Saddam Finally Captured: Democratic Primaries Rendered Pointless
by matt at 6:43 am on December 14th, 2003 in Politics
Look at this gentleman right here
Did all of the Saddam look-a-like posse have to rock this look?
Quote of the day:
“The same Iraqis that cheer and shoot their guns when a U.S. helicopter gets shot down are the same Iraqis who are cheering and shooting their guns today.” - Cohen Sr.
Predictions:
The Prez gets a 12% bump in the polls
Dean loses 7%
Kerry campaign comes back to life
40% of U.S. citizens think we got bin Laden
100% chance I will hear a pundit say “He gassed his own people” today*
No truth to the rumor that The Prez will participate in the eventual firing squad.
In reality, this is purely psychological. No one in this country is any safer today than they were yesterday, the exact same number of terrorists are running around, attacks on our troops will continue (because the Iraqis love us and the attacks are the work of foreign fighters, right?).
I have to again hand it to the administration for getting this done on a weekend. Nothing like having everyone at home in front of the TV all day reading cowboy quotes from The Prez and seeing video of Saddam getting checked for lice. Never mind the Geneva Conventions, that’s entertainment.
Unless bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri were staying in the guest house, I say yawn.
Running Prediction Scorboard
*Donald Rumsfeld 60 Minutes 12/14/03. Thanks to JP for the heads up.
tom wrote:
i feel you on the now eventual dem loss. this is about as bad as it could be. people are so stupid they think this means something. theyll forget the bungled troop estimates, the haliburton thieving, the unilateral war in the first place and say “hey, we caught a dirty guy in a cave. this sounds like a hollywood movie.”
argh. people kill me.
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 7:44 am ¶
tom wrote:
one other comment though: the elections are far enough away that theres plenty of time for the bush admin to screw more things up. they cant seem to go a month without some story of their imcompetence or their arrogance or their cynicism coming out. so theres at least 10 more reasons that should come out for the dems to attack.
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 7:47 am ¶
matt wrote:
Well, that strategy has worked out so well so far, it’s hard to imagine that it won’t continue.
Even the Haliburton thing won’t stick because people have come to expect it, and now they won’t even remember it.
Plame who?
Niger what?
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 8:06 am ¶
Coolfer wrote:
All psychological? Maybe, but Iraq is a safer place. No doubt about that.
Nice job, Dems. Way to concede the election. Dean is a one-trick pony. If Iraq is indeed a safer place now, it’s certainly going to be a lot safer when Dean campaigns against Bush on the only part of his platform that people seem to care much about: the war. The more this war is interpreted as justified, the more the Dems need Hillary to jump in the race.
Tom, I think you’ve got it all wrong. The left bungled the estimates. Remember their death toll estimates before the war? Millions? As for Halliburton thieving, it’s only alleged thieving at this point…unless you got your hands on some secret smoking gun you’d like to share with us. Yeah, they probably overcharged. But in the grand scheme of things, the Halliburton issue is minor. If that’s your best ammo against Bush, I’ve got a slingshot you may want to borrow.
Matt, again with the Niger comment? Let it die, dude.
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 10:19 am ¶
matt wrote:
Dude? Do people still talk like that?
Are you the Dell dude?
Second time for you Coolfer: It never got resolved.
How much do you hear me bitching about the Florida election? Never. The Supremes decided it, and that was it for me. People in power in this country can’t just ignore a question and let time go by and say “That’s a moot point” like Andy Card did last week. The administration is responsible to the citizens. All due respect, but if you can’t understand the difference between resolved issues and open issues, maybe it’s best if you just write about music.
Watch how much safer Iraq is now. Care to go on vacation?
We didn’t go to war to make Iraq safer, we went there to make this country safer (or so I’m told).
And I’d be just fine with Hillary in the race. She’s not my favorite, but she has the ability to communicate what’s wrong with this administration better than Dean’s “War War War”.
There’s nothing alleged about Haliburton. The Army released the report. No one made up the $61 mills number. And even that doesn’t matter. Why is a supposed free-market administration awarding long term no-bid contracts to campaign supporters? It doesn’t pass the smell test.
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 10:34 am ¶
tom wrote:
i dont think dean or any one candidate’s attack strategy is the problem. the problem is the amount of images bush is going to have in his favor: his post 9-11 speech to the NYC rescue crews, his aircraft carrier landing, now saddam getting checked for lice. people obviously have enough going on in their lives that they dont pay attention to whats really going on. they just soak in the admin’s bullshit and forget their numerous fuck ups. and the niger/plume story is huge: the admin basically screwing people over for not verifying bad intelligence that supported their unpopular war. yeah we should just ignore that.
one thing i did like seeing on fox news earlier: fox commentator talking about great this is to help free iraq over top of video of iraqis shooting guns and waving USSR flags. i think they missed the point.
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 12:35 pm ¶
tom wrote:
Re: hillary
i guess at this point id take her if there was a chance that shed win. i cant see people voting a woman into office against mr “i caught saddam”.
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 12:36 pm ¶
jean-paul wrote:
haha matt, no joke, but i turned on “60 minutes” to see rummy on the show, and, his face appeared onscreen, and first sound i heard out of his speaking mouth, no joke:
“…used gas on his own people”
fucking crazy. also, i loved the bin laden/40% crack.
Posted 14 Dec 2003 at 4:21 pm ¶
Cait wrote:
Ugh. Can’t we at least spend a small second on the positive aspect of capturing Saddam before falling back into the pit of negativity and anger that is the Democratic party? I’m so digusted with my own party and it’s antics lately. I hope Iraq had reached a turning point. I hope it becomes a moot issues by the election. It’ll be interesting to hear what Dean has to say then. Anything?
Posted 15 Dec 2003 at 7:54 am ¶
matt wrote:
Show me a Dem who is not disgusted with his own party, and i’ll call him a republican. I’m not going to bash Dean over this except to say that I’m POSITIVE that he was pissed when they found that homeless guy.
Posted 15 Dec 2003 at 8:03 am ¶
dizz wrote:
One of the things that got my ear the most about this was how fast people spun this into politics. I’m understand politics are involved, but.. We need to appreciate the greater good this capture has done.
Its not Bin Laden, but a damn good job by our troops for getting this ass of the ’streets’.
And what a pussy Saddam is…. coming out of that hole with his hands up. Fuck that, if you comin’ for my skinny ass, prepare for a gunfight.
Posted 15 Dec 2003 at 6:24 pm ¶
tom wrote:
the greater good this capture did was basically nothing. the guy was living in a hole. its not very easy to lead people if you dont even have a cell phone. the hard work was done months ago by chasing him out of baghdad. this is just flashy, for show; like a big fake cubic zirconium G-unit pendant.
Posted 16 Dec 2003 at 9:16 am ¶
Coolfer wrote:
Maybe it’s just best I write about music? Because I have a different opinion that you? I find that comment rather insensitive and offensive, as if you’re saying I’m “too stupid to get it” because I have a different viewpoint. You’ll have to let me know your intent, but that’s how I interpreted it.
We aren’t having a debate about an open issue or a closed issue. We’re having a debate on the priority and weight given to topics in the dialogue on war. The Niger comment isn’t a closed issue–somebody should eventually be held accountible. I’m sure many books and many independent committees will keep the topic alive for years to come. The Halliburton isn’t a closed issue–I keep on reading various interpretations of the Pentagon’s report, so the facts obviously haven’t been laid out yet. But these issues, at the end of the day, are meaningless, in my opinion. They stand as symbols to many people, but not me. The heart of the Iraq debate is much more than Niger and Halliburton.
Posted 18 Dec 2003 at 6:36 pm ¶
matt wrote:
I am nothing if not insensitive, but i wasn’t calling you stupid. You just aren’t making a sensible argument.
Not because you have a different opinion, but because your argument makes no sense. You say “let it die”. Maybe that means something different to you than it does me, but I’ll write about that shit on my site until i fucking get arthritis or someone comes clean. They are doing it again with another “memo”, see Safire in the NYT.
The haliburton issue may or may not be minor, but it is indicative of a systemic problem, and that problem is pathological secrecy.
As citizens of this country, we deserve better information from the government than we are getting. Not everything is a matter of national security, like, say, the energy meetings…
It’s not a little too convienent , it’s way too fucking convienent. everything they do benefits contributors, and it is sickening.
i give a lot of weight to corruption becaue it undermines free-market capitalism, and that is not acceptable to me. this administration is almost anti-capitalist because they feel the need to rig everything in their favor or that of their friends. Shouldn’t that all work itself out without all the favoritism and dishonesty?
Posted 18 Dec 2003 at 7:16 pm ¶