Comments on: What would Dick Cheney do?

By: expatjourno

expatjourno — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:20:36 +0000

Killing, torturing and shooting in the face have their place.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:59:46 +0000

… which are firmly ensconced in your mouth. Go away and stop pimping for the insurance companies who will screw you and anyone else over the moment their obscene profits shrink by 0.0001%.

By: DLoerke

DLoerke — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:45:29 +0000

Dick Cheney would simply veto anything with “health care” in the legislation unless it had strict tort reform control and interstate sale of insurance and Medical Savings Accounts. I like “what whould Dick Cheney do?” Dick Cheney has cojones…

By: Blub

Blub — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:24:03 +0000

I don’t think so. To my understanding nobody sought to systematically impugn or deny the authority (or
the right to exist, for that matter) of the office of the presidency during the McCarthy era. To find parallels, one really has to go back to Bryant’s time and the Know Nothings.

By: FlipYrWhig

FlipYrWhig — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:49:35 +0000

If you just want to spend your time debating hypotheticals and dreaming of how swell things could be while weaving yourself a safety net of emergency qualifiers in case things don’t go the way you planned, go get a job at the fucking Brookings Institution.

This is this thread. Obama shoulda done this, Obama shoulda done that, if only he’d used my sparkly unicorn pet phrase we woulda won, if only he’da been a hard-headed gimlet-eyed realist and cracked some heads… Whose? How? How do you stop Bill Nelson from being a dink? How do you solve a problem like Max Baucus? How, tangibly, immediately, does this happen?

TBogg calls out people who think sincerity brings about change. Fist-shaking bloggy rage is a kind of sincerity too. It’s a simulacrum of effectiveness. It’s about as powerful as yelling back at your TV. What is it you want done, specifically, and what are you doing to make it happen?

By: TheScarletPimpernel

TheScarletPimpernel — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:38:58 +0000

I am now convinced that Barack Obama is channeling Bill Clinton. Everything he does is so identical. Compromise all of the issues that Democrats hold dear. Toss each and every one of your staffers under the bus if the wingnuts begin a smear campaign against them. It all fits. We have the third Bill Clinton term!

By: kelleyb

kelleyb — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:07:32 +0000

Agreed, but…

Beyond the fact that first and foremost Obama is a politician, there are two (or more) factors at work.

1) Rahm Emanual controls every bit of information he has. Good grief, he tried to take the man’s blackberry away from him. Do you honestly think Barry O. can even visit The Wall Street Pravda website without Adult supervision?

2) The lessons of what happens to presidents who don’t follow Company orders are well known.

Exhibit A: Jimmy Carter

Exhibit B: John F. Kennedy

In order to act like his own man, he will have to confront his own Praetorians. Incessantly. 24h a day.

How long would you survive in that environment? Without becoming Dick Cheney?

By: JDM3

JDM3 — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:54:31 +0000

Well said. Tx.

By: desertwind

desertwind — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:40:50 +0000

I keep thinking they’ll bring out the balls that defeated Hillary and (much, much less difficult to do) McCain.

By: PeorgieTirebiter

PeorgieTirebiter — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:48:05 +0000

I couldn’t agree more about telegraphing a fear of walking away from the table. But I’m not sure it’s too late. I’d be okay with that as long as it won’t make it any worse or wouldn’t make it significantly better for those at the very bottom. My great fear is getting just enough to entice the politicos to kick the can down the road another five or so years. I don’t care if it’s for 8 million or 40 million, third world medical care for anyone in this country is unconscionable.