Comments on: A Surge Of Distortions http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/2008/07/28/a-surge-of-distortions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-surge-of-distortions n. the principle of good order<br /><br /> "Observe the strange inversion of all order and sense! Dignity debased; how vilely is the function of a consul prostituted!" ~The Craftsman Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:25:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Eunomia » The Election In Miniature http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/2008/07/28/a-surge-of-distortions/comment-page-1/#comment-12761 Eunomia » The Election In Miniature Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:02:19 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/07/28/a-surge-of-distortions/#comment-12761 [...] Trivial as they seem, these episodes sum up both campaigns and the media’s treatment of both remarkably well.  As he did in the primaries, McCain is simply making things up about his opponent’s positions and actions, and just as his campaign did during the primary fight against Clinton Obama and his supporters are pushing fantastic claims that McCain is exploiting racism.  (As with Clinton, McCain may be benefiting from prejudice, but attempts to show that they are actively exploiting it have been laughably weak.)  Remember the memo the Obama campaign circulated documenting the instances of how the Clintons allegedly politicized racism?  Then as now, the things that have provoked criticism have typically been entirely or mostly unrelated to race, and even when there is some small connection it requires hysteria and hypersensitivity to find something malevolent in that connection.  This line of attack on Obama’s opponents is not a new one, but the Obama campaign may be making a serious mistake in assuming that this attack will work as well in the general election as it did in the Democratic primary.  Regardless, it will receive more attention and gain more traction in the press on the assumption that they have been using all year long, which is that whatever race-baiting the Clintons were supposedly employing, the GOP would use it even more extensively.  [...] [...] Trivial as they seem, these episodes sum up both campaigns and the media’s treatment of both remarkably well.  As he did in the primaries, McCain is simply making things up about his opponent’s positions and actions, and just as his campaign did during the primary fight against Clinton Obama and his supporters are pushing fantastic claims that McCain is exploiting racism.  (As with Clinton, McCain may be benefiting from prejudice, but attempts to show that they are actively exploiting it have been laughably weak.)  Remember the memo the Obama campaign circulated documenting the instances of how the Clintons allegedly politicized racism?  Then as now, the things that have provoked criticism have typically been entirely or mostly unrelated to race, and even when there is some small connection it requires hysteria and hypersensitivity to find something malevolent in that connection.  This line of attack on Obama’s opponents is not a new one, but the Obama campaign may be making a serious mistake in assuming that this attack will work as well in the general election as it did in the Democratic primary.  Regardless, it will receive more attention and gain more traction in the press on the assumption that they have been using all year long, which is that whatever race-baiting the Clintons were supposedly employing, the GOP would use it even more extensively.  [...]

]]> By: Bustrofedon http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/2008/07/28/a-surge-of-distortions/comment-page-1/#comment-12689 Bustrofedon Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:57:16 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/07/28/a-surge-of-distortions/#comment-12689 Seems like the way to counter "surge-mania" by McCain and his trained poodles, is to change the terms of reference, recalling a trillion dollars spent, 4,000 plus dead and tens of thousands wounded, and for what? : "McCain - RIght on the Surge, Wrong on the War." Of course, no one looks too closely at the surge - what a big part of it consisted, not only of more American troops, but actually the US funding (i.e. bribing) and arming of Sunni radicals like the tribal leaders of the Anbar Awakening to "switch sides" and fight the overreaching jihadists of AQM. This makes good counter-insurgency sense and, of course, copies the tried methods of Saddam Hussein (and other past rulers in Iraq going back centuries) of wooing these Middle Euphrates Sunni Arab tribes like the Dulaymis to maintain order and keep the "regime" in power - in our case, the regime of Bush, McCain, Petraeus and their Arabian misadventure. This conveniently leaves aside the almost guaranteed certainty that the USG armed and paid tribesmen who may have participated in the past killing of American soldiers. Certainly that kind of realpolitik is not something the GOP would want to talk about. Seems like the way to counter “surge-mania” by McCain and his trained poodles, is to change the terms of reference, recalling a trillion dollars spent, 4,000 plus dead and tens of thousands wounded, and for what? : “McCain – RIght on the Surge, Wrong on the War.”

Of course, no one looks too closely at the surge – what a big part of it consisted, not only of more American troops, but actually the US funding (i.e. bribing) and arming of Sunni radicals like the tribal leaders of the Anbar Awakening to “switch sides” and fight the overreaching jihadists of AQM. This makes good counter-insurgency sense and, of course, copies the tried methods of Saddam Hussein (and other past rulers in Iraq going back centuries) of wooing these Middle Euphrates Sunni Arab tribes like the Dulaymis to maintain order and keep the “regime” in power – in our case, the regime of Bush, McCain, Petraeus and their Arabian misadventure.

This conveniently leaves aside the almost guaranteed certainty that the USG armed and paid tribesmen who may have participated in the past killing of American soldiers. Certainly that kind of realpolitik is not something the GOP would want to talk about.

]]>