President Barack Obama on Thursday made clear he was not going to take advice from Republican Sarah Palin when it comes to decisions about the U.S. nuclear arsenal.Which is exactly what he should have said. Sarah Palin keeps running around with her "I'm an everyday American hockey mom" persona. The downside of that sales pitch is that it stresses just how unqualified Sarah Palin is outside of being an everyday American hockey mom.
Palin, the former vice presidential candidate, has not been shy about criticizing Obama's policies and this week weighed in on his revamped nuclear strategy, saying it was like a child in a playground who says 'punch me in the face, I'm not going to retaliate.'
"I really have no response to that. The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues," Obama said in an interview with ABC News.
Pressed further on Republican criticism that his strategy restricts the use of nuclear weapons too much, Obama added: "What I would say to them is, is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin."
The notion that Sarah Palin has anything worthwhile to add to this particular debate, much less calling out the President, Defense Secretary Gates, and Adm. Mullen of the Joint Chiefs on this, is ludicrous. What I want to know is why ABC News is bothering to ask the President at all what he thinks of the opinion of a failed half-term governor whose experience as a chief executive resulted directly in her quitting. She gets to have her opinion like anybody else in America...but in what universe is that opinion important enough to care about?
Good for Obama dismissing Palin out of hand. It's a trend I'd like to see continued.
If her opinion didn't mean anything, why even respond to it?
ReplyDeleteAnd, for the record, it's not like Obama has any real credibility in terms of nuclear strategy does he?
Any more than you or I do.
Yeah, he's just President. He's pretty unqualified to make decisions. Perhaps if he quit in the middle of his term and went on a book tour, he'd earn Palin's level of credibility.
ReplyDeleteYou ignored the statement and went back to poking at Palin. Dead horse.
ReplyDeleteBottom line Obama really doesn't have the experience either, that's been shown by his lack of leadership thus far into his presidency.
What does he know about nuclear issues?
But he says "if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them" so he at least has someone with credentials giving this advice.
ReplyDeleteSo he listens to people when he agrees with their opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the commanders of our troops in Afghan asking for more? Took him quite a bit to come to a decision, why didn't he just follow the same guideline?
My issue is that he needs to be consistent.
Hey, In Your Blog Eating My Boogers, Tim Wise said it succinctly:
ReplyDelete"The fact that everyone is entitled to their opinion leads millions to believe that their opinions are actually just as valuable as anyone else's, no matter the yawning chasm between their own expertise on a topic and that of someone else."
Obama's professor at Columbia recalling Obama's paper for his class on American Foreign Policy:
"My recollection is that the paper was an analysis of the evolution of the arms reduction negotiations between the Soviet Union and the United States," Baron said in an e-mail. "At that time, a hot topic in foreign policy circles was finding a way in which each country could safely reduce the large arsenal of nuclear weapons pointed at the other ... For U.S. policy makers in both political parties, the aim was not disarmament, but achieving deep reductions in the Soviet nuclear arsenal and keeping a substantial and permanent American advantage. As I remember it, the paper was about those negotiations, their tactics and chances for success. Barack got an A."
I got an A on crap like that in college too. And I was soldier for while too. Does my opinon count for more now?
ReplyDeleteAnd I really love this line:
Yeah, he's just President. He's pretty unqualified to make decisions.
Change the name of the president from Obama to Bush.
I bet cash money I can find a post in your archive where you are slagging on Bush for being unqualified.
Oh I slagged on Bush. He deserved it. I will say that he is an order of magnitude more qualified than Palin however. Bush at least didn't quit being Governor of Texas because it was just too hard.
ReplyDeleteAllan let me first start of by saying you're a fucking idiot. How does it feel to be that stupid? It must be nice to walk around aimlessly through life.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have your attention you fucking twit; A paper wrote regarding the Soviet Union and the US in college does not have shit to do with Russia and the US now. Back during the heated days of the cold war we regarded them all as "dirty commie bastards." Not the case now, also do you really think a foreign super power will agree to sign into an agreement giving us a strategic advantage? It will either be a level playing field or in their favor. Russia isn't one to just sign onto things for diplomatic purposes. How many nukes have they "lost"? How many warhead stockpiles have they miraculously "found"? Siting a paper from college does not equate to shit on the world stage.
Also it was noted that Obama is inconsistent, he listens when people AGREE With him. If they don't then he drags his feet making a decision and is dragged kicking and screaming to the end result. It took us how long to give answers to requests for more troops in Afghanistan?
You want more troops in Afghanistan? Are you losing it?
ReplyDeleteGosh, republicans are so retarded.
I welcome your hatred.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to citations from Sarah Palin's college papers on nuclear arms policy.
The issue I was addressing with Booger Eater was the relative competence of Palin and Obama.
I won.
So, let me get this straight, wingnuts - Palin has no experience regarding nukular arms. Obama had no experience regarding nukular arms before he became President. Therefore, their opinions are of identical worth. Is that what you're getting at? I just wanted to make sure.
ReplyDeletePalin is the Southern Strategy made flesh (never mind her frosty origins), Our Lady of the Teabaggers. In her time on the national stage, she has yet to make a pronouncement on public policy that hasn't been devoid of sense or intelligence. She is, as John Cole so wonderfully put it, "a know-nothing empty suit who is wildly unpopular with the majority of Americans, extremely divisive to the folks you need to reach out to, completely unversed in anything regarding policy, and leading the party into a ditch".
On the other hand, Obama, in contrast to Palin, can actually chew gum and walk at the same time without doing himself a serious injury. He's also President, which kind of makes a difference.
If you really want to apply the standard of no experience that, NO PRESIDENT since WWII has been qualified to speak on nuclear weapons; not even Ike, given that he was in the European theatre of war.
So, finally, wingnuts, other than just another chance to whine like pissy little babies, what is your fucking point?