To illustrate how complete the slide has been for “thinking” conservatism and how completely devoid of ideas they are on the foreign affairs front (something Daniel Larison is constantly pointing out), the Republicans have come out in favor of more nuclear weapons. Presumably, because Obama signed a treaty lowering our nuclear count and also released new guidances for the use of nuclear weapons. You know- loyal opposition:
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.
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.”
These guys really are going to follow Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Glenn Beck into oblivion.
matt
I love how calm and casually Obama swats away nonsense, even going back to the primaries. It’s awesome.
A Mom Anon
I’d say good,and don’t let the door hit them in the ass on the way out. But. They’re taking the rest of us with them,or at least trying like hell. I wish I never had to see or hear Palin again,jesus,it’s beyond enough already. Thanks John McCain! You freaking dick.
And just as an aside,what the freaking hell is up with Palin’s hair? I saw the clips of her last night on Hardball and that do she had looked like someone parked a ferret on her head.
dmsilev
@A Mom Anon:
Guess that rules out Rudy Giuliani as a running mate, then.
The Grand Panjandrum
With Bachmann, Palin, Steele, and the hideous spawn of Cheney, known as Liz sucking all the oxygen out of the tent ol’ Newt just can’t catch a break. But what does that say about a party when Newt Gingrich is your go to guy and he keeps getting upstaged by the craziest and most radical elements in your party? Jim Huntsman is looking smarter and smarter every day.
Mike Kay
Here’s the video clip
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/exclusive-president-obama-slaps-sarah-palin-expert-nukes/story?id=10321775
abo gato
Well, we can HOPE that they are on their way to oblivion…..I just hope they don’t drag the rest of us with them to their desired armageddon.
Frankly, they worry the shit out of me.
Napoleon
On a positive note, this does bring the conservatives into the 1940s.
@The Grand Panjandrum:
You know, he will not have a trunk full of stupid quotes he is going to have to live down like the rest of them.
Mike Kay
Ronald Reagan’s ghost just issued a press release:
cleek
one can only hope.
thing is, the concentration of crazy on the right opens a big space in the center-right where a reasonable-sounding moderate Republican could do very well vs Obama.
giltay
Barack Obama doesn’t listen to Sarah Palin on foreign policy issues.
In other news, Barack Obama doesn’t listen to Teddy Ruxpin on foreign policy issues.
Alan
The hatred is so intense on the right, I wouldn’t be surprised if they managed to take the whole country into oblivion. Frankly, the people who are informed by Beck or Mark Levin scare me.
WereBear (itouch)
I’ve been waitng for the crazy to become so freakin’ obvious they would no longer get any cred or regard.
Are we there yet? At long last, are we there yet?
Bobby Thomson
That’s hardly a new development. Nixon and Reagan notwithstanding, a clear majority of the Republican party rank-and-file has been in favor of more nukes than we know what to do with for my entire
adultlifetime.JGabriel
@dmsilev:
I’m not sure how many people outside NYC will get that, but I laughed.
.
Hart Williams
There is a little something about this that we really ought to be pissed about: I’m talking about how this is at the top of the Memeorandum page … BECAUSE the Reuters assholes decided to play “let’s you and him fight.”
Which gives Caribou Barbie a gravitas that she in no wise deserves.
Notice how teh half-term governor of one of the least populated states in the Union is given equal billing with the President of the United States — over and over
and over again? That’s media manipulation along with clueless reporters looking for a false conflict.
Obama’s (under)statement is right on: What the FUCK does she know about nuclear policy or strategy? Here’s the headline:
“President Obama questions Sarah Palin’s nuclear acumen” (Reuters)
No: he DISMISSED her as the lightweight she is. But she somehow becomes the issue. Fuck that. That’s the false equivalence that Reb-publicans love to Pavlov us with. (And notice that she never speaks in a venue that she doesn’t completely control. Imagine the Wasilla Hillbilly walking into the Democratic caucus and taking them on without notes for a couple hours and kicking their ass. OK, too absurd a thought to even imagine, I know.)
You don’t see Der Mitt, or Huckleberry getting that kind of phony ‘mano a mano’ story on a regular basis. And it ain’t no coincidence, either.
They’re pushing her as a ‘media’ phenomenon, and I consider it extremely insulting that the headline at the top of the page (and resultant snark swarm of the blogosmear™) basically drags down Obama to her level — however deep in the septic tank that might be.
(And whoever “they” are. I don’t know whose sockpuppet she is, but I don’t doubt that Little Billy Kristol’s masters figure in there somewhere.)
Problem is, in the rightie-controlled media echo chamber, they’re reinforcing the notion that Ms. Feasance is a player. And, in this fake media soup, it keeps her as a phony ‘serious’ candidate. Dumbass über alles.
http://www.memeorandum.com/100409/h0745
JGabriel
Does anyone else think the Senate Republicans will put the interests of the US over the interests of the Fox Party?
.
PeakVT
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Not Much of an Expert’ — Obama Slaps Sarah Palin for Nuke Policy Criticism
Great headline, because what Obama said about Palin is the most important thing he talked about in the interview. Nuclear weapons treaty? That’s for nerds.
Can we un-invent teevee? It’s going to cause our destruction.
JGabriel
@Hart Williams:
True, but Obama mentioned Governor Half-Term, by full name, twice. It looks like Obama has decided that he wants people to associate his opposition with Sarah Palin.
If so, then Memorandum, et. al., are playing into Obama’s strategy and doing his work for him.
.
BR
@PeakVT:
Not to mention that they use “slaps” just to make it violent sounding, and make it about Palin rather than about what she said.
All around it looks like the media does these interviews on serious topics only to try to start a dispute on something so they can write about the dispute and ignore the substance.
JCT
Hah– at breakfast this morning I was discussing her brilliant “schoolyard” analogy with my husband. My comment was that I was curious to visit W.F. Buckley Jr.’s grave to see if it was levitating yet from all of the stupid emanating from the Republican side.
It’s awe-inspiring and depressing, all at the same time.
kay
@JGabriel:
I don’t think it’s a strategy. Media have decided Palin is the person they want to talk about, and Republicans cannot separate from her, or risk the wrath of the tea partiers.
I think it’s great they asked him to comment on Palin.
Why fight that?
kay
@Hart Williams:
But why fight that? If they want to elevate her to foreign policy expert, how is that not fine with him?
I see your larger point in terms of his status, and how they consistently pit him against this idiot (and that’s a good question, why THIS President, uniquely, is subject to question by every idiot with a Twitter account) but he didn’t set it up like that, media did.
Hart Williams
I guess facts don’t mean anything to the media anymore.
Of that entire interview, that was the least substantive portion of the whole thing. But that’s the over-riding headline?
Watch: over the next 24-48 hours, the snark goblins of the Malkinite fecal patrol will point out in indisputable made up facts and schoolyard arguments that Palin comparison is the most brilliant metaphor since Shakespeare and her “nucular” policy is the most geniusest statement since Einstein.
Cuz now we gots us a phony “fight.”
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Ahasuerus
@dmsilev: You owe me a new keyboard, bastard.
And I still have relatives (spouse’s side) from NYC who think Giuliani would make a wonderful president, given his masterful performance on 9/11.
Montysano
@Alan:
During my drive home, NPR has Marketplace, which is boring, so I often listen to Levin. What a nasty piece of work. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of the Teabagger brick-tossers were spooled up by Levin.
Hart Williams
Case in point:
Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit: It’s On… President Appeaser Lashes Out at Sarah Palin
Dino
I, too am worried. Even the slim chance that these morons achieve power is worrisome. The combination of the economy and willful ignorance creates a chance. Bush really sucked, but I never feared that he would destroy America. (although it did seem like he was trying his best)
Sarah Palin has the capacity for real damage, kinda like that the tyrannical Anthony Fremont from the Twilight Zone episode.
I can imagine her initiating a thermonuclear holocaust or some other disaster her advisors intoning,” …but it’s a real good thing you did. A real good thing. And tomorrow….tomorrow’s gonna be a… real good day!”
kay
@A Mom Anon:
I don’t think she looks well, either. She looks malnourished. I think she’s losing her hair, so adding extensions. It happens to teenage girls I work with when they stop eating carbohydrates completely. Their faces and skin and hair look like that. They’re starving.
slightly_peeved
Not at the moment, but in 2016 or (hopefully) 2020 or 2024, this will happen. Always does.
1) party gets spanked in election
2) party is run by hard ideologues for 2 or more election cycles, runs around like chickens with heads cut off, continues to get spanked.
3) party gets tired of losing, gets new head that campaigns for the new centre – generally, a centre that has moved towards the party that has been holding power.
As examples, see the last two power transfers in Britain and the last one in the US. The British Labor party languished for years under Kinnock, before Blair pushed them to the right (and the new centre) and brought them back into power. The Tories were in chaos until they elected as their leader a guy who is essentially doing a 24-7 Blair impersonation, and now they’re a credible threat again. There’s a reason the Democrats went with a man who is a pragmatic centrist. They tend to win.
The downside: there’s a fair chance the Republicans will run the US again at some point. The upside: they’ll only be doing so once they move to the centre. Depending on how long they take to get their act together, they may have to move left of the current political dialog to be a credible threat. Every victory by Obama pushes them either closer to extinction, or closer to the centre if they want to take power any time soon. Either’s an improvement.
Comrade Dread
Modern Republicans are insane. The sun rises in the east. The Earth revolves around the sun.
It would be news if the Republicans greeted this as the sensible reduction that was long overdue that this treaty represents.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this treaty wasn’t ratified.
Sure, it would hurt the country, endanger our national security, and end our current cooperation with Russia on verification, but it would embarass Obama, and that’s what’s best for the country right now.
I suppose it wouldn’t matter if we pointed out that Reagan was a DFH when it came to nuclear weapons and repeatedly stated his desire to get rid of them all and that he negotiated arms control agreements with Russia?
Hart Williams
IOKIYAR!
‘R’ in this case meaning “Reagan.”
flukebucket
This is the way I see it. Let that worthless party destroy itself. Maybe from the ashes a decent opposition can arise. But I love seeing Palin and McCain as the face of the Republican party. The American people have already told those two to take a long walk off of a short pier and there is not one damn reason in the world why anybody who voted against them would wish they had it to do over. Stupid and senile just is never going to make it across the finish line and as long as the Republican party is counting on stupid and senile they are losing.
When you are counting on the likes of Newt Gingrich to save your ass you are well and truly fucked.
kay
@Hart Williams:
Or a little further back:
“Eisenhower had no grand objective in installing this policy. Rather, he had become worried by a growing clamor emanating from the Pentagon, supported by “wizard of Armageddon” intellectuals like Henry Kissinger and Democrats keen on retaking the White House, that the United States could wage, and win, a “limited” nuclear war. That notion had to be nipped in the bud, so that if there were a showdown with Moscow no one would be tempted to actually use one of those bombs. If that happened, Eisenhower firmly believed, the war would inexorably escalate into a thermonuclear holocaust.”
That’s a little frightening, if we replace “Democrats” with “Republicans”.
Hart Williams
Exactly, Kay.
And creepy Rasmussen is already out with one of his special ‘polls’ wherein the talking point is already magically supported.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2010/55_oppose_limits_on_u_s_nuclear_response_to_attacks
Toast
The fact that Obama is being asked to respond to comments by Sarah Palin is both mind-boggling and dispiriting. It’s like having a dim, irritating child interrupt a serious discussion among adults.
Paris
George Stephanopoulos is a douche bag for even asking the question. My response would not have been as reserved as Obama’s was. Is Palin suggesting we should incinerate civilian populations with nuclear weapons when we disagree with their leaders?
kay
@Hart Williams:
I’m relieved it’s out there, if that’s the case. I think we should have an honest debate about “winnable” nuclear wars, and drop this nonsense about deterrence.
It would be great if media could ask Sarah Palin a question on that, but as you know, she sets the rules and they obey her, and no one is permitted to ask her a follow-up. Instead they have to ask the President, who has given more interviews than any of his predecessors. That’s “fair”, don’t you think? The neoconservative celebrity mouthpiece gets a national forum and permits no follow-up of any kind, while the President sits for interviews monthly, where he’s asked to rebut a bald, dishonest statement, from the neoconservative celebrity mouthpiece.
Obama has an enormous amount of self-control. Given those “rules”, I’d stop sitting for interviews.
Honus
‘Go ahead, punch me in the face and I’m not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'”
None of these supposedly devout Christian republicans seem to notice that that’s pretty much exactly what Jesus said.
Wilson Heath
Where’s the cartoon graphic to go with the story? Palin riding the nuke, waving her cowboy hat in full Slim Pickens style, as it glides down onto the GOP (which I imagine will have a shape much like that of the Confederate States of America).
kay
@Honus:
They’re anxious to enter a new war, with some super-duper WMD action. Clearly they’re bored with Iraq.
The really fucked up thing is they’ve completely forgotten how they were fear-mongering with “terrorists will get their hands on a nuke”, which is actually a rational argument.
They had one rational self-defense argument re: nuclear weapons, and they dropped it, because it wasn’t politically useful, and because Obama co-opted it.
RedKitten
I can’t be the only one who is reminded of this guy, when thinking of Sarah Palin.
Paul in KY
@A Mom Anon: I’m thinking she’s trying out a ‘Snookie’.
Honus
@kay: It’s not just limited to Palin. I saw Guiliani and Ariana Huffington on Morning Joe on tuesday (I was in West Virginia and I was looking for news on the Montcoal mine explosion). He began blathering the talking point about how Obama was a radical socialist because he had increased the deficit more than all other presidents combined, when she asked him why he didn’t voice any concern when Bush ballooned the deficit with two wars, tax cuts and Medicare Part C. Rudy replied that he had opposed the medicare spending, but not the wars, because he thought they were necessary what with him being the Mayor of 9/11 and all.
Nobody thought to ask what I believe was the obvious question, that if the wars were so necessary, and deficits so bad, why they shouldn’t have been paid for with some taxes, instead of cutting taxes again as soon as we invaded Iraq. Also, nobody seemed to be up on the fat that the GOP congressional delegation is apparently now unanimous that both wars were a bad idea.
Kay, you’re right. This bunch loves them some war.
Mary
@cleek: But a reasonable sounding republican is going to have a really hard time winning any primary.
Litlebritdifrnt
POTUS taking advice from Bible Spice about nuclear issues is a bit like him taking advice from me about shooting hoops.
Liz
“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.
He forgets she can see Russia from her porch!!!
This is just beautiful.
Pasquinade
RE: Palin’s hair
Could be due to perimenopause/menopause.
Chad N Freude
The Joint Chiefs of Staph infecting the Body Politic.
kay
Demonstrably false. Reagan and Eisenhower. But it doesn’t matter, she can say it and media can and will repeat it, endlessly, because she’s just unavailable for questioning, and media have inexplicably accepted her rules, which are: she gets a one-way national forum, they don’t ask her any questions.
Instead, they’ll ask Obama about it. Because he’s made himself available.
tc125231
@cleek: There is currently no such thing as a reaonable Rebuplican. I was an Eisenhower Republican.
We are extinct.
tc125231
@Honus: Christian Republicians like evrything about Christianity except the babblings of that crazy hippy Jesus.
That’s why they are “cleaning up” the Bible.
Morbo
“‘Nuke the whales?’ You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“I dunno. Gotta nuke something.”
“Touché.”
kay
@Honus:
I think Arianna Huffington is a horrible advocate, and I suspect that’s why she’s so often invited on Morning Joe. This is just a lame, tired argument. We all know why they didn’t object when Bush (or Reagan) ran up huge debt. Because they’re full of shit partisans. What did Huffington win there? That conservatives are hypocrites? Wow! Zinger! I feel better!
Why doesn’t she make a substantive argument? Can I get a smart liberal who can talk, or is that asking too much?
It’s almost a rule: the liberals invited on a conservative program are horrible advocates. This is not a coincidence. It’s a condition of the invitation. There’s a nifty quid pro quo, too. She then invites Morning Joe to submit some garbled nonsense on her site, so it works out well for both of them.
keestadoll
For what it’s worth, I don’t think children on a playground should take advice from Sarah Palin.
cleek
@Mary:
i was thinking more like “third party”. if things don’t improve for Dems, a Perot-style “common sense” center-rightist would be able to scoop-up all the non-crazy and moderate conservatives and a good chunk of dissatisfied Dems.
hope it doesn’t happen.
as sorely disappointed as i am with Obama, i know things would be even worse with a non-Dem.
Tractarian
@Honus:
This!
canuckistani
Sorry John, I think you meant to say “Nucular Weapons”
BDeevDad
When the POTUS calls you stupid to the press, there is probably something to it.
Gregory
@A Mom Anon:
It’s tinfoil hat hair.
Hob
@dmsilev:
Now that you mention it, it’s finally clear why Giuliani resented ferrets so much: he couldn’t get one to sit still on his head as a hairpiece. And we all know from Lex Luthor what incurable baldness can do to a man’s soul.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
I wish I was as sanguine about it as you. Even though this little episode began with an idiotic taunt from Sarah Palin I’d be willing to betcha that a poll would reveal a significant percentage of the public think Obama took a cheap shot at Palin. Remember, three quarters of this country think that a god-man was born of a virgin and rose from the dead; Sarah Palin as President is only slightly more implausible than that.
Spiny Norman
I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.
mitch meats
I love the dismissive tone of the response. As it should be.
Hart Williams
Whale meat again?
EvolutionaryDesign
We can only hope.
YellowJournalism
@RedKitten: Except Palin would be hiding behind her own kid at the end.
Ogami Itto
@RedKitten: No, you’re not:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CdKuLRmg8k&feature=related
Caoimhe
@BR:
Also, “black man hitting white woman” is a dog whistle to a very prevalent racist theme.
Watch for this, you’ll see it a lot once you know what to look for.
Xecky Gilchrist
it was like a child in a playground who says ‘punch me in the face, I’m not going to retaliate.’
No real Amurkan Christian would go for that turn-the-other-cheek crap.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Xecky Gilchrist: Oops, Honus got there first. And I don’t have permission to edit my comment.
futzinfarb
The Republican Party: aiding and abetting the mainstreaming of b@tsh!t crazy.
purpleOnion
The right wing propaganda promotes the following meme: everyone to the left of the insane on the right are conservatives and everyone to the left of conservatives are the insane on the left. This permits the insane on the right to spread fascist ideas that draw the entire political debate away from a democratic republic to that of a fascist state. It is dishonest. It is betrayal. It is deliberate.
Larry
That’s Michele — one “L” short of a full load — Bachmann — with an extra “N” for extra nuttiness.
CreativeAnarcy
This is wonderful!
I swear Palin is the best thing to happen to progressive politics. As long as she is the best conservatism think they can do, progressivism is written a blank check to fix the mess we’re in.
If I were Obama I’d just start cranking out softball legislation like the bills were written on diner napkins. Call for stiffer penalties for rape. Outlaw public displays that glorify naziism. Make it a federal offense to use puppies for skeet shooting, just to bait The Reloader into taking an opposing stance. If conservatives are willing to allow an uneducated, lying screwball be the face of their party make her the Pro-rape, Nazi, puppy butcher face of their party.