Sarah Palin sticks the knife in Obama

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

What's the cruelest most fucked up thing Sarah Palin can do to a person?

Agree with him!

Talk about hardball politics. Fortunately she had the basic decency to criticize the withdrawal aspect of the plan... thank God for that much, at least.

Palin Lauds Obama's Afghanistan Decision

Sarah Palin is offering rare praise for President Obama following his speech last night in which he vowed to deploy 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

"At long last, President Obama decided to give his military commanders much of what they need to accomplish their mission in Afghanistan," Palin wrote on her Facebook page last night.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee expressed gratitude that a president who ran on a platform opposing the surge in Iraq now supports a surge in Afghanistan. She also signaled confidence that a surge in Afghanistan can succeed.

"We now have an opportunity to build a bipartisan consensus in support of a vital national security priority: defeating Al-Qaeda and its violent extremist allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and ensuring that these countries never again serve as bases for terrorist attacks against America and our allies," she wrote...

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/12/02/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5863327.shtml

[tridim]

1. Except she doesn't agree with the President's plan..

She agrees ONLY with the escalation, not the exit strategy. She actually agrees with the GOP, who also don't agree with the President's exit plan.

I want to know why she thinks her opinion matters. She's just a blogger with a book, nothing more.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. The really funny part

is that she thinks she had something to do with his decision.

Shannyn Moore has a good post about this: http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/in-it-to-win-it-like-a-basketball-game/

President Obama spoke this evening about his decision to build up troops in Afghanistan. Not a big shocker, he’d promised as much while campaigning. Neato with the change! I’m thinking Afghanistan is the new Vietnam and BHO became LBJ in pretty short order. I can only imagine the champagne corks popping at Blackwater & Co. tonight.

Well, Princess Palin of Facebook has spoken…she’s pretty sure she had something to do with his decision. Once again, a shocking bout of Reality Deficit Disorder.

Finally, A Decision for Afghanistan: We’re In It to Win It
Three months ago, I joined a number of Americans in urging President Obama to provide the resources necessary to achieve our goals in Afghanistan. Tonight, I am glad he mostly heeded that advice.

Right, the President was taking your advice…right. No wonder I disagree with it. By “we’re in it” do you mean you and Obama? That’s weird…are you ready to pal around with him now?

At long last, President Obama decided to give his military commanders much of what they need to accomplish their mission in Afghanistan. In the end, he decided to endorse a “surge” for Afghanistan, applying the counterinsurgency principles of “clear, hold and build” that worked so well in Iraq. Given that he opposed the surge in Iraq, it is even more welcome that he now supports a surge in Afghanistan.

“At long last”? Because he’s been jacking around on a ranch all these months? “Worked so well in Iraq”? OK, put down the Red Bull and eat a crouton…it will help. The only surge GWB had that was productive resulted in the birth of twins. SURGE MEANS MORE DEAD PEOPLE.

<snip>

[spiritual_gunfighter]

3. Many on DU agree with Sarah Palin n/t

[high density]

6. Please tell me who, specifically, agrees with this statement:

The former Alaska governor was not entirely on board with Obama's speech last night, however. She took issue with the president setting July 2011 as a date to begin pulling troops out of Afghanistan, arguing the move amounts to "sending the wrong message" to our allies and enemies.

If there are "many" then I'm sure you'll easily come with up with at least a couple of names that want endless warfare.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

7. It is against DU rules to give names you should know that

but many agree with this statement

Palin Lauds Obama's Afghanistan Decision

Sarah Palin is offering rare praise for President Obama following his speech last night in which he vowed to deploy 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

"At long last, President Obama decided to give his military commanders much of what they need to accomplish their mission in Afghanistan," Palin wrote on her Facebook page last night.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee expressed gratitude that a president who ran on a platform opposing the surge in Iraq now supports a surge in Afghanistan. She also signaled confidence that a surge in Afghanistan can succeed.

"We now have an opportunity to build a bipartisan consensus in support of a vital national security priority: defeating Al-Qaeda and its violent extremist allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and ensuring that these countries never again serve as bases for terrorist attacks against America and our allies," she wrote...

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. That's called 'cherry picking' because without an end date the

'surge' is meaningless. Without an end date it IS simply escalation to no purpose.

By ignoring the stated fact that the withdrawal will begin well before the next election - making this effectively a referendum on his presidency - is ignoring the fact that this is setting up a withdrawal.
If the withdrawal isn't happening, he won't see another term. He knows that. Do you think he wants to be a one-term wonder?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

9. He has hinged his entire presidency on Afghanistan now

regardless of the timetable, if things go south he might not get reelected anyway.

[high density]

11. The wars weren't Obama's choice

Bush decided he was going to hand two wars onto another president. Now within the first year of his presidency, Obama has put end dates on both of them. I fail to see how this is a bad thing. Sarah Palin does not agree with ending the wars, so that's why you might want to stop copying and pasting her bullshit no matter what a warped alternate-reality headline on CBS News happens to assert.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. On the list of things that might not get him re-elected...

I don't think this cracks the top 10. Here's a hint: numbers 1-5 are jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, and health care.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. That's what it is today - but the election is three years from now,

15 months after the withdrawal is set to begin.

Up or down, the health care issue will be long done with by then - we'll have something that is no worse, at least marginally better, possibly much better than we have today. The jobs will be coming back by then, too. Remember the unemployment crisis began barely a year before he took office and * did nothing to alleviate it - Obama is at least working on the problem to accelerate the end of the cycle. We may or may not be back to acceptable numbers, but they will be better than they are today.

In 3 years, the issue will be the end of the AfPak conflict. I promise.

[high density]

10. Actually the answer is that these DUers simply don't exist so no "calling out" is needed.

Nobody here agrees on the endless escalation that Palin has been desiring. Heck, that is a minority opinion even in Republican circles these days.

[Cass]

4. "At long last, President Obama decided to give his military commanders much of what they need..."

At long last? Please. What a passive aggressive comment. That's all she knows how to do - criticize and knock people down.

[high density]

5. More bad headline writing

She is very much against the idea of the war ending in 2011.

[Lord Helmet]

12. low-hanging fruit

[IndianaGreen]

14. Caribou Barbie joins Joe Lieberman in endorsing Obama's war

What more proof do we need that this escalation is FUBAR!

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Sarah continues to lose support

of former friends in Alaska. From this morning's Anchorage Daily News http://www.adn.com/opinion/compass/story/1040382.html

Palin wants to be a star in a democracy
COMPASS: Other points of view

By PAUL FUHS

Published: December 4th, 2009 03:57 AM
Last Modified: December 4th, 2009 03:57 AM

Every one of us knows someone like this: They always find someone else to blame for their own mistakes or shortcomings and never take responsibility for their own actions.

Sarah Palin's new book is a classic study in this form of self-delusion. It is never attractive when we see it in co-workers, for instance. It is even more distasteful when we see it in public figures.

Her attacks on John Bitney and others in her administration and the John McCain campaign are petty and mean-spirited. And this toward people who worked day and night to help her in her campaigns.

Her attacks on Bitney in her book are just plain false and show her basic misunderstanding of how government works. She castigated him for saying he was "friends" with some legislators and so because of that she had to wonder "whose side he was on."

Well, to start with, the Legislature is not the enemy. They are an equal, elected, constitutional branch of government with just as much legitimacy as the executive branch, and the branches work together to form public policy.

At the press conference following the first legislative session of her administration, she praised Bitney for the many successes she claimed. Now she blames him for her failures with the Legislature.

Which is the truth?

The truth is that she fired him for a purely personal matter having nothing to do with his performance as she claimed during the campaign for VP. He was immediately hired by Speaker of the House John Harris, who stated on the House floor that "firing John Bitney was one of the biggest mistakes she had ever made." I am sure many other legislators felt the same way.

Several other senior members of her administration have apologized to John Bitney for these obviously false statements but she never had the personal integrity to do so herself.

Sarah quit on Alaskans because she just couldn't handle it. After this was clearly exposed and the glamour and celebrity were gone, she just wasn't interested anymore. So, off to the celebrity world again where there is no accountability and where even people like Lindsay Lohan still make the front page. She had a chance in this book to say something significant to really help Alaskans within the national dialogue. Instead, she chose the politics of persecution and blaming others.

Alaskans seem relieved to be rid of the constant drama and to now have Gov. Parnell, who actually does understand how government operates. This shows in his recent 81 percent positive rating as reported by pollster Dave Dittman.

It wasn't that Palin had the wrong advisers with too much experience as "insiders." It was that she wouldn't listen to them. It was well known that she wouldn't even meet with her own commissioners, much less, say, members of the public or the business community. Soon after the election, the fortress walls went up, followed by the private e-mail accounts, and it was destined to go downhill from there.

So much for open and transparent government.

I don't write this to tear down Sarah Palin as much as to point out hard-learned lessons for our democracy and future. Anyone who still believes in government by celebrity should see the movie "Idiocracy."

What a disappointment for those of us who worked on her campaign, and what a waste of potential for the state of Alaska.


Paul Fuhs is a lobbyist, former mayor of Unalaska and commissioner of commerce and economic development for Gov. Wally Hickel. He is a friend of John Bitney, and they worked together on Palin's campaign for governor.

[mstinamotorcity]

17. You mean she reads

i know somebody played a video clip for her. You think she can drive her book tour bus across the water and visit Russia i know its only across the street according to ms.palin.:P :P :P