Pages

Monday, November 16, 2015

GOP Hairsplitting Over 'Is Isis Contained'

They are triumphantly belaboring the point that he said last week that 'ISIS is contained.' This is just another case like the debate over 'Radical Islam' where the GOP is trying to score political points through hairsplitting.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/11/why-are-there-so-few-homegrown-us.html\

I see that some of the phony news pundits like Chuck Todd and John Dickerson have been all over this. Todd couldn't have spent more time on these silly quibbles. Yet, those who say that POTUS said ISIS is contained and now has egg on his face are taking what he said out of context.

"In the wake of the horrific attacks in France, there’s been a lot of criticism of Obama for claiming recently that ISIS has been “contained.” But Politifact takes a hard look at his full statement, and determines that in context, he was plainly saying they had been geographically contained."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/11/16/morning-plum-donald-trump-and-ben-carson-are-refusing-to-go-away/

There is just a cynicism in the way the GOP tries to blatantly exploit these tragedies-as Mitt Romney did in 2012. I thought a spot on CBS's Face the Nation yesterday said it all.

Senator Richard Burr was on Face the Nation and criticized the President's ISIS policy as not working but when Dickerson asked him what he specifically he'd like to change he said he's not a strategist. Right-so as you're not s strategist why is he criticizing the President's strategy? He's sort of admitting he's not qualified.

The answer is-pure politics. This is anything but constructive criticism. The GOP has no answer to what the President has failed to do but they latch onto word games about Radical Islam vs. Radical Jihad and But you said ISIS was contained. 

Overall, I think the President has the right idea. As terrible as Friday's attacks were, this doesn't mean that you want to change course 180 degrees. At the end of the day, what will defeat ISIS will be about teh battle of ideas, not through force of arms.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/11/maajid-nawaz-on-why-france-continues-to.html

UPDATE: Krugman also has a piece inspired by Sargent.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/





No comments:

Post a Comment