EJ Dionne Tells US What Republicans Think (I Leap From A Ledge)

EJ Dionne chatted with Joe Biden, who went off-message but in a good way.  You see, Biden is worried about more than jobs, jobs, jobs and the Democrats dismal prospects in 2010 - he is worried about America as a world leader in the 21st century:

"We will continue to be the most significant and dominant influence in the world as long as our economy is strong, growing and responsive to 21st-century needs. And they relate to education, they relate to energy, and they relate to health care".

Biden, more self-aware than people give him credit for, realized what he had just done. "I've sort of gotten off the Recovery Act," he said with a rueful smile.

Yet by the end of the interview, I realized he had bumped into the hidden political issue of the 2010 elections. Beneath the predictable back-and-forth between Obama and his Republican adversaries over government spending lies a substantively important difference over how the United States can maintain its global leadership.

Mr. Dionne then explains that "substantively important difference"to us:

For Republicans, American power is rooted largely in military might and showing a tough and resolute face to the world. They would rely on tax cuts as the one and only spur to economic growth.

Obama, Biden and the Democrats, on the other hand, believe that American power depends ultimately on the American economy, and that government has an essential role to play in fostering the next generation of growth.

For Republicans it is all about military power?  OMG.  I'm sure this seems like ancient history but back when conservatives opposed communism it was only partly because of the expansive militaristic nature of the Soviet Empire.  It was mainly because communism was an economic philosophy emphasizing the power of the state above the individual.

I hoe this is not news.  Just as an example, here is Reagan's first State of the Union, delivered during a ghastly recession - his early emphasis in on the importance of relieving the burden of government taxes and regulation so the American job machine can get rolling.

And - more ancient history - we didn't defeat the Soviets militarily.  Their economy collapsed, partly as a result of trying to match our military spending.

To characterize the debate today or at any time in the past few decades as Republicans favoring a strong military while Democrats favor a strong economy is absurd.  Both parties are well aware that "It's the economy".  Republicans and Democrats disagree about the policies that will lead to a growth and job creation. 

Democrats point with pride to European welfare states as their model and claim that if they are allowed to tax and tax, and spend and spend than they can provide all of the good things found there without the endless maze of regulations that have curtailed job growth (and population growth) in Europe. 

Republicans look at Europe in horror - they don't have jobs, they don't have babies, they can't even pretend to absorb immigrants, and they can't and/or won't field a useful military.  Nice "free" museums, though.

PILING ON:  Shannen Coffin buries Mr. Dionne; Jennifer Rubin thumps Biden.

FROM THE MISTS OF TIME:  Back in late January 2003 Joe Biden was at Davos defending Bush's Iraq policy:

Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, found himself surrounded in one corridor by European and Asian reporters, pummeling him with questions about the U.S. policy toward Iraq. Mr. Biden acknowledged his own misgivings about the Bush approach, but then fired back: "No one in Europe is saying [Mr. Hussein] is a good guy, or that he's keeping the agreement," but "you all went 'bla-bla-bla' " and did "nothing."

And Joe knows about doing nothing.

Comments

[Rob Crawford]

Democrats are bigots.

[Carol Herman]

Tasked with telling other people what to think? How does this sell? Where does it leave Independents?

What's shocking is that there's a corporate structure that pays Dionne to write this crap.

[President Obama]

“We’ve got to make sure that our party understands that, LIKE IT OR NOT, we have to have a financial system that is healthy and functioning, so we can’t be demonizing every bank out there,” Obama said.

[Jack is Back!]

I thought partisan politics was anathema to Biden and the O? I mean where is the civility and respect?

So the difference between Republicans and Democrats is the difference between war-mongers and peaceniks, eh? I thought it was more about the size of government, lower taxes, individual achievement versus a dependency culture and all that, blah, blah, blah.

[MTF]

I despair. Until EJ, the President, Ezra Klein and all their friends start actually working for a living (as opposed to surviving on glib condescension) these folks will truly not understand the issues that are driving Americans absolutely crazy. To simple-mindedly mischaracterize Republicans (and many Democrats who oppose the government driven economic destruction we are seeing) is just foolishness.

[bgates]

Biden, more self-aware than people give him credit for

Sounds like a defensive description of an early attempt at AI. And by "early attempt at AI", I mean Pong.

Yet by the end of the interview, as I struggled to turn five hours talking to Joe Biden (was it really only 45 minutes? That can't be right) into a coherent column, I realized I could scratch everything from just before he started rambling about his idea to extend Amtrak to every driveway in America and say he had bumped into the hidden political issue of the 2010 elections, and then kind of wing it.

[Porchlight]

“We’ve got to make sure that our party understands that, LIKE IT OR NOT, we have to have a financial system that is healthy and functioning, so we can’t be demonizing every bank out there,” Obama said.

Still shaking my head in wonder over this one. Like it or not?

[Janet]

Let's get a look at the wise old coot that's making Tom want to leap...

Yup...wisdom incarnate.

[sam]

"They would rely on tax cuts as the one and only spur to economic growth. "

In contrast to the one and only Democrat answer to every issue - tax and spend, tax and spend, tax and spend.

(I guess that is technically two answers - tax AND spend.)

[Rob Crawford]

In contrast to the one and only Democrat answer to every issue - tax and spend, tax and spend, tax and spend.

ITYM "theft and graft".

[Danube of Thought]

Dionne is simply a caricature of the leftist fool.

According to Rush, Obama twice pronounced "corpsman" as thoughbit were "corpseman." Yet another indication of an incomplete education.

[Janet]

Here is a bit of his bio from wiki..

"Dionne was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts. He attended Portsmouth Abbey School, a Benedictine college preparatory school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Dionne holds a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University (1973), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a DPhil in Sociology from Balliol College, Oxford (1982), where he was a Rhodes Scholar."

Yup...well rounded.

[Danube of Thought]

*as though it* (I-phone post)

[Cecil Turner]

Maybe E.J. can explain why the Dems cut one of the few useful places to spend tax dollars--the manned space program--and how that's going to help us maintain "global leadership."

[Captain Hate]

Sounds like a defensive description of an early attempt at AI. And by "early attempt at AI", I mean Pong.

I'm reasonably confident you could replicate Sheriff Joe's cognitive processes on one of those frisbee sized floppy disks (when they really were floppy) on a Trash 80.

[Rob Crawford]

Dionne was...

Curious biography. I wonder if he's ever lived outside the northeast.

And if he's been to Europe more times than he's been to places within the Mississippi basin.

[Neo]

EJ Dionne (AKA "Mustard Boy") needs some new friends.

Here I was lead to believe that all "rich" folks were Republicans, but I never knew that they all made their money in the military.

Please squeeze you cheeks together till the mustard pops out.

[Janet]

rue·ful (rfl)
adj.
1. Inspiring pity or compassion.
2. Causing, feeling, or expressing sorrow or regret.

Biden..."with a rueful smile"

*sniff* "I've sort of gotten off the Recovery Act."

[clarice]

I didn't author these articles, but if you are interested in energy and the global waring scam, both of these are really worth reading:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/the_cfc_ban_global_warmings_pi.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/cheap_natural_gas_and_its_demo.html

[Ignatz]

--They would rely on tax cuts as the one and only spur to economic growth.--

They would be correct.

[Danube of Thought]

"WASHINGTON -- The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce."

Anybody getting tired of the "unexpectedly" part?

[clarice]

Yeah--Who wasn't expecting this?

[SWarren]

OT- Rush said that Reid is being pressured to delay Brown's swearing in until after the NRLB vote. Apparently it's so close that Brown would make the difference.

[clarice]

After the byoffs of Nelson and Landrieu? Heh--that would be risking a real tar and feathering.

[Neo]

Tomorrow we get the "unprecedented" January unemployment numbers

[Jane]

OT- Rush said that Reid is being pressured to delay Brown's swearing in until after the NRLB vote.

The republicans damn well better not concede.

[Neo]

A high-ranking Pakistani diplomat reportedly cannot be appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia because in Arabic his name translates into a phrase more appropriate for a porn star, referring to the size of male genitals, Foreign Policy reported.

The Arabic transaltion of Akbar Zeb to "biggest d**k" has overwhelmed Saudi officials who have refused to allow his post there.

[MarkO]

Grab a rope. That's how we do things out here.

[Mike Myers]

E. J. Dionne needs to get hit with a cluebat. But somehow I don't think that doing that--no matter how many times--will cure the condition. Ignorance can be cured, but stupid is forever.

[bgates]

Here's a bit of a surprise: Obama talking about Haiti at the National Prayer Breakfast. He mentions multiple faith-based efforts. By evangelicals at World Relief. By the American Jewish World Service. By Hindu temples, and mainline Protestants, Catholic Relief Services, African American churches, the United Sikhs. By Americans of every faith, and no faith, uniting around a common purpose, a higher purpose.

Who's missing from that list?

If nothing else you'd think he'd talk up his own mosque.

[DebinNC]

MA Sec of State after certifying Brown's election today: "There has been a diligent effort on behalf of all election officials to honor the rights of Massachusetts' voters," said Galvin, a Democrat. "I think this process is about honoring the rights of the majority. So before I affix my signature to this, I'd like to call on Senator Brown to respect the rights of the majority. I hope we will be able to see an up or down vote on all the nominations of President Obama and that the rights of the majority as they have been respected here are respected in the United States Senate."

Huh?

[narciso]

They are funny that way, aren't they, after stealing Minnesota, and Alaska (by way of a false indictment), making way too much of Larry Craig's fables, and lassoing Specter
they demand consideration

[Jane]

Wow. I heard someone on local radio describe Galvin as "a republican/ democrat" - because we don't have republicans in MA. That comment doesn't fit that bill.

I also heard that Patches Kennedy said it was only right that Scott vote as Kennedy would have wanted because it is still Kennedy's term.

Can you imagine telling Ted or Patches to do that?

BTW Scott is taking Kennedy's office and will be sworn in in about an hour.

[clarice]

Patches is the fitting end to the political line of that family.
A drug addicted idiot.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

Two observations:

A. EJ Dionne is and has been the quintessential orthodox apologist- spokesman of the Jesuit, Harvard/Oxford Rhodes scholar leftist school of economics, politics and government. A true liberal "progressive" gasbag. Even the redoubtable Robert Reichhhhhh occasionally hits a kernel of real wisdom more often than Dionne.

B. How does the MA Sec of State has the temerity to tell Brown what his election means? Whadda jerk.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

"has"="have"

[glasater]

BTW Scott is taking Kennedy's office and will be sworn in in about an hour

Sans the Kennedy desk reported by Hannity.

[Janet]

LUN is a Newsbuster article on the new pagan circle at the Air Force Academy.
Apparently there has been a "desecration incident"....I thought witches were all about evil. If you sin too much do you get kicked out of the witches coven? I would think excessive sinning would make you the leader or something. Isn't desecration part of their religious service? What have we come to as a nation? So sad....

[Jack is Back!]

I wonder if E.J. has been speaking to asians a lot lately?

[Janet]

"...helped turn this double circle of stones into an outdoor chapel for Druids, Wiccans, and followers of other earth- centered religions. He calls it a freedom ring."

It is NOT a freedom ring...it is a pagan circle of stones, but he calls it a freedom ring. How nice.

[glasater]

Don't know where to put this tidbit but there is a "clarification thing" going on between Jake Tapper and Stephen Hayes.

White House: Kit Bond Owes WH, Law Enforcement an Apology

Stephen Hayes replies on twitter:

Shorter Bond: WH tells me to shut-up, discloses sensitive info to cover-up botched interrogations, and wants me to apologize? Unlikely.

Good for Senator Bond!

[bad]

According to Rush, Obama twice pronounced "corpsman" as though it were "corpseman."

I listened in amazement to POTUS mispronouncing such a basic word repeatedly. How could he posibly be ignorant of the correct pronunciation?

[Jane]

I'm watching local TV for the swearing in - the channel that Scott's wife reports for, and Marianne Marsh is clearly pissed. She alleges that the republican party told Scott to jump and he said: "How high". She is outraged that he is going down a week early. (I'm outraged that Obama lied when he said there would be no major votes before he got there) She also said we would see if he was serious about jobs next week - which means, if he is, he will vote for Obama's jobs bill.

Gimme a break.

Do people still buy that ridiculousness?

[Rick Ballard]

"How could he possibly be ignorant of the correct pronunciation?"

Count up the fence posts around your yard. If there are ten or more then there is a fair likelihood that at least two are as smart as BOzo (eight for Biden). "Ignorant" is a term of charity when used to describe BOzo. There's a remedy for ignorance that is simply unavailable to someone possessing intellectual gifts at BOzo's level.

[Porchlight]

bad,

Maybe he knows the correct pronunciation but deliberately (or unconsciously) mispronounces it due to his inherent anti-military bias.

Similar to when he said Palin was from "Wasilly."

Let's face it, the guy's a head case. Anything is possible.

Mostly likely he's just ignorant, though.

[bad]

Count up the fence posts around your yard. If there are ten or more then there is a fair likelihood that at least two are as smart as BOzo (eight for Biden).

You are right, of course, Rick. I have several stumps smarter than anyone in the administration.

[NK]

Biden "self aware"?... not likely,

Dionne self aware? ... when pigs fly as the saying goes;

Tom, don't worry yourself over the musings of Dionne and Biden, they are silly ole' coots longing for the days of Camelot and Great Society when Republicans sipped cocktails at the club and didn'tinvolve themselves with this ugly politics business. and conservatives? they were a strange small tribe made up of Birchers and that Goldwater feller from Arizona, nothing worth accounting for politically.

[Danube of Thought]

Bond is absolutely correct. If that guy had been handled properly not a soul on earth would know where the hell he has been from that day to this, other than that he is "in US custody." Amateur hour.

But hey, we've been true to our values...

[clarice]

Per the AP, we learn officials are determined to reveal everything they say he's telling us:
y MATT APUZZO and EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 36 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The Nigerian suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing turned against the cleric who claims to be his teacher and has helped the U.S. hunt for the radical preacher, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who faces terrorism charges in the Christmas bombing, has been cooperating with the FBI for days, providing information about his contacts in Yemen and the al-Qaida affiliate that operates there.
His cooperation talking about U.S.-born Yemeni radical Anwar al-Awlaki is significant because it could provide fresh clues for authorities trying to capture or kill him in the remote mountains of Yemen. Al-Awlaki has emerged has a prominent al-Qaida recruiter and has been tied to the 9/11 hijackers, Abdulmutallab and the suspect in November's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood.
The law enforcement official would not say what information Abdulmutallab provided, but al-Awlaki himself said in a recent interview that he and Abdulmutallab had kept in contact. "

[pagar]

Clarice, those were great American Thinker articles, and they have another One .

"Simply stated, we've been swindled. We've been set up as marks by a gang of opportunistic hucksters who have exploited the naïvely altruistic intentions of the environmental movement in an effort to control international energy consumption while redistributing global wealth and (in many cases) greedily lining their own pockets in the process."

[Sue]

Maybe someone should ask Dionne why Obama is pushing tax cuts as a job creator? He does it all the time. 95% of us got a tax cut which created jobs (don't ask me, I'm just repeating what the Big O says). He is creating tax cuts for small business to create jobs (good, but not near enough). I believe I heard Obama say there had been 25 tax cuts under his administration and no raised taxes, not one dime. So, back to the top, maybe someone should ask Dionne why Obama believes tax cuts create jobs.

[MikeS]

Personally, I'm impressed by E.J. today. I think this is the first time he ever said anything that struck me as interesting.

The difference between Republicans and Democrats is a subject that I often think about. It seems to me that these groups fundamentally disagree about facts, many of which can be verified one way or the other. Randall Hoven's fabulous AT piece today is a perfect example of the kind of facts I'm talking about.

My opinion is that these disagreements are not the fault of rank and file Dems or Repubs. They are the fault of biased news media. While politicians and there supporters are expected to "spin" the facts, we shouldn't expect spin from the media. We should expect unspinning.

[MikeS]

That said, I've always been amazed by the way Dems can fail to connect the dots or to extrapolate from know facts.

For example; Tea Party-ers were angry about taxes going up before the Dems started talking about raising them. That because they had infered from the known massive increases in spending that taxes would have to rise also. I recall one poor news-lady was absolutely beside herself that people thought taxes would go up even though Obama had not said they would.

Another difference between Dems and Repubs is that it is nearly impossible to teach Dems anything new. It's like they have reached a point where they think they know everything and then their brains slam shut. Global Warming is a good example of this phenomenon. No amount of new facts will change a Dems opinion on Global Warming, because none of the new facts ever reaches their brains.

[bgates]

They are the fault of biased news media.

Speaking of which, does anybody know the facts behind what I assume is the latest completely unjustified hit piece on Palin? She's supposed to have partial ownership of 2 properties in Alaska on which stand cabins that aren't listed in the county tax records.

[Rick Ballard]

MikeS,

You know Lincoln's bit about fooling some of the people all of the time? 'Democrat' is the correct term to use in describing those people. Lincoln was just being polite.

Thank you for the Hoven link. He did a very nice job on the Dem spokesliar.

[MikeS]

While politicians and there supporters?

I think I meant their she blows!

[daddy]

"How could he possibly be ignorant of the correct pronunciation?"

Don't forget the Constellation "Oreee-On."

[daddy]

"Biden, more self-aware than people give him credit for"

Is a turnip self aware?

[clarice]

Maybe they're called corpsemen in Pokheeston .

[narciso]

No, they are very precise about the English language, but he could have gotten it from
those Urdu poets

[daddy]

does anybody know the facts behind what I assume is the latest completely unjustified hit piece on Palin?

bgates, All I can find is this ">http://www.adn.com/palin/story/1125241.html"> ADN story just up on Sarah with Ellie Light letters to the Editor just starting to show up.

[MikeS]

I'm thinking about writing about about Obama's miscalculations, misconceptions, misinterpretations, misjudgments, misstatements, missteps, and mistakes.

I'll call it "Akbar Nought."

[bgates]

daddy, that's sort of thing is all I've seen too.

[Saus]

America will be a broke country that never recovers. It put garbage in, Obama, that ordered all this stuff form his church and thought it was free and then wanted to pay us for ordering it. They won't stop until America is broke and that's what they want. The military too. Filth from filth will always be filth.

[drjohn]

"They would rely on tax cuts as the one and only spur to economic growth."

"Obama, Biden and the Democrats, on the other hand, believe that American power depends ultimately on the American economy,"

Which depends on tax cuts.