If the vice presidential prospects of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius — or of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine or Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, for that matter — don’t pan out, blame Vladimir Putin. The Nation blogger John Nichols writes that the Russia-Georgia conflict “should put an end to the Obama camp’s ‘electoral-map’ approach to the task” of picking a running mate and suggests that Obama is coming across like a diplomat without a plan: “The prospect that the next president might, on Jan. 20, 2009, be confronted with the immediate challenge of a resurgent Russia, and all of the geopolitical consequences of such a development, should put an end to the discussion of putting a Kaine or a Sebelius, or even a Bayh, on the ticket.” Instead, Nichols directs the Obama team back to Sens. Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.
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72 Comments
Sure, he and mccain responded basically the same, except mccain’s been wanting to kick them out of the G-8.
Biden would be a top choice for VP except for the fact that Democrats need as many people in the Senate in order to override the record number of filibusters the Republican party has inflicted upon the people. However being from Delaware the Democratic seat may be safe.
I have said all along that Obama needs someone with military and/or foreign policy experience. Nothing has changed.
By the way – just how did Condi Rice’s (or Cheney’s) massive experience prevent this mess?
What about Richardson?
#
mrcontroversy
Posted August 13, 2008 at 1:12 pm | Permalink
What about Richardson?
————–
I like Richardson.
Wish he would have won the nomination.
“mrcontroversy” –
I’m strong for Bill Richardson as vice-president. Excellent executive and foreign policy credentials, Hispanic, popular governor of a swing state…
Notice how nobody wants to talk about McSame’s veep? The odds are very good the septuagenarian will croak in office if he were elected. No one outside of Utah wants Mittens to be president. Crist is “engaged” to a woman, but the wedding is conveniently scheduled for after the election; so he may not need the beard. Recreational exorcist Bobby Jindal makes McC*unt look even older than he is (who’d've thought that possible?).
No way could Obama go toe to toe with Putin.
Putin would chew him up and spit him out before Obama knew what happened.
I can think of another time when a Russian leader underestimated a young American president…
MrC – Richardson was my #1 choice. And like you, I also remember a Russian leader underestimating a young president. On top of that, I remember our current president underestimating a Russian leader. “I looked into his eyes … ”
ANTI – and just how is Bush going toe-to-toe with Putin? Telling him he can have Georgia but hands off Alabama?
More like bush has been toe to heel with putin, just glad he did’t step on putin’s toe!
ANTI – and just how is Bush going toe-to-toe with Putin? Telling him he can have Georgia but hands off Alabama?
——
Why do you assume I am sticking up for Bush? Bush has not been firm or demanding of Putin, and frankly I don’t think he can.
Putin vs. Obama, still an Obama loss.
Then an American loss.
Again MonkeyHock with the vulgar names. I guess MonkeyHock can’t help being vulgar.
And Ben, Bush’s gig is up in a few months. I wasn’t sure if you realised that.
Telling him he can have Georgia but hands off Alabama?
——
I’ll bet that gets a lot of laughs back at your trailer park.
“Regular” reverts to name-calling –
“Again MonkeyHock with the vulgar names. I guess MonkeyHock can’t help being vulgar.”
Irony. It’s so… ironic.
OMGorsh!
Obama is going to pick Putin as his running mate!
McCain is picking Kim J. Il for VP. Should be a hell of a race!
That way McCain looks tall.
“I’ll bet that gets a lot of laughs back at your trailer park.”
I wouldn’t know – haven’t visited your trailer park yet.
Putin would run circles around McCain. The problem is that this is the sort of challenge where we REALLY need our allies on board. Singing “bomb bomb bomb Russia” won’t cut it.
#
Monkeyhawk
Posted August 13, 2008 at 2:05 pm | Permalink
“Regular” reverts to name-calling –
“Again MonkeyHock with the vulgar names. I guess MonkeyHock can’t help being vulgar.”
Irony. It’s so… ironic.
————–
Actually, if I heard you use that word repeatedly in public, I would accidentally slip with a ball peen hammer requiring massive dental repair.
Putin would run circles around McCain
—-
True, but can you imagine Obama’s response if Putin made fun of his ears?…..Fiddle farting around in the senate for a short time doesn’t bring much to the table in this case.
ANTI – that is what Nikita thought.
“Regular” gets up on his hind legs –
“…if I heard you use that word repeatedly in public, I would accidentally slip with a ball peen hammer requiring massive dental repair.”
You routinely walk around with a hammer in tow?
At least that way, you have one ball.
Putin is not Nikita.
Obama is not JFK.
Mccain sings “Georgia on My Mind”. “Gerogia, georgia, no peace do I find…”
Submitted for your consideration:
Georgia War a Neocon Election Ploy? 13-Aug-08 01:51 pm Georgia War a Neocon Election Ploy?
by Robert Scheer
Is it possible that this time the October surprise was tried in August, and that the garbage issue of brave little Georgia struggling for its survival from the grasp of the Russian bear was stoked to influence the U.S. presidential election?
Before you dismiss that possibility, consider the role of one Randy Scheunemann, for four years a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government who ended his official lobbying connection only in March, months after he became Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser.
Previously, Scheunemann was best known as one of the neoconservatives who engineered the war in Iraq when he was a director of the Project for a New American Century. It was Scheunemann who, after working on the McCain 2000 presidential campaign, headed the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which championed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
There are telltale signs that he played a similar role in the recent Georgia flare-up. How else to explain the folly of his close friend and former employer, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in ordering an invasion of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, an invasion that clearly was expected to produce a Russian counterreaction? It is inconceivable that Saakashvili would have triggered this dangerous escalation without some assurance from influential Americans he trusted, like Scheunemann, that the United States would have his back. Scheunemann long guided McCain in these matters, even before he was officially running foreign policy for McCain’s presidential campaign.
In 2005, while registered as a paid lobbyist for Georgia, Scheunemann worked with McCain to draft a congressional resolution pushing for Georgia’s membership in NATO. A year later, while still on the Georgian payroll, Scheunemann accompanied McCain on a trip to that country, where they met with Saakashvili and supported his bellicose views toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Scheunemann is at the center of the neoconservative cabal that has come to dominate the Republican candidate’s foreign policy stance in a replay of the run-up to the war against Iraq. These folks are always looking for a foreign enemy on which to base a new Cold War, and with the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime it was Putin’s Russia that came increasingly to fit the bill.
Yes, it sounds diabolical, but that may be the most accurate way to assess the designs of the McCain campaign in matters of war and peace. There is every indication that the candidate’s demonization of Russian leader Putin is an even grander plan than the previous use of Saddam to fuel American militarism with the fearsome enemy that it desperately needs.
McCain gets to look tough with a new Cold War to fight while Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, scrambling to make sense of a more measured foreign policy posture, will seem weak in comparison. Meanwhile, the dire consequences of the Bush legacy that McCain has inherited, from the disaster of Iraq to the economic meltdown, conveniently will be ignored. But the military-industrial complex, which has helped bankroll the neoconservatives, will be provided with an excuse for ramping up a military budget that is already bigger than that of the rest of the world combined.
Another one of those eerie coincidinces like most of mccain’s campaign manager being EADS lobbyist?
“Georgia War a Neocon Election Ploy?”
Would you look at all the Libs sites this story is on? Don’t you people ever think for yourselves?
What Lib sites, Fleettwood?
Yes, Phantom.
I’m still trying to figure out why it was fine for Georgia to break away from Russia, but it’s not okay for Ossetia to break away from Georgia.
Hmmm . . .
CapnAmerica
Posted August 13, 2008 at 2:58 pm | Permalink
Yes, Phantom.
I’m still trying to figure out why it was fine for Georgia to break away from Russia, but it’s not okay for Ossetia to break away from Georgia.
——-
Why can’t California break away from the USA?
Tin foil alert.
But if it were true, that McCain is one powerful dude. He can get a country to commit suicide by attacking Russia.
outlander
Posted August 13, 2008 at 3:02 pm | Permalink
Tin foil alert.
But if it were true, that McCain is one powerful dude. He can get a country to commit suicide by attacking Russia.
——
I’ll bet it was paid for in “Deer Dollars”! ;)
Deer=Beer
Dispute the facts of the article, besides, I haven’t checked the dates of the article as opposed to my posting dates, but like I said:
Phantom
Posted August 10, 2008 at 9:26 pm | Permalink
I think I smell a set up. Bush meets with Russia’s leaders in the morning, later that day they invad Georgia. Watch Mccain come out with some tough talk, Russia pulls back. Russia’s happy having taught Georgia a lesson, mcbush comes out as the great foreign affairs presidential candidate.
Phantom
Posted August 10, 2008 at 10:10 pm | Permalink
Hmmm, for maximum impact, give the soviets a couple months while we ponder what to do, then bush consults with the wise military sage mccain, together they formulate a plan, which amazingly resolves the issue. Bush looks like a hero, and so does mcsame. Also, it could be an ‘October Surprise’.
Man I hope you Kooks don’t get control of this country….Some of the crap you guys come up with is mind numbing….jeeez!!
Also, conside mccains’ put-a-lump in your throat pronouncement “Today, we are all Georgians…”
Sorry, but I’m not feeling it.
Cue the Twilight Zone music!
I thought I was second in line (behind Pleefer) with conspiracy theories Phantom.
Yes, something seems amiss. With Bush having great one on one access to ‘Pootie’, wouldn’t that be the best course of action? Bush and ‘Pootie’ meeting? Instead we have McCain, a lowly senator, dictating foreign policy? Swearing (moral) support to Georgia? Saying that Condi should ‘drop by’? Just who the hell is this guy? Can someone remind him that he is a Senator and has zero power to do ANYTHING and to shut his damn mouth?
While Barak and John pretty much had the same thing to say, Barak didn’t come off sounding like something he is not; the president.
#
ANTI
Posted August 13, 2008 at 3:04 pm | Permalink
Deer=Beer
—————-
Deer Dollars sounds more interesting and reminded me of some deer sausage I have left in the freezer.
The majestic flight of the arrow brings me many delicious deer meat products once or twice a year to fill my food cooling device. :D
Animals, they are tasty!
I did ’submitted for your consideration’. But after 7 yrs. of bush,rove,cheney nothing is off-limits, or if you prefer(outer-limits).
Thing is neocons, I REALLY didn’t think that George Bush would intentionally lie to the American people over starting a war, either. And I had read the PNAC doctrines, I knew they were signed by very powerful people in the Bush Admin. I just really didn’t believe another American would stoop so low to be so evil- even if they were republicons.
I no longer believe that- which is why I consider these people the enemy of the REAL USA.
And I absolutely don’t put it past the cons to rig elections either. Those of you who support this- I’m deadly serious when I say this- you are supporting a platform as dangerous as Hitler.
McSame is a continuance of this.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080813/ap_on_re_us/democratic_party_shooting
And I’m really starting to wonder if these aren’t part of a bigger conspiracy either. I’ll wear that tin foil thanks…but this is serious.
“I’m deadly serious when I say this- you are supporting a platform as dangerous as Hitler.”
No wonder you make $9 per hour.
“And I’m really starting to wonder if these aren’t part of a bigger conspiracy either.”
Nevermind. You are lucky to get the $9.
You are lucky to get the $9.
——
Not bad for a truck stop waitress.
I fell it is necessary to re-post this: Man I hope you Kooks don’t get control of this country….Some of the crap you guys come up with is mind numbing….jeeez!! How can you be that stupid??
Yeah we’re not the ones starting wars based on lies. You’re what is wrong with the USA.
I am not stupid enough to fall for every kook conspiracy theory that shows up on a website. You and yours have proven otherwise….Weak minds like yours are carelessly dangerous.
Yeah you’re just mad that your fueher got caught.
“Yeah you’re just mad that your fueher got caught.”
Caught? If Bush has done what you say he has, your party is criminal for not charging him.
Otherwise, STFU.
He either did it or you people are complicite cowards.
Which is it?
Many, many Democrats, including Clinton and Clinton and Gore and Kerry, said that Saddam had WMD’s and that “regime change” was our only option.
Get over it! Bush did not lie about anything.
Play it for all it’s woth johnny!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080813/pl_nm/usa_politics_mccain_dc_1
The quotes are all over the place:
“In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weap ons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members .. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.”
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002
Wonder if mccain’s on the other end of the line, in the picture above?
if left unchecked
But, by re-inserting the inspectors we assured that he WAS checked.
“The War Is Over”
“Yesterday, author Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal entitled, “The War In Iraq Is Over; What Next?” Here are some excerpts of is his excellent analysis of the situation in Iraq today and the next decision that confronts America”:
“The war I witnessed for more than five years in Iraq is over. In July, there were five American fatalities in Iraq, the lowest since the war began in March 2003. …For the first time in 15 trips across the country, I didn’t hear one shot or a single blast from a roadside bomb. In Anbar Province, scene of the fiercest fighting during the war, the tribal sheiks insisted … that the U.S. Marines had to stay because they were the most trusted force. …
“Gen. David Petraeus is squeezing the life out of al Qaeda in Iraq. The mafia-style militia of Sadr has been splintered. …Al Qaeda fought to make Iraq its base in the Arab Middle East. Instead, it is being hunted down. …Yet the progress in Iraq is most threatened by a political promise in the U.S. to remove all American combat brigades, against the advice of our military commanders.
“With victory in sight, why would we quit? …The problem is not American force levels in Iraq. It is divisiveness at home. While our military has adapted, our society has disconnected from its martial values. I was standing beside an Iraqi colonel one day in war-torn Fallujah when a tough Marine patrol walked by. ‘You Americans,’ he said, ‘are the strongest tribe.’…
“Over the course of more than five hard years, our troops have brought stability and freedom to 25 million Iraqis, while crushing al Qaeda in Iraq. Regardless of disagreement about initiating the war back in 2003, Americans should unite to applaud the success of our troops in 2008.
“A stable Iraq keeps faith with the million American soldiers who fought there, sets back Iran’s aggression, and makes our enemies in Afghanistan and elsewhere fear us. It’s time we stopped debating about yesterday and displayed national pride in our soldiers.”
What’s next past time to go home, mission accomplished, then watch the fireworks from afar!
Ben
You are ridiculous.
The “inspectors” were not allowed free reign, were not allowed into the many palaces or onto all military bases.
The inspectors were castrated, unable to do their jobs.
Anyone who believes otherwise is simply a partisan hack.
The inspectors had no weapons.
The inspectors had no power.
If we had NOT gotten rid of Saddam?
No one, in the entire world, would ever fear the United States.
Saddam violated a cease fire with the United States.
There MUST be consequences for such things.
By the way, we do have some bases now, in Iraq, from which we can help in Georgia.
Taking out Saddam gave us MORE power in that area of the world, not less!
You are funny Paul. Just where are those pesky WMDs after all? The useless inspectors correctly noted there weren’t any. They were absolutely correct. “Anyone who believes otherwise is simply a partisan hack.”
“By the way, we do have some bases now, in Iraq, from which we can help in Georgia.”
WHICH WE DID NOT DO.
“Taking out Saddam gave us MORE power in that area of the world, not less!”
WRONG! Only a partisan hack could believe that.
Obviously small weak countries like Iraq will fear the US. Just like small weak countries like Georgia will fear Bush’s soulmate Putin. But it is pretty obvious that Russia didn’t fear us when they rolled into Georgia.
Of course, according to Soulmate Putin “Saakashvili violated a cease fire with Russia.
There MUST be consequences for such things”
I see that you agree with Bush’s soulmate.
“If Russia had NOT invaded Georgia?
No one, in the entire world, would ever fear Russia.”
The bottom line with this whole Russia-Georgia mess will be nothing. Russia will partially withdraw but hold on to the breakaway regions. Bush will ‘cluck cluck’ about it and do nothing. Putin/Medvedev/Russia will increase its level of control/influence over the rest of the former Soviet states. And the US will do nothing.
Oh my, “Franklin” –
Someone’s laced your Kool-Aid with mescaline or something.
“The “inspectors” were not allowed free reign, were not allowed into the many palaces or onto all military bases.”
Saddam was hiding WMDs under his bed?
Well, no…
Since there never were any WMDs.
“The inspectors were castrated, unable to do their jobs.”
Except, of course, they obviously did do their job because there were no WMDs to be found.
“Anyone who believes otherwise is simply a partisan hack.
The inspectors had no weapons.
The inspectors had no power.”
The inspectors didn’t need ‘em. They didn’t need to kill 4,500 brave Americans. Because the “castrated” inspectors succeeded in finding all the WMDs Dick Cheney GUARANTEED he knew were there: None.
“If we had NOT gotten rid of Saddam?
No one, in the entire world, would ever fear the United States.”
And who fears the United States today? Putin has looked into Shrub’s soul and seen an idiot. Osama bin Laden is quaking in his boots at the prospect of George WMD Bush’s impending attack.
“… we do have some bases now, in Iraq, from which we can help in Georgia.”
Oh boy! “Franklin” wants war against Russia!
John Sidney McCain the Third (for Shrub’s 3rd term) has a million-dollar pro-Georgia lobbyist advising his foreign policy.
“Taking out Saddam gave us MORE power in that area of the world, not less!
Oh, yeah.
Shrub sure lokked powerful grabbin’ ass with the beach volleyball girls.
MH – didn’t you see just how Putin turned tail and ran when Bush said his actions were “unacceptable”?
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
“bth” –
Reminded me of Joe DeRita:
“Oooh! I’m gonna give you such a pinch!”
But we can forgive Shrub for this one. He was drunk at the time.
I saw on the cable news during a ‘discussion’ the Georgia lobbyist was brought up, the mccain campaign advisor did not dispute the claim.
Like Clinton launching a few cruise missles at Afghan and sending troops into Somolia, perhaps this is all a distraction that Mr. Bush has worked out with his declared friend: Vladimir Putin”
It’s all part of a republican plot to undermine the democratic youth in America.
Well there we have it “nations don’t invade other nations:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/13/171547/963/27/567469
We don’t need to worry, Fearless Leader has everything under control. Bush has dispatched Condi to Atlanta to solve the Georgian crisis immediately.
“… we do have some bases now, in Iraq, from which we can help in Georgia.”
Boy, Paul, that sure is great news! Maybe that explains why Russia turned tail and totally withdrew from Georgia. I’m sure Georgia was happy to see our airborne raids that drove the Russians out!
NOT!