Politics Junkies

I think Obama will increase troop numbers and insist on a better more
aggressive military campaign but with a view to getting out sooner
IYSWIM. Certainly Africans, for which he must have an affinity, have no
soft spot for the Arabs.

I think, like Brown, they had the good luck to ride the waves of
fortune. Hard times have come a callin'

I'm in favour of someone my age over a pensioner at least. I think
McCain fading at the end was probably partly to do with physical
stamina.

 

I'm sure there'll be enough Salinger-reading nutjobs to fill that role.

 

I don't personally think it will. I strongly suspect the change machine
will gradually grind to a halt, as it always does, but there's a world
of difference between Obama and Blair and the constitutional term limit
on the presidency provides some degree of protection from long-term
megamaniacal decline.

Still, time will tell.

 

Well he has been back to his father's roots for a look around though he
was raised by his mother.

 

I thought he was raised by his grandparents, not his mother.

 

Mother, grandparents and stepfather in measures, it seems.

 

CBA.

 

I'm not looking forward to him visiting his stepmother. The traffic
will be chaotic round here.

 

Well, perception will, and that's half the game. To start with, it'll
no longer be whitey doing it to the rest of the world.

 

I think it was, actually.

 

<spits out Danish>

 

Let's see: Obama has been funded by big business [1] (those famous
small donations made online were not a very large proportion of his
spending); nothing will change on Israel [2] (unless it gets worse);
there will not be an immediate withdrawal from Iraq [3].

Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will. Dream all you want,
but if you want a decent world to live, you have to deal the world as
it really is, not as you hope it is.

[1] http://www.counterpunch.org/martens05052008.html

Seven of the Obama campaign's top 14 donors consisted of officers
and employees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again
with looting the public and newly implicated in originating and/or
bundling fraudulently made mortgages. ...

These seven Wall Street firms are (in order of money given): Goldman
Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan
Stanley and Credit Suisse. There is also a large hedge fund, Citadel
Investment Group, which is a major source of fee income to Wall
Street. There are five large corporate law firms that are also
registered lobbyists; and one is a corporate law firm that is no
longer a registered lobbyist but does legal work for Wall
Street. The cumulative total of these 14 contributors through
February 1, 2008, was $2,872,128, and we're still in the primary
season.

[2] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212041478725&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

He staked out some hawkish positions, declaring that "Jerusalem will
remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided," and
termed Israel's attack in September on Syria's alleged incipient
nuclear facility "entirely justified to end that threat."

[3] http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/

Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of
Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: successfully
ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and
phased.

 

what/ bringing industrialisation and civilisation?

 

Oh leave them alone to dream for a day or two

 

To the Trots it's still AmeriKKKa, the Great Satan ;o)

 

I think of your "no choice but" as "a brilliant excuse".

I look forward to John Bolton being invited to reapply for his job.

With the will to do something, there should be a lot that can be achieved
relatively cheaply and easily. Just changing the mood would go a long way.

I watched the acceptance speech, and couldn't help contrasting his
performance with that of man's nearest living relative.

Everything about McCain was about the past - what he'd done, where he'd come
from. More of the same, no new ideas, same old gang of crooks. Obama is
the future. As of last night - well, this morning - the Republicans looked
obsolete and irrelevant.

 

They may well be in the place Tories found themselves when Blair won

 

I'd say half was a significant proportion.

 

No: the thought of having that old fraud and his half-wit sidekick
running the world is even worse. But not wanting McCain to win is not
the same thing as believing that Obama is the Messiah. He is a
politician who has made it to the White House by not making the wrong
enemies. Nothing much is going to change if Obama can help it. If he
is pushed hard enough, maybe some things will change for the better.

 

Without that half, he would still have had a big advantage over
McCain. That assumes, of course, that it really was half. There have
been a number of people (we don't know how many) making multiple
donations, each of less than $200, getting round the requirement to
give a name:

The Obama campaign has shattered all fund-raising records, raking in
$458 million so far, with about half the bounty coming from donors
who contribute $200 or less. Aides say that's an illustration of a
truly democratic campaign. To critics, though, it can be an
invitation for fraud and illegal foreign cash because donors giving
individual sums of $200 or less don't have to be publicly
reported. Consider the cases of Obama donors "Doodad Pro" of Nunda,
N.Y., who gave $17,130, and "Good Will" of Austin, Texas, who gave
more than $11,000--both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal
limit.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/162403