Tag: Campaign 2008

Trump on Withdrawal from Iraq in 2007: ‘Declare Victory and Leave’

Jon Ponder

infografix-trump-on-withdrawing-from-iraq-2007

Donald Trump has used up the last couple of news cycles repeating the ridiculous lie that Pres. Obama is the “founder of ISIS.” He also said the bloodthirsty terror group “honors” the president.

The flimsy basis of Trump’s false narrative is that U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq early in the president’s first term, and that ISIS arose to fill the power vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal.

Never mind that ISIS began as an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Iraq, an insurgency that established itself in 2003 after the Bush administration fired more than 300,000 Iraqi soldiers and sent them home jobless, with few prospects and fully armed.

Never mind that the date of the U.S. troop withdrawal was specified in the Status of Forces agreement negotiated by the Bush administration and the democratically elected government of Iraq.

And never mind that Donald Trump himself was strongly in favor of the withdrawal at the time. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Trump in March 2007 what he thought the U.S. should do, Trump replied “Declare victory and leave.”

[…]

Trump on Hillary in 2007: ‘Very, Very Brilliant’

Jon Ponder

TRUMP: Very talented, very smart. She’s a friend of mine, so I’m a little bit prejudiced. She’s a very, very capable person and I think she’ll probably be the nominee. We’ll see, but I think she’ll probably be the nominee. … I think she’s a very, very brilliant person, and as a senator in New York, she has done a great job. Everybody loves her. She just won an election with a tremendous majority and she really — she’s become very, very popular in New York. And it wasn’t easy.

– Donald Trump praising Hillary Clinton in an interview on CNN in 2007

We’ve Forgotten How Clinton Blew the 2008 Campaign

Buck Banks

The seven years since Hillary Clinton’s last presidential bid have induced a kind of amnesia about the true reason for her loss, a subject newly relevant now that she’s running again. Several factors cloud our ability to recollect it clearly: the passage of time; Democrats’ desire to put a bruising primary race behind them; and, above all, the mythologizing of Barack Obama’s campaign brain trust, which cast him as a figure of destiny and her as someone who history swept aside. … But while Obama was indeed a rare talent, his skill alone wasn’t what cinched the nomination. Clinton blew a winnable race, despite having had almost every conceivable advantage. Oddly, the one thing she truly lacked was the very thing she chose to present as her primary qualification for the presidency: executive leadership skills. As Clinton often declared, in an obvious dig at Obama’s inexperience, she alone had the capacity to “do the job from Day One.” Yet whatever management skills Clinton may possess, she didn’t deploy in 2008.

— Joshua Green, writing for Bloomberg.

Giuliani Proves That Patriotism Truly Is the Last Refuge of Draft-Dodging, Adulterous Scoundrels

Jon Ponder

photo-giuliani-flag

Samuel Johnson said it 240 years ago: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Rudolph Giuliani proved it last week at a fundraiser in New York for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker when he exhumed commie-baiter Sen. Joe McCarthy by asserting that while he and Republican fatcats like himself were America-loving patriots, Pres. Obama and his family were not.

“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say,” Giuliani said, “but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”

In the media frenzy that ensued, Giuliani — who spent $50 million campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 only to win just one (1) delegate to the Republican convention — embarked on a victory lap of right-wing media outlets during which he doubled down on his petty spitefulness.

That seemed to come to a halt yesterday when he issued a banal non-apology, which included this delicious tautology: “My bluntness overshadowed my message.” Bluntness was his message. After all, when you’re accusing the president of being anti-American, why be polite?

[…]

Hard to Take McCain Seriously on Benghazi — He Swallowed Bush’s Lies on Iraq With No Regrets

Trish

Where was all of this squawking after the invasion of Iraq?

Did he care about the THOUSANDS of dead Americans?

Did he care there was no WMD?

Did he care about the 60 Americans that died at embassies during Bush’s tenure?

— A commenter using the name “WiddleBabyWepublican,” on a post showing Sen. John McCain accusing David Gregory, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, of not caring that four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012. Gregory had asked McCain what he and Republicans thought they would find “covered up” if they continue to ignore the answers they receive to questions on what happened during the attack.

Hope for 2013

Trish
A horse, of course: Hope

For the sake of argument, let’s say there are no coincidences in this world (an idea otherwise known as Trish’s Law of No Coincidences).

If you disagree, then please explain to me how Americans choose the name “Hope” for the young Clydesdale featured in the 2013 Budweiser Super Bowl ad, which was born the weekend of Pres. Obama’s second inauguration.

Obama, for those who missed the last five years of history, has been needled and scorned by both Republicans and Democrats, by late-night comedians and old movie stars (O.K., maybe just Clint Eastwood), by Sarah Palin (“How’s that hopey-changy thing working for ya?”) and Hillary Clinton, all for his message of hope.

[…]

Four Years Ago Today: Hate Group Spokesman Exhorts Followers to Pray That Rain Will Ruin Democratic Convention Event in Denver

Jon Ponder

Via Joe.My.God:

Focus On The Family spokesman STUART SHEPARD, speaking four years ago today: “Would it be wrong to ask people to pray? Would it be wrong if we asked people to pray for rain? O.K., not just rain, abundant rain. Torrential rain. Urban and small stream flood advisory rain. Would it be wrong if we prayed for rain on, say, a particular night at, say, a particular location? Ah, say the evening of August 28th, right here at Mile High Stadium here in Denver. During the prime time t.v. hour when a certain presumptive nominee is set to give a certain acceptance speech at a certain Democratic National Convention?

“I’m talkin’ umbrella ain’t gonna help ya rain. Not flood people out of their houses rain, just good old swamp the intersections rain. We’re not asking for hail the size of canned hams, or lightening bolts to set the bunting on fire. Just rain. Beautiful rain. Network cameras can’t see the podium rain. Attendees can’t walk to the indoor arena without wishing for hip waders rain.

“I know you might ask why would I pray for that. Well, I’m still pro-life and I’m still in favor of marriage being only between one man and one woman. And I’d like the next president, who’ll select justices for the U. S. Supreme Court to agree. So I’m praying for unexpected, unanticipated, unforecasted rain that starts two minutes before the speech is set to begin. Would it be wrong to pray for rain?”

McCain 2008 Opposition Research on Romney’s Economic Record in Massachusetts: Raised $700 Billion in Taxes, Spending Went up 24%, Left $1 Billion Deficit

Jon Ponder

The hits just keep on coming. After a week of pummeling by the Obama campaign over the Romney campaign’s conflicting record about Mitt’s exit from Bain Capital — did his control over the company end when he “retroactively retired” in 1999, before it outsourced thousands of American jobs overseas, as he claims now, or in 2002, as he claimed in sworn testimony later — now Buzzfeed has obtained the document used to vet Romney as a prospective vice presidential nominee by the McCain campaign 2008.

The entire document is here [Scribd] but here’s the McCain oppo research summary of Gov. Romney’s economic record. It’s no wonder they did not choose him — and it’s too bad Fox viewers will never see this. Their heads would explode!

[…]