28/12: Obama Reaction to Bhutto Assassination: It was Hillary's Fault
Category: America and the World
Posted by: A Waco Farmer
The jolting martyrdom of pro-American, pro-democracy Pakistani leader, Benazir Bhutto, at the hands of Islamist killers, proved an inconvenient bump in the road yesterday for Democratic frontrunner, Barack Obama. The jarring news broke just as Obama stood ready to deliver a much-trumpeted speech in Des Moines, in which the candidate, with his usual panache, explained why he was the one true agent of change.
The address was appropriately personal: "I walked away from a job on Wall Street to bring job training to the jobless and after school programs to kids on the streets of Chicago."
The speech was brilliantly eloquent at times: "I chose to run because I believed that the size of these challenges had outgrown the capacity of our broken and divided politics to solve them; because I believed that Americans...were hungry for a new kind of...politics that favored common sense over ideology, straight talk over spin."
"Most of all, I believed in the power of the American people to be the real agents of change...because we are not as divided as our politics suggests; because we are a decent, generous people willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations; and I was certain...there was no problem we couldn't solve--no destiny we couldn't fulfill."
For the most part, the fresh-faced candidate concentrated on "tried and true" Democratic Party "bread and butter" domestic issues, enumerating a long list of anecdotes to illustrate popular woes that he would repair as president: hard-working Americans displaced by foreign workers, teachers working extra jobs to pay for school supplies, victims of Wal-Mart, sick people who could not afford health care, seniors betrayed by greedy CEOs and the federal government, and much more.
Of course, he also scattered a few anti-Bush foreign policy crumbs:
"I've spoken to veterans who...question the wisdom of our mission in Iraq; the mothers weeping in my arms over the memories of their sons; the disabled or homeless vets who wonder why their service has been forgotten."
"I've spoken to Americans in every corner of the state, patriots all, who wonder why we have allowed our standing in the world to decline so badly, so quickly. They know this has not made us safer."
"They are ashamed of Abu Graib and Guantanamo and warrantless wiretaps and ambiguity on torture."
The solution?
"We can't afford the same politics of fear...that invokes 9/11 as a way to scare up votes instead of a challenge that should unite all Americans to defeat our real enemies."
Why him and not his opponent?
"[Y]ou can't at once argue that you're the master of a broken system in Washington and offer yourself as the person to change it. You can't fall in line behind the conventional thinking on issues as profound as war and offer yourself as the leader who is best prepared to chart a new and better course for America."
Aware of the breaking news on the Asian subcontinent, Obama decided to deliver the above-referenced speech as written with a brief prefatory tribute to Benazir Bhutto.
An aside: the speech appears on Obama's website without the tacked-on preamble.
Frankly, the brief prologue (view here via YouTube) lacked the usual fire we have come to expect from the candidate; he demonstrated no special knowledge or understanding of the situation in Pakistan, as he haltingly pledged support for democracy in Pakistan in general, while taking something of a fallback position and predicting that more information would surface as the day and week progressed.
Perhaps he favors an investigation?
Later senior Obama adviser, David Axelrod, spoke with more certainty when he blamed Hillary for the death of Bhutto.
Axelrod: "She [Hillary] was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq, which we would submit is one of the reasons why we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and al Qaeda, who may have been players in this event today."
Huh? How long are we going to blame America for the completely irrational violence of inhumanly compassionless terrorists?
Tell me again: are you really sure these guys are ready for prime time?
The address was appropriately personal: "I walked away from a job on Wall Street to bring job training to the jobless and after school programs to kids on the streets of Chicago."
The speech was brilliantly eloquent at times: "I chose to run because I believed that the size of these challenges had outgrown the capacity of our broken and divided politics to solve them; because I believed that Americans...were hungry for a new kind of...politics that favored common sense over ideology, straight talk over spin."
"Most of all, I believed in the power of the American people to be the real agents of change...because we are not as divided as our politics suggests; because we are a decent, generous people willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations; and I was certain...there was no problem we couldn't solve--no destiny we couldn't fulfill."
For the most part, the fresh-faced candidate concentrated on "tried and true" Democratic Party "bread and butter" domestic issues, enumerating a long list of anecdotes to illustrate popular woes that he would repair as president: hard-working Americans displaced by foreign workers, teachers working extra jobs to pay for school supplies, victims of Wal-Mart, sick people who could not afford health care, seniors betrayed by greedy CEOs and the federal government, and much more.
Of course, he also scattered a few anti-Bush foreign policy crumbs:
"I've spoken to veterans who...question the wisdom of our mission in Iraq; the mothers weeping in my arms over the memories of their sons; the disabled or homeless vets who wonder why their service has been forgotten."
"I've spoken to Americans in every corner of the state, patriots all, who wonder why we have allowed our standing in the world to decline so badly, so quickly. They know this has not made us safer."
"They are ashamed of Abu Graib and Guantanamo and warrantless wiretaps and ambiguity on torture."
The solution?
"We can't afford the same politics of fear...that invokes 9/11 as a way to scare up votes instead of a challenge that should unite all Americans to defeat our real enemies."
Why him and not his opponent?
"[Y]ou can't at once argue that you're the master of a broken system in Washington and offer yourself as the person to change it. You can't fall in line behind the conventional thinking on issues as profound as war and offer yourself as the leader who is best prepared to chart a new and better course for America."
Aware of the breaking news on the Asian subcontinent, Obama decided to deliver the above-referenced speech as written with a brief prefatory tribute to Benazir Bhutto.
An aside: the speech appears on Obama's website without the tacked-on preamble.
Frankly, the brief prologue (view here via YouTube) lacked the usual fire we have come to expect from the candidate; he demonstrated no special knowledge or understanding of the situation in Pakistan, as he haltingly pledged support for democracy in Pakistan in general, while taking something of a fallback position and predicting that more information would surface as the day and week progressed.
Perhaps he favors an investigation?
Later senior Obama adviser, David Axelrod, spoke with more certainty when he blamed Hillary for the death of Bhutto.
Axelrod: "She [Hillary] was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq, which we would submit is one of the reasons why we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and al Qaeda, who may have been players in this event today."
Huh? How long are we going to blame America for the completely irrational violence of inhumanly compassionless terrorists?
Tell me again: are you really sure these guys are ready for prime time?
Evrviglnt wrote:
The Democrats reveal what they think of the average American by how they talk to us - as if no one has the sense to know that other countries are not tools of America but struggle with their own problems that have no relationship to America or her policies. Human nature ensures that violence and tragedy will be our lot - America has sacrificed much of its own blood and treasure to show people the way to peace. Instead we are insulted and dismissed by our allies and our leaders.
Obama is a bitter man with a golden voice - so don't be fooled. The jaundiced perspective he carries offers only envy and myopia. Surely we can do better than that...