Some Follow-Up Thoughts

I haven’t had a chance to check my entries the last few days, and returned to find a number of notes. I tend to expect comments when I talk about politics, since obviously not everyone agrees on such controversial topics. So here is a quick response to some of the notes I garnered the last few days, which I’ll quickly jot down before Meg comes home from work and we eat dinner.
I got lengthy notes from Ashleigh bin Field. I’ve read some of her diary’s entries before, since I like to read random bloggers who frequently post entries. From what I recall, our views differ on most things. Most notably, the angry red oversized font she uses. Damn, that’s an ugly use of HTML. If I were going to make a sweeping characterization based on my scanty recollections of her diary, she’s a Republican Fox News watcher. I think her views are polar opposite from mine. (I will use the female pronoun based on the first name, not because of any familiarity of the writer, although “Ashley” was originally a male name in the near-distant past, so who knows.)
Anyway, she left some unsolicited opinions on some of my diary entries.
Regarding Free Speech and Riots entry, I suspect Ashleigh missed the point of my entry. I didn’t write the entry specifically to criticize Romney. I do think Romney reached a premature conclusion, especially if you take the timing of his comments in context with what was actually going on while he made his statements. I left this thought as an aside and talked about the larger issue at hand. However, Asheigh picked up on it and said:
Romney showed actual leadership while Obama was out campaigning and not attending his Daily Intelligence Meetings for the entire week leading up to 9-11. it’s also reported that Libya warned us 3 days in advance, but again, Obama was probably chilling w/ Beyonce that day, and too busy to boost any defense or precautions.
Obama’s foreign policy is nonexistant and dangerous to us all.
I’m curious how she can conflate an unsubstantiated criticism about Obama with Romney showing “actual leadership.” Romney isn’t leading anything right now, aside from the Republicans to a loss in November. And for the rest of the claims against Obama, well, I’ll just hold up a sign that says [citation needed].
Ashleigh’s next comment said:
I guess you missed Obama’s stupid comment about not knowing if Egypt is our ally or not. no wonder he’d rather keep quiet!
So you think Republicans shouldn’t be allowed to make any comment about the situation? you’re a real champion of free speech, Hon.
That’s interesting. I actually hadn’t heard about Obama’s comment when I wrote this entry. I think he said it three days before I wrote the entry on Sept. 13, but I only learned about it on Monday. So yes, I did miss it.
What he said in an interview on Telemundo was that the U.S. would not consider Egypt an ally, "but we don’t consider them an enemy." He also said that Egypt is a "new government that is trying to find its way." He warned that if the Egyptian government takes actions showing "they’re not taking responsibility," then it would "be a real big problem.” (Source)
I agree that it may have been an unwise thing for the president to say. I suspect Obama did it on purpose as an implicit warning to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi, as you know, was on the fence between supporting the protests happening in Cairo and quelling them.
As a short-term tactic, I think paid off. President Morsi responded quickly, and Egyptian protests dropped off dramatically the next day, if I recall.
As a long-term strategy, clearly we need all the friends we can get in the Middle East/Africa, and Egypt has been traditionally a fairly steady friend of the U.S. In return, we give them a lot of foreign aid. So not calling them an ally, while technically true since we don’t have a treaty with them, might not strengthen ties with the country.
The State Department corrected Obama the next day and said, “Egypt is considered a major non-NATO ally.”
I’m not sure what the strategy was, or whether it was a gaffe. I suspect it was done on purpose.
In regards to the second part of the comment, I’m not sure how Ashleigh made the conclusion that I think “Republicans shouldn’t be allowed to make any comment about the situation.” It’s certainly not something I said or believe. My criticism of Romney’s untimely statement wasn’t because he said something, it’s what he said and that he lied. I’m not sure how his statement could possibly be defensible.
Also, fuck you, don’t call me “Hon.” Debate politics, but don’t be condescending about it. My wife gets to call me “Hon,” not you. Unless you accidentally meant to write “Han,” as in “I think you’re as awesome as Han Solo,” in which case, thanks. Boring conversation, anyway. LUKE, WE’RE GONNA HAVE COMPANY!
Lastly, Asheigh went back a few entries and added this to my The Presidential Pros and Cons List (Part II) entry:
LOL. this is what you call giving Romney a fair chance??
Myself, my 4 children, my 13 cats, and my 26 dead relatives and friends are voting for Romney in NJ and VA.
Hehe, I know, I know! I wasn’t able to list anything other than Romneycare on the Pro list for Romney. He’s such an insufferable douchebag, I just couldn’t think of anything else. If you could make a convincing argument that I should vote for Romney, not just against Obama, I’d like to hear it. Romney seems to be this expanding vacuum of non-existent ideas. He’s great at pontificating about how badly Obama is doing his job, and hey, sometimes he’s right. But Romney hasn’t produced any substantive plan for what he would actually do once in office.
Even more evidence has recently piled on for the Case Against Romney in the form of the secretly filmed video of Romney at a fundraiser on May 17 in Boca Raton. I’m sure you’ve heard snippets of it by now—everyone has. The video contains a mother lode of reasons why Romney shouldn’t be president. Most notably, Romney says:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. And he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that’s what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like. I mean, when you ask those people…we do all these polls—I find it amazing—we poll all these people, see where you stand on the polls, but 45 percent of the people will go with a Republican, and 48 or 4… (Source)
That’s right. Romney actually insulted 146 million Americans, many of whom are his own Republican base. This isn’t the talk of a presidential candidate. It’s the ramblings of a crazy person trying to get elected Mayor of Crazytown.
With the things he said so frankly in this video, I can confidently predict Obama will win in a landslide. And really, I didn’t give Romney a fair chance in my previous entry, because he doesn’t have a chance of winning.
(Also, it’s scary to think of cats and zombies voting. Can you imagine what this country would be like if cats and zombies “rocked the vote”?)
Thanks to all the rest of you for your comments. I’ll respond as time permits. Off to eat grilled cheese and tomato soup with the wife.
Cheers,
Oliver

***EDIT***

Since this entry seems to be mostly about Ashleigh’s comment, I thought I’d add that one of my readers was kind enough to point out her July 30th entry which states, "As all longtime friends and readers remember, I am OFFICIALLY a FAIR and BALANCED registered Independent voter, and NOT beholden to EITHER the Democrat or the Republican parties."

I stand corrected. Ashleigh’s apparently an impartial independent voter. Good to know!

Also, in the very same entry, she describes herself as a "beautiful, blond haired, blue eyed Conservatives and Republicans such as myself…."

Well, now, isn’t that confusing.