Month: September 2009

A reader writes:

It must drive them nuts to see a clear, if limited, victory for a strategy that is diametrically opposed to their own. Their ideology being discredited by events, and so they characteristically fall back into blind fits of intransigence, like screaming, foot-stomping children.

That Goldberg emailer fails to see what has happened. Obama has known about this facility from day one. At Cairo, he reached out the Muslim world, undermining the Iranian regime’s ability to engage in arm-waving, fear-mongering anti-Americanism.  He built himself a triumvirate with Brown and Sarkozy, who actually have an intelligence presence in Iran.  He used that presence to build an airtight case.  He cut a deal with the Russians.  He reached out to Iran, knowing that they would likely reject or ignore his overtures.  Then, when Ahmadinejad comes to New York, having to face Western journalists, Obama announces the the existence of the Qom facility, turning the spotlight on Iran when they are unable to hide behind state-controlled media.  Obama, cool and calm, pulled off a near-perfect diplomatic pincer.

Finally, after years, we’re starting to get somewhere with no threats and no bombs. Like I said, it must drive the neocons nuts. Obama did in eight months what George Bush couldn’t do in eight years.  How long do you think it will take for Krauthammer find a way to twist this victory into an accusation of naivete?

We know where the naivete exists: among the neocons who predicted an easy, quick victory in Iraq, a country they assured us had no real sectarian tension. I take full responsibility for believing them. But I learned something which they apparently haven’t: their claims of hard-headedness are delusional. They don’t actually know how the world works. Obama, it seems, may have a better grip.

Following the inglorious end to "Mouthpiece Theater," WaPo gives viral comedy another try.

A Birther infomercial! It will play across the South.

The parallels on the economy are getting eerier. Will Obama ride forward on an unexpectedly strong recovery? Even AEI is beginning to wonder.

Vitoria, Brazil, 5 pm

Will Wilson disagrees with Conor Friedersdorf's defense of betraying the president's trust:

Is Conor really telling us that loyalty to an abstraction (”the people”) is preferable to loyalty to a person (”the President”)? As a conservative, does he think that the former is even a well-defined concept? Possible given human nature? Desirable? Let’s ignore, for now, the fact that “the President” is in some ways just as damnable an abstraction as “the people”, Bennett doesn’t use that language — almost certainly on purpose.

"It is doubtful that any historian of stature would buy the comparison the prime minister made between Hamas and the Nazis. If we can compare a poorly equipped terrorist organization to the horrific Nazi killing machine, why should others not compare the Nazis' behavior to that of Israel Defense Forces soldiers? In both cases, the comparison is baseless and infuriating," – Gideon Levy, Haaretz.

Juan Cole piles on:

[Netanyahu's] appearance at the UN was decried by Israeli liberals as clownish. He seemed to take Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bait by trying to offer documentary proof of the Holocaust (the event is not in doubt and doesn't need to be proven) and then by referring to little Hamas in Gaza (pop. 1.5 mn.) as Nazis. Isn't there a rule that if you make an analogy to the Nazis in your argument, you automatically lose?

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

Elizabeth Pisani throws some cold water:

Yes, it is exciting that something has finally been shown to work, even a bit. And yes, it will encourage a new look at combination vaccines. So why do I say it is the worst possible type of good news? Because a vaccine that reduces the risk of infection by a third presents an agonising public health dilemma.

With most infectious diseases, reducing everyone’s risk by a third would make quite a difference across a whole population. But the problem with HIV is that it is both an infectious disease and a behavioural one. I can get it by sharing needles with other drug injectors, I can avoid it by using condoms every time I have sex. If I know I have been vaccinated, will that make me more likely to share needles, or less likely to use condoms? And if it does, will that change outweigh the 30 per cent reduction in risk that comes with the vaccine?

If you believe that the only strategy American can have is bombing, invading and torturing, today's events must be a little disorienting. Here's Goldfarb desperately trying to spin against the administration:

There seems to be real bipartisan support in both the House and Senate for Congressionally-mandated sanctions that are not held hostage to this president's naive focus on diplomatic engagement and the faith this president obviously has in his own powers of persuasion.

Heh. Then this piece of undigested prose from another Kristolite. Jonah Goldberg approvingly reprints the following email:

So let me get this straight, our crack intelligence community knew about this second Iranian nuke plant a year ago (so it couldn't have been that big of secret to begin with) which means our Wonderful and Gracious Dear Leader knew about this second facility and STILL felt the need to reach out to the Iranians as if they were rational actors who could be trusted along with canceling the missle defense site site in Europe?

The sheer simple-minded dumbness of these people never ceases to amaze. Obama has maneuvered these past few months to isolate Iran without seeming to bully or dominate. Because of that, he has a decent chance of getting real sanctions approved by Russia and maybe even China. But this delicate piece of diplomacy and public relations infuriates the unchastened neocon right. They like their foreign policy crude and simplistic and … well, Cheneyesque. Even after such an approach failed to provide any real results except the occupation of two countries and the nuclear empowerment of North Korea and Iran. Ideology remains entrenched, immune as ever to the facts on the ground.

Obama is more the conservative than they will ever be.