Politics

President 2.0

Michael Koppelman, Leave a comment

I think this is a great ticket. Obama got where he is because he is smart and well-spoken. Biden is where he is because he rose to prominence in the Senate. I’ve heard people joke about how this should be the Biden-Obama ticket. That would be fine too.

When I think about what the most important criteria is, for me, when it comes to choosing a presidential candidate, it’s intelligence and honesty. I want to know the person is really smart and has really good judgement and will be honest with the American people. I will forgive almost any failure if I think this is true. It’s why I think Jimmy Carter was a great president, for example. I will accept failure if it is honest failure. I think Clinton was a great president for the same reasons: he as really smart and he wasn’t afraid to be honest with us. I still recall a debate where he answered a question by a doctor and he said “I’m gonna raise your taxes.” He did not try to hide that and his honesty was refreshing. (As an aside, Slick Willy was not necessarily honest in all regards and I do not give him a free pass for that, per se.) I even liked John McCain in those times that he was boldly honest. I’m seeing less and less of that McCain.

So Obama, to me, has the two most important qualities. He’s really smart and he’s not just blowing smoke up our asses. We’ll have a good-faith problem solver at the helm. That alone is a major, huge, gigantic, colossal, phenomenally large difference compared to Bush. In the intelligence/honesty department I think McCain is also an improvement over Bush. He is nowhere near as smart as Obama, though, plus he’s old, which slows down the processor a bit. He’s also been caught famously lying, like in regards to the rebel flag issue. He came clean, which I respected, but he lied about it in the first place.

Biden is really a great man. He is a liability politically because of his long voting record and the fact that he is an East Coast Liberal. We’ll be hearing all sorts of horror stories about what Biden has voted for (and against). But he is a solid guy with a solid reputation in the Senate and I love that he is boldly outspoken.

So Obama is better than McCain and way, way better than Bush and Biden is way, way better than Cheney. We have a chance to significantly upgrade our executive branch. President 2.0. Let’s do it!

President 2.0

True Christians

Michael KoppelmanLeave a comment

From an interesting article at People for the American Way (via The Minnesota Independent)

“Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden sends a clear message, true Christians need not apply in the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. “Instead of picking a true Christian, Obama, a fake evangelical, has selected Biden, a fake Catholic.”

The CADC proclaims its mission is to “advance religious liberty for Christians by protecting Christians from defamation, discrimination, and bigotry from any and all sources,” but that apparently doesn’t apply to those it considers “fake” Christians such as Obama and Biden. It might seem odd that an organization founded to protect Christians from defamation would among the most frequently and vocally defaming Obama’s faith, but only if you don’t understand that Cass’s mission is reserved solely for those he deems “true Christians” who have proven their faith via “actions and [holding] the beliefs personified by all of us who proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as Savior: the need to be re-born in Christ and the affirmation of historic Christianity, having a demonstrable and proven record of support for traditional Christian morality.”

It’s hilarious that an organization with the words “Christian Anti-Defamation” in their name would defame the Christian faith of Obama and Biden.

I’m an atheist but I’ve read the New Testament several times, back when I was a Catholic, and these “true Christians” seem to me like the people who Jesus would rightly reject as hypocrites.

Beware of people who tell you what God wants. They are always delusional or liars.

True Christians

Dear Clinton supporters: get over it!

Michael Koppelman, 1 Comment

Lord knows WTF the problem is with supporters of Hillary Clinton. Your candidate dropped out of the race! Obama was never disrespectful to Clinton. Get over yourselves.

“Touchy, touchy, feely, feely,” said Rick Stafford, a superdelegate and a leader of Clinton’s Minnesota campaign, of the purpose of the late-night meeting. “People need to express their feelings one more time.”…Still, hundreds of Clinton supporters want to voice their support one more time for their candidate, and there are emotionally compelling events that will almost ensure she’ll get substantial first-ballot support

Via MinnPost.

Dear Clinton supporters: get over it!

Who cares if McCain is richer than God?

Michael Koppelman, , 3 Comments

I do. I care because the rat-bastard Republicans are trying to make Obama look like an elitist. McCain could buy Obama 100 times over. McCain doesn’t know how many houses he has! If the rat-bastard Republicans want to stop this utter inane nonsense about how Obama is an elitist, we can just let this issue drop. Otherwise McCain should expect a lot of questions about his extreme fucking wealth.

Republicans are the fucking kings of double-standards. They gave Kerry shit for being out of touch with common people because of his wealth. But does that apply to McCain? Of course not!

Who cares if McCain is richer than God?

Obama and Iraq

Michael Koppelman, , 8 Comments

Iraq is a mess. If things improve and Iraqis get their country under control and implement peaceful, representative, secular government no one will be happier than me. I have never had the goal of watching Bush and his administration fail. Even if Iraq does improve and stabilize, it will not in any way excuse Bush of the major mistakes and the major unnecessary loss of life in Iraq.

What’s funny, though, is that Bush sent the bull in the China shop and now people are hard as hell on Obama, as if he should alone have all the answers and make all the right predictions about Iraq. It’s obvious to everyone, McCain included, I think, that it is time to get out of Iraq. Obama has suggested a policy of a reasoned withdrawal. This is a view that many, many people share. I believe the Iraqis themselves are suggesting it. Said the Obama camp:

“It is hard to understand how Sen. McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

If Obama is elected President he will be inheriting Bush’s mess and it may not go 100% smoothly. Given how unsmoothly it has gone so far, and how tolerant the Right has been with it, I’m sure they will be very supportive and tolerant of Obama’s efforts.

Yeah right.

Obama and Iraq

Coleman's hatchet job on Franken

Michael KoppelmanLeave a comment

Coleman is running the same ad over and over with some angry old lady Democrat saying that Franken is a bad, bad man because he said off color things in his career as a comedian.

I have no respect for Coleman. But, c’mon, man, is that the best you’ve got? There is not a single mention of an issue nor a single mention of a quality or position of Coleman in the ad. It’s just a half-ass hatchet job of Franken based on something we all know — he was a comedy writer and satirist. Then Coleman says “I approve this message” at the end. What a hack.

The Franken ad I see playing over and over talks about things Franken has done and never mentions Coleman. In fact, he has a Republican from Texas endorsing him.

Franken will be 100 times the Senator that Coleman has been. I think we actually have an opportunity to have a Wellstone-like Senator in Franken and I support him completely.

Coleman's hatchet job on Franken

Stillwater's embarrassing representative

Michael Koppelman, , 12 Comments

Rep. Michele Bachmann is just not very smart. She’s also an evil See You Next Tuesday but this post is about the former, her utter lack of intelligence.

The Minnesota Independent is reporting that Bachmann slams Democrats for not passing a bill for a tax credit for solar and wind energy. The funny part — she voted against it! The other funny part, such a bill did pass!

Please, Stillwater, MN, get rid of this embarrassing, retarded and evil woman and elect someone sensible to represent you.

Stillwater's embarrassing representative

On getting elected

Michael Koppelman, 1 Comment

It occurs to me that getting elected and being a great leader are two different things. Both these candidates right now, McCain and Obama, are in the process of trying to get elected. They can’t lead if they don’t get elected. The electorate is fickle and hard to predict. Many are uninformed on issues and do more of a “gut check” to make their decision. Others are party ideologues and others still are people with complex values that span the candidates and parties.

Bush, in my opinion, did the classic bait-and-switch, pretending to be a compassionate conservative while he was really very much a divider and not a uniter. I think a lot of people that voted for Bush regret it. At the same time, Gore and Kerry were so over-handled and wishy-washy that they did not give us a good alternatives.

With this race, it seems to me that Obama is tacking to the center and McCain is tacking to the right, both doing so in order to get the most broad base of support as possible. With Obama, he has the left locked up but needs the center to be successful. McCain does pretty well with the center but has alienated the far right.

On the one hand, I really believe the best way to get elected is to be utterly honest and true to your convictions and damn the consequences. I suspect that every political advisor on both sides disagrees with me. Thus we have this complicated and depressing “moving target” of positions, where the candidates try to reconcile their convictions with the reactions of the voters.

I personally wish someone would shake Obama and say “be utterly honest and true to your convictions and damn the consequences” but there is a very good chance he would not get elected if he did. Thus everything is more nuanced. I also wish McCain would hold true to those areas where he disagrees with the far right wing of the Republican party. We need a rational approach to immigration, not a black and white approach. Torture should be so off the table it never comes up at all. Campaign finance is a cluster fuck that hurts America badly. McCain was right on these issues and I suspect he will be a party-line Right Winger on them by the end.

So people will accuse them both of flip-flopping and pandering. I’ll just say it is your fault. We could punish people for trying to get elected but these tactics work and that’s why they do them and the electorate is to blame.

On getting elected

Rep. Louis Gohmert [R-TX] thinks he's funny

Michael Koppelman, 1 Comment

H.R. 6615: To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, D.C., where the United States Supreme Court will be able to more effectively micromanage the detainees by holding them on the Supreme Court grounds, and for other purposes.

I love how these guys adore the Supreme Court when they agree with them and demonize them when they don’t. Doesn’t it suck when the Supreme Court micromanages your torture and indefinite incarceration without due process agenda?

It reminds me of the hatred that some people have for the ACLU. Raise your hand if you are anti-civil liberties! Who the fuck is anti-civil liberties? Just the people who want to decide who gets civil liberties and who doesn’t. They go by the name “Republicans“.

Rep. Louis Gohmert [R-TX] thinks he's funny

The Truth about Obama and McCain

Michael Koppelman22 Comments

Here’s the problem: people on the right have a caricature view of Obama and people on the left have a caricature view of McCain. If your only info on Obama comes from Powerline and your info on McCain comes from the Huffington Post, you are not getting good information.

Neither of these men are perfect. They are politicians and they are trying to get elected. Both of them, unfortunately, will say or do whatever it takes to get elected. This is nothing new. You’ll recall that George W. Bush presented himself as a compassionate conservative in the first election. He was nothing of the sort. He lied his way into office. Now it looks like either Obama or McCain will try to lie their way into office as well.

It doesn’t make me happy, the utter balls-less-ness of our presidential campaigns. Both candidates are wooing the center and it makes them look like “empty suited pander machines”.

But this is the bed we must lie in. Earlier I asked for a nice clean election. Clearly that is not going to happen. Still, I’d like us all to abandon these caricature views of the candidates. I get pissed off when people dismiss Obama and I get pissed off when people try to paint McCain with a broad brush. Neither of these men are as bad as the other side says they are or as good as their side says they are.

The truth is these are both accomplished men and they will both make great presidents. If you find yourself dismissing either of them you are not getting very good information.

There is no way I’m going to vote for McCain. I’ve watched him too long and I understand his positions too well to support him. I think comparing him to Bush is completely fair and voters who vote for him should be clear on their similarities. But I’m not going to resort to lame, shallow name-calling tactics and neither should you.

The Truth about Obama and McCain