her for his nurse.
Cons: As late as 2016 still thought Fidel Castro had done a bang-up job in Cuba. Her only major accomplishment as Speaker of the California Assembly, a budget deal with Governor Schwarzenegger, was overwhelmingly rejected by the state’s voters, hardly an endorsement of her ability to sell her fellow Democrats on compromise.
Keisha Lance Bottoms
Pros: Executive experience in government, I suppose.
Cons: Atlanta has hardly been a model for how to deal with civic unrest, and her dithering ended up in the senseless death of a young girl.
Tammy Duckworth
Pros: Inspiring life story about her service to our country and how she overcame devastating war wounds. Her politics generally align with those of one of her seat’s previous occupants, Barack Obama.
Cons: I consider Sen. Duckworth, whose mother was Thai-Chinese, to be a person of color, but will African-Americans? The recent prominence of BPIOC (Black & Indigenous People of Color) in woke leftist usage seems particularly designed to omit Asians from the intersectionality grievance matrix.
Kamala Harris
Pros: I pass.
Cons: Mr. Biden would look weak by choosing a woman who relentlessly demagogued him at the first Democrat debate. Her accomplishments in offices she has held have been scant, but the controversies she has stirred up have been formidable and will at last get full airing should she be chosen.
Susan Rice
Pros: I don’t know; maybe having worked with her in the past there will be a flicker of recognition in Mr. Biden’s mind when she walks into a meeting room.
Cons: It makes more sense to pick an elected official who is notable for brazenly lying to us than an appointed official who is notable for brazenly lying to us. And I don’t think the Biden team wants to give strong hints that they will merely be reassembling the Obama squad.
Elizabeth Warren
Pros: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Cons: Where do I begin? Let’s just leave it at the fact that a party which fetishizes youth and diversity would have 150 years’ worth of white folks on their ticket.
Here’s a helpful tool I created so that you can all see how My Little Aloha Sweetie stacks up against all of these mediocrities:
By naming Tulsi Gabbard to the Vice-Presidential slot, Joe Biden could improve his candidacy in several ways. First, he keeps his promise to appoint a woman, and he gets a woman of color to boot (though, like Sen. Duckworth, Rep. Gabbard would have her BPIOC credentials challenged). Second, he gets an ally of Bernard Sanders to join him, and one who is far more personable and charming than the cranky old Marxist bastard. Third, he flanks the Trump/Pence ticket by appointing a generation other than the Baby Boomers who have ruled the roost for the past twenty-eight years. (Fun note: Joe Biden would be the first representative of the Silent Generation to be elected President; Dick Cheney is the only one to serve as VP.) Fourth, in our heavily divisive times he would be choosing someone who doesn’t seem to have much interest in scoring cheap partisan points, and who generally treats her ideological opponents as serious people with whom she should discuss ideas rather than as irascible racists who need to be silenced. Her weaknesses — impractical economics, a tolerance of murderous dictators, lack of high-level leadership — aren’t any different than the weaknesses of any of the other candidates, or for that matter her potential boss. And we have seen the Warrior Princess on the debate stage and we know that she has a toughness and a resiliency that are quite admirable.
Joe Biden could do a whole hell of a lot worse. And he probably will.
– JVW
Interestingly enough, the Biden team who initially targeted August 1 for an announcement date and then asked everyone to extend the deadline into this week are now saying that they want to wait until next week. One wonders if there is trouble afoot, and what these delays might tell us about how a Biden Administration would be run.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 5:00 pmAlso, I guess there are some other names under consideration that I overlooked. The governor of New Mexico and a Congresswoman from Florida for example. Even the hapless white lady governor of Michigan is allegedly under consideration, though I can’t imagine what in the world would lead Slow Joe’s team in that direction.
Feel free to make your predictions on whom he will pick. If he isn’t bold enough to go with My Little Aloha Sweetie then I think he should choose Sen. Duckworth. But I wonder if the Biden team doesn’t feel like they have hemmed themselves in with unspoken promises of a black woman.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 5:10 pmTulsi Gabbard is the potential vice president who would make me cringe the least if Joe Biden won, and was forced out as his Alzheimer’s Disease got worse.
The Dana in Kentucky (56f36f) — 8/4/2020 @ 5:14 pmYou left out second-generation or later American citizen which neither Duckworth (born in Bangkok to a Thai mother) nor Harris (both parents immigrants) are. You could also have specified served *competently* in the military.
nk (1d9030) — 8/4/2020 @ 5:15 pmAnd I agree with The Dana in Kentucky: “Least cringe-inducing.”
nk (1d9030) — 8/4/2020 @ 5:16 pmBrilliant post, JVW. I love the charts. I admire any woman who can hang ten with the best of them. The DNC should bear in mind, too, that out of the group, Gabbard is prolly the only one who could easily put Joe in his place when he decides to sniff her hair. So there’s that.
Dana (292df6) — 8/4/2020 @ 5:41 pm“Zeroing In – Biden 2020”
Surprise: a disaster.
“Air raid. Pearl Harbor. This is no drill.” – Logan Ramsey [Dick Cook] ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ 1970
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 6:17 pmThere’s also the matter that there are a rounding error of zero democrats who support her. She’s every Republican’s favorite Democrats, for some reason, and the only people I ever see talking about her positively are Republicans or Trumpists.
aphrael (4c4719) — 8/4/2020 @ 6:18 pmThe comparisons to Palin would be hilarious (and probably favor Tulsi). I love the chart.
Dustin (4237e0) — 8/4/2020 @ 6:20 pmThe Biden campaign keeps delaying the decision because as soon as it’s made, the media will have to focus on the Biden ticket — and that’s the last thing Biden and the media want.
beer ‘n pretzels (585f8c) — 8/4/2020 @ 6:36 pmOMG, JVW! I busted a gut more than once reading your post! Even your chart is hilarious!
There is an added “con” for Harris. As Willie Brown’s previous paramour, she learned at the feet of the master how to be a complete political climber. I have no doubt that her maneuvering for the 2024 nomination would take priority over being Biden’s loyal VP. Actually, she may not even wait for 2024, and orchestrate a 25th Amendment coup instead.
norcal (a5428a) — 8/4/2020 @ 6:42 pmThere’s also the matter that there are a rounding error of zero democrats who support her.
If Democrats are still worried about solidifying their party’s vote and not thinking of ways to cross over and win Independents and Republicans, then Biden isn’t leading by anywhere near the margin that the news media claims he is. Choosing My Little Aloha Sweetie would be a great way for a noted party hack like Joe Biden to suggest that it’s not going to be same old, same old in the White House.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 6:52 pmAnd Putin smiled.
Rip Murdock (e1c896) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:07 pm14. Not really, because nobody is actually considering her.
RT was giving Tulsi Gabbard favorable coverage last year.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/russia-s-propaganda-machine-discovers-2020-democratic-candidate-tulsi-gabbard-n964261
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:28 pmI don’t see Val Demings name, but I think she’s Biden’s best choice. She’s a woman, she’s black, she spent 27 years in law enforcement, she has executive experience, she has experience in elective office (but not much), she came from humble beginnings, she’s not a left-wing ideologue, and she’s from Florida, a state she can help Biden win.
Paul Montagu (f7c552) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:32 pmShe doesn’t have Rice’s baggage, she’s not a phony like Harris, she’s not an unpleasant personality like Duckworth or Abrams, and she’s not a communist sympathizer like Bass.
You left out Val Demings.
When the House voted on impeachment, Gabbard wasn’t convinced that Trump needed go. Game over.
Contrary to your false charge, 8 Republican congressional investigations found no evidence that Rice lied to anybody about Benghazi:
House Report Finds No Attempt to Mislead Public Over Benghazi (paywall)
GOP-led House panel releases Benghazi probe findings
If you look at what she actually said the day after the attacks – which was straight from a CIA-provided fact-sheet – she was clear that the information was preliminary, uncertain and subject to change.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:32 pmNo word on whether Ms. Deming surfs.
Paul Montagu (f7c552) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:34 pmI’m sorry, but I have to just laugh when one of the intellectually flabby major U.S. television news networks serves up a story about how a candidate who is vexing the Establishment just has to be a dupe brought to us by Russia. When the NBC News article to which Sammy linked was published, the major news outlets were still trying to push Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren on us. Turns out that My Little Aloha Sweetie was one of the first people to see just how fatuous those two women were, and she had their number from the very start. Does NBC News think that mouth-breathing right-wing blowhards like me are reading RT or Sputnik News or Russia Insider? I would sooner read NBC News than that piffle.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:36 pmShe attacked Harris for being too tough on criminals…
Go Tulsi!
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:46 pmSo goes the merrygoround
https://mobile.twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/1290813417138
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:48 pmAnd all these movie goers with mortars, just happened to be al queda veterans tough crowd.
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:53 pmI noticed that Lilo’s older sister, in the “Lilo & Stitch” cartoons, is depicted with legs like Tulsi’s, so I guess that’s a Polynesian physiognomy thing, and I take back my prior remarks about that. If that’s what gets Polynesian men to help propagate the species ….
nk (1d9030) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:56 pmthough Biden might have mistaken her for his nurse.
LOL! Almost choked on my drink on that one!
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:56 pmThe wahini from waikiki is a fave like scarlet or even amber, she doesnt induce vomiting, the hive doesnt tolerate her though.
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:57 pmContrary to your false charge, 8 Republican congressional investigations found no evidence that Rice lied to anybody about Benghazi:
Dave, kindly point out where in the above post I used the word “Benghazi” in relation to Susan Rice. Here’s a pretty solid summary of plenty of items about which Ms. Rice has dissembled over the years, from the culpability of her client Paul Kagame’s crimes in Rwanda, to Bill Clinton’s misadventures with blowing up aspirin factories, to her changing story as to whether or not Barack Obama had promised to meet with Iran’s leaders without any preconditions, to her repeating complete bullshit about Bowe Bergdhal’s service in Afghanistan upon his controversial prisoner exchange.
Do you want to consider these points and come back with an argument that Ms. Rice is indeed a paragon of rectitude and virtue? Or is this where you lapse into one of your “but Trump” arguments?
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 7:57 pmShe attacked Harris for being too tough on criminals…
Low-level drug offenders, the sort that Democrats have been squawking about for a generation, while at the same time Ms. Harris was telling black radio how much fun she had in her college days smoking weed. And you know who won that argument, don’t you?
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:00 pmNot you, but do you consider yourself typical of the Trump base?
The Don, Jr. faction quotes from RT and Sputnik often.
lurker (d8c5bc) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:02 pmThis should happen, if only so JVW can sell “Biden-Sweetie 2020 bumper stickers and write posts about VP Sweetie.
DRJ (aede82) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:10 pmThis was one of rebel trainers, you see why its an awkward point
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5856891/amp/Osama-Bin-Ladens-driver-linked-2012-Benghazi-attacks-killed-envoy-captured-Libya.html
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:10 pmJVW going in heavy on the “Joe is senile” line. Classy and a show of confidence.
Kyle (a00aa2) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:16 pmThis should happen, if only so JVW can sell “Biden-Sweetie 2020 bumper stickers and write posts about VP Sweetie.
After Obama was elected in 2008 I saw some people sporting bumper stickers reading “Don’t blame me: I voted for the cute chick and the old dude.” Maybe I could start a line of stickers saying “Vote for Tulsi and Her Kupuna Kāne.”
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:18 pmHey, I still have a (GOP produced, obviously) “Gore 1998” t-shirt.
lurker (d8c5bc) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:22 pmClassy and a show of confidence.
Imagine the nerve of a citizen poking fun at a politician.
You know, I would bash Mr. Biden for all of the wrong-headed positions he has taken over the years, but it looks like he has already strongly repudiated those himself now that he is wokedy-woke and desperate to win.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:23 pmHey, I still have a (GOP produced, obviously) “Gore 1998″ t-shirt.
After Bill Clinton was elected I remember seeing the “Nixon in 1996: Tan, Rested, and Ready” t-shirts. Then Tricky Dick had to go and die on us in 1994.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:25 pmJVW going in heavy on the “Joe is senile” line. Classy and a show of confidence.
I mean nowhere in the Constitution is mental competence a requirement to be elected president, so how dare JVW make it an issue?
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:30 pmConstitutional defects aside, that would have been an entertaining race.
lurker (d8c5bc) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:31 pmReal talk. Biden would be nuts to pick her. So maybe she has a chance.
Dustin (4237e0) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:32 pmSigh. May the fleas of 1,000 camels nest in the jockey shorts of the RNC.
nk (1d9030) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:41 pmJVW: you don’t fool me. This is but Step #1 of your carefully planned strategy to take your rightful place at TG’s side.
Simon Jester (c393b1) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:41 pmNo suggestion in the article that she lied about anything in regard to this.
I wouldn’t want to mischaracterize your position again, so let me double check this time. Are you saying Clinton and Rice knew, in 1998, that the target they had bombed was an aspirin factory, even though the article itself notes that this was only discovered in 2005?
I’ll respond to the rest of your comment separately.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 8:48 pm@39 🙂 Carefully planned and doggedly (pun intended) executed over a long period of time.
norcal (a5428a) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:01 pm22, if Jerry Krause had been a pro football scout or recruiter for a West Coast school, he would check out the legs of the mothers of the Samoan prospects. His philosophy was the moms physique in low middle age or to be frank, in the mid 30s would tell you the longevity and physical prowess of the son.
urbanleftbehind (617399) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:04 pm… and the Silent Majority smiled.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:06 pmDemings or bust if they insist on Biden at the top of ticket. Mr. Demings, the County Prez or Orange Co FL and also a former cop, would be a cool second-then-first dude. And if they replace Biden before the election with a white female, bald Susan Rice aka Jeh Johnson is available for veep.
urbanleftbehind (617399) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:10 pmAre you saying Clinton and Rice knew, in 1998, that the target they had bombed was an aspirin factory, even though the article itself notes that this was only discovered in 2005?
Who knows if the Clinton team knew in advance that it wasn’t really a weapons facility? The bombing came a week after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. And it wasn’t “discovered” that the factory produced aspirin in 2005; the link from the NRO article was from a 2005 report written in the aftermath of some World Trade Center attack hearings and the author used the language “by 2005.” But it was known that the building was being used as an aspirin factory as early as 1999. You don’t remember the “Wag the Dog” comparisons at the time? And even if the administration sincerely thought at the time that it was a chemical weapons facility, Ms. Rice was part of the team that continued to deny that they had targeted the wrong building well after intelligence sources had almost certainly confirmed that they were incorrect in their initial assessment.
Regarding Rwanda and Kagame, here’s what Foreign Policy magazine has to say in last week’s issue:
If she wasn’t lying about Kagame then she’s willfully blind to his complicity in the ethnic cleansing that went on in the country.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:16 pmAlways keep your options open: a fella who instantly reduced his options by 50% through eliminating males and signaling a preference for a minority subset from the remaining female pool betrays a poor capacity for strategic thinking. “Here’s the deal” — if this was October, 1962, Geritol Joe would have you glowing in the dark.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:18 pmThis is hardly “changing her story”. Obama made a categorical statement in a debate that his campaign later walked back by saying that while there would be no “preconditions” there would need to be “preparations” to lay the groundwork for any summit.
This is hardly an innovation of Rice’s; campaign manager David Axelrod was already rowing back Obama’s claim on the very night of the debate in 2007:
Suspiciously, the links to many of the charges against Rice in that article are broken, despite the links being internal to the NRO site and the article being less than a month old. So I couldn’t read what she allegedly said. Your charge is that she “changed her story” in May 2008, and the YouTube debate where Obama made his “no preconditions” pledge was in July 2007.
I found this article in the Atlantic that I think covers the ground missing due to the broken NRO link. At the time of Rice’s interview that you want to accuse of lying about the campaign’s position, she was in fact repeating the published position of the campaign, which is was:
And that’s what Obama himself said in April of 2008:
If Obama changed his position between July 2007 and May 2008, it was not Rice’s job to talk about the old position.
The NRO article is just being dishonest here, making up lies for Trump’s credulous minions to repeat.
She expressed an opinion. She made no false statement of fact.
Here, again, the NRO article is being very selective. Rice also said:
So she was too vocal in support of a soldier and too willing to give them the benefit of the doubt after they spent years in captivity. Typical commie.
I’m not in a position to vouch for her every word and deed.
Can you point to a single instance where I have seriously suggested that Trump’s wrong-doing justisfies someone else’s?
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:19 pmRice has never held elected office. She’s a place holder; a stalking horse. She won’t be the chosen one.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:20 pmIt’s going to be a law and order and race election. A Nixon/Wallace redux. Plagiarist JoeyBee is less Hubert Humphrey and more George McGovern– and you remember the mess he created w/his VP choice. See Tom Eagleton for details.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:24 pmNot sure why, but the second half of my response to JVW is in moderation.
[Fished it out. You quoted the swear-word that I used. – JVW]
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:26 pmKagame is a truly horrible figure, which time has made respectable like noah cross, his was the catalytic act for the rwandan massacre.
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:31 pmRespectable indeed!
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:59 pmSo let’s see, Dave, if I can sum your positions up:
– Ms. Rice never lied when she said that Mr. Obama didn’t promise to meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions, because his campaign immediately walked back that reckless promise and by some Washington Establishment logic that obviously obviates it? Or does this hinge on a very tiresome and pedantic discussion of how “preconditions” are different from, and far less important than, “preparations”? And don’t forget that then-Sen. Obama was responding to a direct question as to whether he would meet with hostile nations without preconditions, so it’s not as if he was tricked into saying something he didn’t mean. But do prattle on about NRO “making up lies for Trump’s credulous minions to repeat.” Those nasty Trump-apologists over there!
– Ms. Rice wasn’t lying when she told us that Bowe Bergdahl “had served the United States with honor and distinction” even after being directly asked about the allegations that he had deserted his post, even though presumably with her security clearance she knew that he indeed had deserted (it’s not as if this hadn’t been rumored ever since he was “captured”)? Your defense that she was just “express[ing] an opinion” is pretty weak tea, considering that you quote her extensively trying to walk back her earlier comments after they were rightly criticized.
Can you point to a single instance where I have seriously suggested that Trump’s wrong-doing justisfies someone else’s?
Again, read what I actually wrote and not what you want me to have written. I didn’t claim that you use Trump to justify what others do, but that you have a penchant for immediately bringing Trump into the discussion of someone else’s wrongdoing, like you did yesterday or last Friday, to cite just two examples in the past five days.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:06 pmHow about Condoleeza Rice? No, not joking. Biden can expect that every last leftist will vote for him, expecting that he’ll roll over on Speaker AOC’s agenda. But even if they are a hard sell, not one of those votes is going to Trump. Every centrist or Republican who is trying to find a[nother] reason to not vote for Trump would be poleaxed by such a choice. Black, experienced, capable of being President, able to reach across the aisle (obviously) — call it a national unity ticket in several regards.
It’s not like Biden has lots of better options.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:07 pmHow about Condoleeza Rice? No, not joking.
My guess is that Secretary Rice thinks Joe Biden is an idiot and would want nothing to do with his campaign or administration. Not that she likely thinks very highly of Trump either.
But what are the odds that Mr. Biden will mean to announce the appointment of Susan Rice, but accidentally call her “Condoleeza” at the press conference?
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:15 pmCondi abhorss Trump from all accounts. Being the instrument of his destruction might tempt her. And she’s never had any strong domestic position, other than favoring civil rights and not liking the Klan a whole lot. We really need the Center to take control about now, because the two extremes are meshuggeneh.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:22 pmAnyway, it makes more sense that Tulsi.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:22 pmMay Ronna McDaniel’s husband bring home ten new wives and they throw her out on her ear.
nk (1d9030) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:34 pmInstead of Hillary or the CIA Director going on those Sunday shows, Rice volunteered to parrot Obama’s lies about Benghazi. There was enough information at the time to suggest it was a terrorist attack involving al Qaeda riendly militant Islamists but CIA/State stripped out that language. One of the primary people responsible for the misleading talking points was Deputy Director Morrell, and he “quit” the job to spend more time with his family once his role was made known. Morrell was a well known Hillary supporter.
Paul Montagu (71691d) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:36 pmWhat Rice demonstrated was that she was a political doggie, doing her master’s bidding without question or forethought. Biden can do a lot better.
How about Condoleeza Rice? No, not joking.
Neither Susan Rice nor Condoleeza Rice have held elected office.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:38 pmBut what are the odds that Mr. Biden will mean to announce the appointment of Susan Rice, but accidentally call her “Condoleeza” at the press conference?
More likely, he’d call her Aunt Jemima.
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:39 pmTulsi would be– dare I say it given the mindset of the electorate– entertaining!
No Melania boarding AF1, but still, EZ on the eyes.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:40 pmCondi would be an excellent VP, but Biden still needs Democrats to vote for him.
Paul Montagu (71691d) — 8/4/2020 @ 10:49 pmDo you have the exact text of what she said? Because I doubt she said the words you attribute to her. Without seeing exactly what she was asked, and exactly what she said in response, how can you insist she lied?
If Obama said A in July 2007, and B in April 2008, and in May 2008 Rice says “Obama never said A,” then you have a case.
But if Obama said A in July 2007, and B in April 2008, and in May 2008 Rice says “Obama said B,” then how is that a lie?
The Atlantic article quotes her as telling CNN (not the NYT, but it was within a few days of the article NRO has a broken link to):
“He said”.
Not “He said last July.”
To the extent they differ, why wouldn’t she discuss his most recent statements, rather than a slightly different one from almost a year before?
It was the campaign’s position that he would meet without preconditions even then, in May 2008. The hair you’re trying to split is that he elaborated his position to say that some talks and groundwork would have to precede any summit. There would be “preparations” but not “preconditions.”
The distinction is seems real enough. No preconditions means we don’t say “You must make X, Y and Z concessions before we will talk to you.”
Preparations means you work out some vaguely realistic mutual understanding of what the summit might achieve before flying off to hold it, unlike Trump did with Kim.
Expressing an opinion you disagree with is not lying.
Here are her original comments. It’s clear she’s politely deflecting a question she doesn’t want to answer, first because it was politically awkward, and perhaps also because it was a pending legal matter.
I realize it’s disorienting, after four years of Trump, to hear a member of the executive branch express empathy for a suffering human being, and for their innocent relatives who’ve also been through hell. Remember how Trump used his promise to have Bergdahl thrown out of a helicopter to rev up the crowd at his rallies? YMMV, but I’ll take Rice’s too-sunny bromides over Trump’s grotesque demagoguery and blood-sport.
Here’s what you said:
Immediately after accusing Susan Rice of being dishonorable, you mused whether I would defend her, or as an alternative, “use one of my ‘but Trump’ arguments.” What you meant was perfectly clear, and it looks like you can’t back it up. In any case, both your examples are weak, since they were on point with the topics of the threads in question.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 11:49 pmPaul, eight Republican-led congressional investigations say you’re mistaken.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/4/2020 @ 11:55 pmAs charming as the thought may be to us, the Democrats are not going to give their VP nomination to a Republican who played a central role in the Iraq War.
Not gonna happen.
Wouldn’t be prudent.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/5/2020 @ 12:00 amBiden still needs Democrats to vote for him.
Well, they don’t want Trump… It’s a binary choice!
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/5/2020 @ 1:23 am67.
Tell that to Susan Sarandon.
lurker (d8c5bc) — 8/5/2020 @ 1:31 amKidding aside about Gabbard it looks like Duckworth is the best pick on your matrix.
Time123 (66d88c) — 8/5/2020 @ 4:17 amAt the store today, saw the NY Post. Front page had a picture of Biden, under the caption SILVER ALERT.
You can see a picture of it here:
LOL.
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/5/2020 @ 6:33 amBTW, is there a way to post pictures in the comments? I am guessing no.
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/5/2020 @ 6:36 amTucker C seems sh!et scared of Susan Rice, but is this a feint meant to sucker the Biden camp into choosing her? He claims it’s because shes the ultimate Washington DC creature, but might it also be her red-pill son might be a great source of oppo research and candid hidden mike sound bites?
urbanleftbehind (775495) — 8/5/2020 @ 6:48 amAll the apples in the barrel are rotten.
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/5/2020 @ 6:50 am16.
It was exactly the opposite!
The CIA was preventing arms, especially SAM missiles, from being sent to Syrian rebels, by buying them up first.
That’s why the Benghazi attack took place, (to chase the CIA out of Benghazi, and it succeeded) and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then head of Saudi intelligence, was probably involved in planning the Benghazi attack and supplied false intelligence to the CIA to get it to reverse its initial judgment that it was a terrorist attack organized by a larger group than the people who carried it out.
Note: Prince Bandar was the man whom Hillary Clinton knew was responsible for the death of Vincent Foster on Tuesday, July 20, 1993. This occurred, when, forgetting about diplomatic immunity, he tried to blackmail him into giving him money, (and Bandar handed out lots of money in cash to Americans) which Vincent Foster wanted for a lawyer, because he expected William Sessions, the fired FBI Director who had refused to quit voluntarily, to start the ball rolling on an investigation of the cause of the Waco fire. Sessions had called a press conference for later that week. He might discuss how he had been kept from the scene in Waco, and how his water cannon plan was rejected in favor of tear gas, and, with his firing, reporters could be released from any pledges of confidentiality.
Prince Bandar then (on July 20, 1993) had rushed over to White House to explain the death to President Clinton and asked for assistance in covering it up, which Bill Clinton agreed to. He told him to place the body in Ft. Marcy Park, which would give him federal jurisdiction over the onvestigation, and he would take it from there. While Bandar did not face prosecution in the United States, he could be in trouble in Saudi Arabia and his career even more so.
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, went to Benghazi to warn the Turkish representative (an intelligence official not the ambassador to Libya) not to send the weapons to Syrian rebels. He was too late; the ship had sailed, but the message nevertheless had an effect and the arms were embargoed in Turkey for several years.
Susan Rice, on the Sunday after the Benghazi attack, September 16, 2012 echoed what the CIA was sating, although, as a State Department official, she should have known the CIA was wrong and the attack was planned and not spontaneous.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 7:21 amNo there’s no way to do that.
Dustin (4237e0) — 8/5/2020 @ 7:27 amCan’t we all just chip in and buy Trump a Harley he can ride to Sturgis? He can’t fit in his old leather boy outfit anymore, but he could wear a denim cutoff with a “DA PREZ” patch. And Melania on the b!tch-pad could wear one that said “PROPERTY OF DA PREZ”.
nk (1d9030) — 8/5/2020 @ 7:37 amSusan Rice would probably be the worst pick out of that bunch.
It’d essentially solidify the idea that this would be a 3rd Obama term and open up multiple avenues of Ad attacks for Trump/GOP.
Tulsi would be one of his better options and I think JVW is right that her pick would draw much of the Sanders voters under the Biden umbrella, in the same way that a Warren (lol) selection would do also.
whembly (c30c83) — 8/5/2020 @ 7:39 amAbsolutely true! But the intelligence analysts weren’t honest and people in the State Department knew they were wrong because they had been in constant contact with the mission (not a consulate as Hillary Clinton was quick to correct) in Benghazi, and they knew there had been no demonstraton, but on;y a surprise attack. And by the way, the attackers had inside information on security, and knew Stevens wouuld fkee to a firetrap safe house, which they set on fire.
Adam Schiff said on Face the Nation on Sunday, October 25, 2015, that Hillary Clinton (and that presumbably also would go for Susan Rice) would have been justly criticized if she had contradicted the CIA (that is, told the truth about the fact that there was no demonstration in Benghazi.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcripts-october-25-trump-christie-nunes-schiff
That was, of course, not the BEST INFORMATION but the MOST HIGHLY RATED information – which is not the same thing.
Who do you believe?
The intelligence agencies or what you know from your own people? Because the State Department was in contact with Ambassador stevens all day and knew for a fact there was no demonstration in Benghazi, but only a surprise attack.
The State Department corrected the “talking points” as to it not being a consulate, but not as to the existence of any demonstration in Benghazi preceding the attack – which meant it was not a spontaneous, unplanned attack.
We can’t show Hillary Clinton’s involvement in any decisions because she communicated orally – she left no trail.
What Adam Schiff was talking about was msotly SOOPER SEKRIT intelligence. It was disinformation, comning to somw degree from the terrorists (who collected a crowd and lectured them about a video that nobody in Benghazi had any real opportunity to know about) and probably Saudi and Qatari intelligence.
Congressman Adam Schiff was then the Ranking Minority Member of the House Intelligence Committee, and also a member of the Select Committee on Benghazi.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 7:48 am77. whembly (c30c83) — 8/5/2020 @ 7:39 am
No that probably would be Kamala Harris. As for Karen Bass, she’s now a former supporter of Fidel Castro and the Church of Scientology. And maybe Susan Rice is not committed to anything bad.
..which they would botch. But maybe so many lines of attack, that there’d be one that wouldn’t be completely botched.
If Trump knew what he was doing, he’d be campaigning on saving people’s lives rather than sacrificing them on the holy altar of science and double blind studies.
Trump endorsed hydroxychlroquine, but not bleach, as in Bolivia, or eucalyptus leaves, as in Indonesia, or herbal tea from Mozambique, as in Tanzania. And he’s moved on to antibodies and to vaccines. Which the whole worldwide medical establishment is trying to stop.
There’s an 80% chance that Biden would stick by the scientists and the methodology.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:00 amJoe Biden explains why he hasn’t taken a cognitive test by asking a Black journo if he’s a junkie
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2020/08/05/joe-biden-explains-why-he-hasnt-taken-a-cognitive-test-by-asking-a-black-journo-if-hes-a-junkie/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
_
Vote Joe!! – Portland For Everyone!!!
harkin (5af287) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:02 am_
there is no pea in the shell,
https://babalublog.com/2020/08/04/how-bidens-vp-short-lister-helped-strengthen-and-enrich-the-terror-sponsoring-castro-regime-i-refer-to-susan-rices-executive-actions-as-national-security-advisor-not-to-karen-bass-moronic/
narciso (7404b5) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:04 amThe New York Times is worried that so many people would take convalescent fluid that they’d never be able to a proper double blind study and we wouldn;t “know” if it worked. And to some degree, they are blaming Trump:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/health/trump-plasma.html
Yet at the same time, the New York Times seems willing to endorse other unproven treatments, because if not what’s the use of learning more about Covid-19:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/health/coronavirus-immune-system.html
Tailor treatements to individuals? Without a double blind study? How can you possibly do this??
And all the preventative measures, social distancing and face masks . Have they been subjected to a double blind study? Some of the recommendations of the WHO and others are clearly wrong.
Maybe Trump can;t win a debate on this issue, because hes not in complete command of the facts, but there might be some hope for Mike Pence. Just defend the pushing of cures or attack Democrats for opposing it.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:09 amDave, I stand by Susan Rice’s dogginess, that she was seeking to raise her political profile, and parroting the talking points was her big opportunity to shine.
Paul Montagu (bd1e46) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:15 amI know what the House Benghazi report said, but it still remains that the initial CIA talking points stated that “we do know that Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qa’ida participated in the attack” and noted that there were previous attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi, along with references to militant Islamists. Those bits were all excised from the final draft, which made it misleading, IMO.
What difference at this point does it make? The corrupt criminal traitor Trump has committed 40,000 Benghazis in the last five months. On American soil!
nk (1d9030) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:23 amAnd 52 9/11’s.
Paul Montagu (bd1e46) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:27 am“It’d essentially solidify the idea that this would be a 3rd Obama term and open up multiple avenues of Ad attacks for Trump/GOP.”
– whembly
The vast majority of independent voters would absolutely prefer a 3rd Obama term to the catastrophe of a 2nd Trump term.
Leviticus (efada1) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:37 am83. Paul Montagu (bd1e46) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:15 am
Because they unlearned it. That was the thing that Mitt Romney couldn’t grasp. Because he hadn’t been paying attention.
As Adam Schiff said:
Hillary Clinton and all her people at the State Department knew that was disinformation; i.e. there was no protest.
Can’t be sure about Susan Rice. But she wasn’t interested in the truth – she was interested in sticking to whatever story was official.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:43 amnk (1d9030) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:23 am
When Donald Trump puts his mind to it, he can get things done that others will not.
Right now he;’ found a cure which some people are trying to stop people from using:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/health/trump-plasma.html
And that’s bad thing we are supposed to think.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:48 am‘She is absolutely our No. 1 draft pick’: GOP pines for Rice as Biden VP
……
Trump’s aides and allies accuse Rice — without delving too deeply into the evidence — of helping cover up crimes for two of the president’s favorite foils, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, making her just the kind of “deep state” villain who could fire up his MAGA base.
“She is absolutely our No. 1 draft pick,” a Trump campaign official said.
……..
On Monday night, Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host influential in Trump’s orbit, opened his show with a lengthy diatribe about Rice and her role in the 2012 Benghazi raid — strikingly similar to the attack Republicans lodged against Clinton in the 2016 race against Trump.
“I can’t think of anyone that is more polarizing who would fire up the base than Susan Rice,” said former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who investigated the Obama administration as chairman of the House oversight committee. “They know her, and they don’t like her.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:49 am……
The selection of Rice, who has not served in elected office but is close to Biden, would undoubtedly lead to 30-second attacks ads and stinging presidential tweets. That could energize Trump supporters who have long believed Obama and federal bureaucrats attempted to undermine Trump. Last week, the Republican National Committee included Rice on a fake list of speakers for the Democrat national convention: “Susan Rice to discuss lying and unmasking: how to cover up a terrorist attack and spy on your domestic political opponents.”
……..
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/5/2020 @ 6:36 am
Post it online and post a link. It won
t show up without clicking but you can show people. I used to put some on tinypic, but tinypic was shut down.
Any idea where I could or should put pictures anonymously?
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:51 amthey showed up with automatic weapons and mortars, not your usual protests, and only snippets of the real tape from the diplomatic security office was ever shown, why was that,
susan rice, only did damage to our allies in north africa, the collateral damage was on doherty, smith stevens ubben, et al, the cost was born from cairo to niger and mali,
narciso (7404b5) — 8/5/2020 @ 8:58 am64.
Donald Trump met with North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un without preconditions, so that’s not an argument he could use. For that matter, there’s no strong case against it. Except maybe not to waste time.
Alss, all Israeli leaders have set they are ready to meet with Arab leaders without preconditions. The consensus seems to be that that is good.
Sometimes Israeli leaders insist on no preconditions.
And there have been many secret meetings over the years.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 9:06 amnarciso @91. One key point though is, the lies or misinformation originated with the CIA, not with the political leaders, as Republicans preferred to, inaccurately, say.
The fault with the Obama Administration was not disregarding the CIA and throwing its analysis into the garbage.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 9:08 amcompany analysis was garbage, telling al queda had been diminished, general flynn knew how they had expanded to libya, syria, tunisia, et al,
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/08/trumps-back-in-form-with-latest-coronavirus-task-force-briefing/
narciso (7404b5) — 8/5/2020 @ 9:14 am46. DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/4/2020 @ 9:18 pm
It’s more like he reduced it by 80% given the number of prominent women.
Which would reduce it further by about 95%,
Well, it’s possible he actually had Susan Rice in mind all the time, because he knew and liked her, and wanted to limit criticism of that choice. But I don’t know if he is capable of that kind of strategic thinking.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 9:21 am63.Condi needs to run for an elected office, and perhaps win one, first. Even Trump did that, albeit CIC– and won.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/5/2020 @ 9:47 amTrump wanted to run for Governor of New York in 2014, but he wanted to be handed the nomination without a primary. He was told that that couldn’t be done, and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino was running. Trump offered him a deal: Run for Lieutenant Governor instead, and if they were elected, Trump would resign as Governor by the middle of 2015 to run for president, but Astorino wouldn’t take it. He said that would be unfair to the voters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/nyregion/donald-trump-new-york-governor.html
https://observer.com/2016/07/donald-trump-happy-he-didnt-run-for-new-york-governor-former-rival-says/ (Jared Kushner’s newspaper)
Why and if Trump thought he could be elected Governor in New York, just so long as he didn’t have to face a Republican primary, is unclear.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/5/2020 @ 10:44 amAllapundit says that, according to Biden allies, it’s down to two, Rice and Harris. He thinks Biden will go with Harris.
https://hotair.com/archives/allahpundit/2020/08/05/report-biden-allies-believe-vp-choice-kamala-harris-susan-rice/
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 8/5/2020 @ 12:28 pmWow, A former federal prosecutor that’s run previously on law and order? The squad and the bernie bro’s will be pissed.
Time123 (66d88c) — 8/5/2020 @ 12:35 pmHarris has never been a federal prosecutor, but I agree she’s the safer choice of the two.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/5/2020 @ 12:55 pmI didn’t mention it in the post, but you might have heard that Congresswoman Karen Bass was under a bit of heat because she had been a featured speaker at the opening of a Los Angeles Scientology headquarters building and she had lavished praise upon that pseudo-religion. Recall that Rep. Bass’s explanation for her attendance was that the building was located in her district, leaving us to believe that she felt obligated to attend. Whoops, turns out the building was not in her district after all.
Karen Bass has now explained both her praise for Fidel Castro in 2016 and her praise of Scientology in 2010 by acknowledging that she didn’t know very much about either, and suggesting that it was not uncommon for people to be unaware of these problems, well-reported though they may have been at the time. Yeah, sorry Congresswoman, but there were a whole lot of us who were quite well aware that Castro was a tyrant and the Scientologists engaged in some dopey as well as some almost certainly criminal practices that far back. Not all of were as blissfully unaware about the world around us as you appear to have been.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/5/2020 @ 12:56 pmKaren Bass has now explained both her praise for Fidel Castro in 2016 and her praise of Scientology in 2010 by acknowledging that she didn’t know very much about either, and suggesting that it was not uncommon for people to be unaware of these problems, well-reported though they may have been at the time.
So let’s see. She praises people and institutions that she does not know about and did not bother to learn about. And that is supposed to bolster her credibility?
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/5/2020 @ 5:18 pmNot her credibility, but her political acceptability, at the expense of her competence. But she’d rather be thought a fool than a knave.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 9:30 amBut she’d rather be thought a fool than a knave
Probably right, but painting oneself as a fool is not a great basis for endorsement.
Reminds me of when Mario Cuomo ran for NY governor for the fourth time. Ed Koch endorsed him, saying, yeah, I know he has been around for a long time. But for me it is like an old jalopy. May have trouble starting, but it’s very comfortable so I don’t want to get rid of it.
Cuomo was defeated that year by George Pataki.
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/6/2020 @ 10:18 amSF: Well, it’s possible he actually had Susan Rice in mind all the time, because he knew and liked her, and wanted to limit criticism of that choice. But I don’t know if he is capable of that kind of strategic thinking.
When Biden first announced he wold pick awoman some thought that was a way of saing Amy Klobuchar.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 10:26 amAs a chronological member of the “silent generation” I’m just letting you know that I prefer LCOD (Late Child of the Depression) because it has a cachet that silent generation lacks.
Thud Muffle (1446ac) — 8/7/2020 @ 11:20 am