Can't Slip One Past The Times

Another classic correction from the Times:

National

An article on Saturday about Senator John McCain’s criticism of Senator Barack Obama’s Middle East policy incompletely described Mr. Obama’s position on negotiating with the leaders of countries, including Iran, with which the United States currently has little contact. While Mr. Obama and his aides have indeed described various conditions and limitations on such negotiations, Mr. Obama himself, in a Democratic debate in July 2007, also said he would be willing "to meet separately, without precondition" with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. (Go to Article)

Dean Barnett blasted the Times last Saturday; I was AWOL until Sunday.

The Times correction is especially timely (even if it took a week) since Obama has re-affirmed the commitment the Times could not discern last week:

The senator repeated his belief in engaging Iran in the way that past president like John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan engaged foes and laid a framework for what he believes Iran must do.

"I understand George Bush’s secretary of defense suggests we talk directly to Iran, so I don’t know if George Bush is calling his own secretary of defense an appeaser,” he said. “"It’s time to present Iran with a clear choice. If it abandons its nuclear program, support for terror, and threats to Israel, then Iran can rejoin the community of nations. If not, Iran will face deeper isolation and steeper sanctions.”

Gates' comments have been clarified under duress but his original comments were hardly an endorsement of a 2009 Presidential meeting with no preconditions:

WASHINGTON: U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates called for more visits to Iran by U.S. citizens on Wednesday, saying private contacts might help bridge differences between the two countries.

Talking at the American Academy of Diplomacy, Mr. Gates said: “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them. There are actually many Iranians who visit the U.S. We ought to increase the flow going the other way, not of Iranians but of Americans, and that may be one way of creating some space perhaps over some period of time.”

Gee - Obama pretty much making stuff up.  Who knew that the new politics was so like the old politics?  Should make adjusting easy!

The AllahPundit has lots more.

Comments

[windansea]

FYI

Scary Larry blogs about a video of Michele Obama at Trinity church railing against whitey

[SunnyDay]

What is it with Bush's cabinet? Are they always at cross purposes with his policies? that how we got where we are in Iraq. I read Gates' original comments - that was bad. Clarify? phe.

BHO stepped in it, Gates helped him, IMO.

[Danube of Thought]

Problem is, there are many voters today who have no recollection at all of the oaf Carter. It's much easier to grasp "I'm so open-minded I'll talk to anyone" than to understand "If an American president were to agree to talk without preconditions to Ahmdinejad, it would provide an enormous boost to Ahmadinejad's prestige within his own country at a time when we are encouraging his countryment to get rid of him." Who has the better sound bite?

[bgates]

It shouldn't take recollection, though. I know Carter's a jackass, and the only thing I remember about his Presidency - I was 6 when it ended - was I wondered what coin he would get. (Washington was President, he got the quarter, next came Lincoln and the penny, so I figured James Earl was the third President and once he left office he'd get a coin too.)

[Danube of Thought]

Re Scary Larry's item about the Michelle video, I posted on an earlier thread an account of Larry's sending me a personal e-mail attesting to the fact that he had "three independent authorities" confirming to him that Karl Rove had been indicted on May 13, 2006. The same three also confirmed that a plea deal had been negotiated with Rove at his lawyer's offices after the secret service had ordered the entire floor vacated before the meeting took place. Someone who has not been banned at his site should ask him if these are the same three.

Not for nothing do we call the man crazy.

[Topsecretk9]

RE Scary

Wind

You should know that if Larry is typing or his lips are moving he's you know what'ing. Truckloads of SALT needed.

I'm just hoping his bloviating claims finally tick the Obama supporters in the media off so much they start coming clean on him.

No one in the media (of the left, oxymoron I know) called him to the carpet on his 22 indictments and his sealed vs. sealed BS claims, yet called on him as a reliable anti-bush expert when needed.

[Sue]

Gee - Obama pretty much making stuff up. Who knew that the new politics was so like the old politics? Should make adjusting easy!

bgates made it clear in another thread. If everything that has already been revealed about the Messiah doesn't stop his ascent, these little missteps will be like stepping over tumbleweeds on a dusty prairie.

[Sue]

I can't post at Scary's. He doesn't like me, for some reason. ::grin::

[PeterUK]

"Mr. Obama himself, in a Democratic debate in July 2007, also said he would be willing "to meet separately, without precondition" with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. "

Doesn't he know any nice respectable people?

[Rick Ballard]

"Doesn't he know any nice respectable people?"

Yeah, but they don't like him and won't give him an endorsement.

[MarkJ]

Gee - Obama pretty much making stuff up. Who knew that the new politics was so like the old politics? Should make adjusting easy!

*Sigh* Must be nice being a Messiah--it relieves one of any responsibility for what they say or do.

Great hustle, if you can get it.

[MarkJ]

Gee - Obama pretty much making stuff up. Who knew that the new politics was so like the old politics? Should make adjusting easy!

*Sigh* Must be nice being a Messiah--it relieves one of any responsibility for what they say or do.

Great hustle, if you can get it.

[gunjam]

Oh, puhleeeease! Why are you whitewashing SecDef Gates's appeasing tendencies while (rightly) calling Obama on his? In my view, rather than encouraging citizen-to-citizen "diplomacy," Gates should AT THE VERY LEAST be calling for strikes on the plants (in Iran) manufacturing the EFPs that have been being used in Iraq to maim/kill our troops in Iraq since at least Summer 2007. I have personally seen the results at Walter Reed and Gates should be ashamed of himself. The guy is simply not made of the right stuff.

[liontooth]

In my view, rather than encouraging citizen-to-citizen "diplomacy," Gates should...

The last thing that the Islamic governement of Iran wants are Westerners INFLUENCING its captive population. Gates' idea is brilliant. While it sounds very reasonable, peaceful and friendly, he's really describing an effective way to undermine the control the Iranian regime has over its citizens.

[Neo]

The elephant in this room is that in a move equivalent to saying that "Some wife-beaters go on the beat their wife's for years", Obama jumps up and says "I stopped beating my wife a long time ago". Then he goes on the say that under Shi'i law he is supposed to.

[Neo]

This is a rather obtuse way to talk around the "appeasement" issue ..

What Hitler was demanding at Munich was not unreasonable as a national claim (though he was making it in a last-minute, unreasonable way.) Germany's claim was that the areas of Europe that spoke German and thought of themselves as German be under German authority. In September 1938 the principal remaining area was the Sudetenland.

.. and allow use to give our unending loyalty to the Queen.

.. or it it the other way around ?

[drjohn]

Meet the new policy

Same as the old policy

[drjohn]

"Not for nothing do we call the man crazy."

Yup.

Vintage Larry. Love to have him be right in this case, but don't let's hold our collective breath.

[drjohn]

' Credulous Times reporter Larry Rohter bought the Obama campaign's spin that the McCain campaign had distorted Obama's ambitious summiting plans and instead “reported” that Obama “does not advocate immediate, direct or unconditional negotiations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.”'

How exactly does Rohter know what Obama thinks and why is he parsing for Obama?

Asked rhetorically, of course.

[drjohn]

"In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?

OBAMA: I would."

OK, I got it.

The "first year" does not mean "immediate."

[Barry]

dang Dang fixed?

[Barry]

Hmm, doesn't work the normal way.

One more try...

[MikeS]

I think Obama is a good and decent person. But he has some reckless and radically liberal ideas and some reckless and radically liberal friends that give me pause.

Worse it doesn't seem in any case, Ayers and Wright for example, that association with Obama has caused his friends to moderate their views.
In fact, rather than change their views, in some cases Obama is so close to his friends that he seems to feel that he shares ownership of their thoughts, even using Deval Patrick's thoughts without attribution as if they belonged to him.

Still, I believe that Obama is a good and decent person who can't fathom.

[Sue]

Has Kennedy died and they just haven't released it yet? The anchors and pundits on Fox are speaking of him in the past tense.

[MikeS]

I think Obama is a good and decent person. But he has some reckless and radically liberal ideas and some reckless and radically liberal friends that give me pause.

Worse it doesn't seem in any case, Ayers and Wright for example, that association with Obama has caused his friends to moderate their views.
In fact, rather than change their views, in some cases Obama is so close to his friends that he seems to feel that he shares ownership of their thoughts, even using Deval Patrick's thoughts without attribution as if they belonged to him.

Still, I believe that Obama is a good and decent person who can't fathom.

[MikeS]

I can't fathom how that happened.

[PeterUK]

"Has Kennedy died and they just haven't released it yet? The anchors and pundits on Fox are speaking of him in the past tense."

Now that would bring some interesting revelations.
Kennedy hospitalised

[kim]

Withdrawal seizure, stroke, aneurysmyl leak, old injury, or metastasis. Maybe it was syncope, not seizure.
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[Topsecretk9]

Sue...are you out there? didn't Scary say, in order to trump up his bona fides as a legitimate Bush hater he voted for Bush in 2000?

If so, then why is he saying this:

In Florida 2000, the votes were not counted because the conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled they shouldn’t be counted. Al Gore won the popular majority of votes in the country and likely in Florida. But George W. Bush became president. We know the catastrophe that resulted from this travesty of democracy....

It’s becoming clear Hillary will be the popular vote winner when the primaries are finished. But she is finding herself in Al Gore’s position–the winner being denied victory. Obama and the establishment are turning the Democratic Party into Florida all over again. It’s hardly a surprise that Obama claims he’s ahead depend on suppressing the 1.7 million votes and delegates of Florida, not to mention Michigan.

[Topsecretk9]

Yep, I he did
Lying then or now, take yer pick...

I voted for George Bush in November of 2000 because I wanted a President who knew what the meaning of "is" was. I was tired of political operatives who spent endless hours on cable news channels parsing words. I was promised a President who would bring a new tone and new ethical standards to Washington.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072205E.shtml

[kim]

I suspect Larry has moved significantly left in his ideology over the last eight years. Whether it is from loyalty to Val, or what, I don't know, but part of why we like to characterize him as crazed is his internal dissonance. Twenty years ago, this was a different Larry. Same ol' Val, though. Ain't life grand?
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[Neo]

Peace in out time

[Sue]

Top,

Yes, Scary said he voted for Bush in 2000 and only turned against him when he took us to war in Iraq. Or something like that. He was a registered republican until Bush showed up. Doesn't explain why he keeps supporting democrats when Bush is going to be gone in January, but there you are. Scary's explanation as to why he can call Bush the names he now uses on Obama. He's a tool. Plain and simple.

[kim]

You know, the last line of Joe in his Hillary ad with Val keeps coming back to me. "She'll get the job done".

He mumbled it out of the corner of his mouth. He didn't look at the camera. This is a subtle and powerful line, and his body belied it.
===================================

[kim]

So now Venezuela is a state sponsor of terrorism. Read all about it in today's WaPo.
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