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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Gore Vidal baits the PUMA

I thought I was having a dream when I read Gore Vidal’s comments on President Obama in The Times today.

Perhaps he’s lost it? I don’t know, but for the PUMA, it’s going to be like chum in the shark infested water.

Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama during the Democratic nomination process for president. Now, he reveals, he regrets his change of heart. How’s Obama doing? “Dreadfully. I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.”

So Obama is doing terribly because he won’t pull out of Afghanistan, that’s what he’s saying. Ok, fine, a lot of liberals think that way…but they thought Hillary Clinton would have been more hawkish.

Vidal now believes, as he did originally, Clinton would be the better president. “Hillary knows more about the world and what to do with the generals. History has proven when the girls get involved, they’re good at it. Elizabeth I knew Raleigh would be a good man to give a ship to.

Huh? Hillary Clinton would be a better President cause she’s a girl? The hint I get from this is Gore Vidal thinks we should get out of Afghanistan, but he claims Elizabeth I was a good leader for inciting a war with Spain? huh?

On Obama;

As for his wider vision: “Maybe he doesn’t have one, not to imply he is a fraud. He loves quoting Lincoln and there’s a great Lincoln quote from a letter he wrote to one of his generals in the South after the Civil War. ‘I am President of the United States. I have full overall power and never forget it, because I will exercise it’. That’s what Obama needs – a bit of Lincoln’s chill.”

What does this even mean? He’s upset at Obama because he’s not respecting civil rights, but he wants Obama to be a dictator.

Vidal thinks all is lost, the Republicans will win the next elections, someone will shoot Obama and the US will be a military dictatorship.

So to recap; Obama isn’t radical enough, he’s just like the Republicans, but the Republicans are going to shoot Obama and the military is going to take over the country because Obama is too radical for the country.

Got it?

Take a read for yourself…try not to roll your eyes

http://women.timesonline.co.uk…


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 20 Comments

20 comments

  1. HappyinVT

    A bit of a rambling mess.  I’m not sure what to make of the gun/assassination thing.

    I’m also not sure what he thinks Clinton or anyone else would have done differently with Afghanistan (other than Kucinich withdrawing and McCain bombing into oblivion).  Actually, I don’t think Obama knows what he’s going to do with Afghanistan.  Apparently, he’s had a series of meetings over the last couple of days.  And, one thing we know about the president is that he does nothing rashly.  I’ve also seen nothing that says he believes the generals to the exclusion of considering other points of view or options.  I’m sure it didn’t come as a huge surprise that McChrystal asked for more troops.  There have been reports that Biden, who doesn’t support a large number of increased troops, may be winning that argument largely because the election looks to be badly flawed.

    The healthcare thing is another issue.  At first I was frustrated that Obama wouldn’t draw a line in the sand regarding the public option but now I’m not sure what the benefits of doing so would have been.  Sen. “I don’t work for Obama” Reid as well as Sens. Lincoln, Baucus, Carper, Ross, Conrad etc. aren’t likely to change their minds because the president issues an ultimatum.

    But at least Vidal likes that Obama “doesn’t lie.”  ðŸ™‚

  2. John Allen

    Gore Vidal, military genuis, criticizes Obama’s lack of military experience. Vidal has vast military experience. He spent time in the Aleutian Islands during WW II as master of a freight and supply boat. This should give great weight to his thoughts on a war in Afghanistan in the 21st Century.

  3. fogiv

    …Gore Vidal’s cheese has slipped from his cracker.  He verges on incoherence throughout the piece.  So he’s lost it, or he’s pulling a Joaquin Phoenix.

  6. nrafter530

    said a couple of weeks ago that it was time to give up on Obama, let him lose in 2012 and then run some good progressive or Howard Dean to run in 2016.

    During the campaign I called then Suicide Liberals…the Naderites who felt it was necessary to change the entire course of history to prove a point.

    I blame them for the war in Iraq. Does anyone seriously believe President Gore would have started that war? Does anyone seriously believe President Gore would have left New Orleans to drown? I don’t think President Gore would have stopped 9/11, but I do think Democrats would have benefitted from the post-9/11 political feeling and maybe, just maybe we would’ve gotten healthcare reform passed six years ago.

    You want to be critical? Fine be critical, but stop staying stupid shit like “there’s no different between Obama and Bush” or “We’d be in exactly the same position with Republicans”

    The Iraq war is ending and there’s a good chance the war in Afghanistan will too…does anyone think that would’ve been possible under President McCain? Or do you, like me, think we’d be sending troops to die in Iran now too?

  7. canadian gal

    pure drivel.

    but i think what we are seeing goes to a larger point about the role special interests has in US politics and how it is impeding obama and government from getting done what he they have been elected to do.

    basically – these dolts in the congress and senate, both republican and democrat alike, need to be held accountable for their role in impeding legislation that goes to the will of the majority of the american people.

    i’m honestly not sure what obama can do here – but if he has the political capital available… and that means progressives and democrats descending on the capital like those douches a few weeks back to demonstrate support for him, he should use it.

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