Obama is rock star material, not presidential timber

Reading that was a waste of space and time.

Wait, I’m confused. First you say that Obama “refuses to elaborate” on his positions and “all we’ve gotten from him” is America-bashing.

Then you say he’s “wrong” on national security and has a “redistributionist” fiscal policy. But wait — how can you know where he stands on these issues if he doesn’t address issues? There’s an internal inconsistency here; you can’t know he’s wrong if you don’t know his stance. It’s one or the other.

As for your “celebrity” frame: It’s exactly the same frame used in the most recent McCain campaign ad. So either you’re taking marching orders from someone else in this piece, or you’re blatantly ripping someone else’s idea off. Either way it’s not an original attack. I also don’t see how attacking Obama for actually *being likable* is going to do any good. Like being likable is a shortcoming? Tell that to Reagan and W.

Mr Foley,

I realize this is an opinion piece but don’t you think that you should provide some backing for your assertions? You claim that Obama’s Berlin speech attacked the United States and the US Presidency. I watched this speech twice, once the day it was given and now again looking for these attacks you mention, but I heard none. What attacks are you referring to? Do you consider it an attack on America to say that the US has made mistakes? I think that any rational person would conclude that the US (and every other country on the planet) have made many, many mistakes.

You repeat the common complaint that Obama is unspecific on his platform, but have you made any effort to discover it? Have you bothered actually listening to any of his many policy speeches or are you basing this entirely on 30 second campaign commercials? Senator Obama’s website has hundreds of pages worth of policy specifics in easily readable formats. Here’s a link:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

If Senator Obama is wrong on foreign policy issues, why are both the Bush administration and John McCain now embracing the proposals that Obama has been pushing since 2007? Both McCain and Bush have now come around to direct diplomacy with Iran rather than pointless saber-rattling (which has had the additional benefit of causing oil prices to drop.) McCain has now embraced withdrawing the bulk of our forces from Iraq and focusing on Afghanistan, as Obama has pushed for since 2006. If John McCain is the master of foreign policy, why is he now resorting to agreeing with the policy proposals of this rock star foreign policy amateur?

Finally, to address your last little bit about Obama traveling around the world while McCain was funding the troops… you realize that Obama went to all the same countries that McCain did during his big international trip which directly followed his clinching of the GOP primaries, right? You claim that McCain was funding the troops while Obama was “attacking America” (Again, you have no supporting evidence for this nonsense), why did he vote against the new GI Bill, which Obama voted for?

Frankly, I’m stunned, in our currently economic climate, that anyone who consider voting for someone who said that following:

“The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” -John McCain February, 2008

Wow, the comment posting removes all the formatting and turns whatever you wrote into an unreadable wall of text with no line breaks. Someone should fix that.

A man who is under investigation for defrauding New Mexicans while holding a position of power has no right to criticize others. Though I was happy to laugh out loud at your comment, “if there’s nothing to complain about, liberals will make something up.”

Well, then I started laughing about your recent quote, “I felt like it was probably not right for me as Rep. Foley with my red (legislative) license plate to pull into the Department of Transportation (or any other state agency) and say ‘I’m here to sell you something,’” – all after a contract was sealed to help your company win a state contract last year to pay YOU a 10-percent commission on all policies sold. According to the NMIndependent, some 500 government employees in New Mexico have signed up for the supplemental cancer, accident and universal life-insurance policy.

You sir, unlike Barack Obama and John McCain, will never be remembered among great men and women.

I’m not sure why you feel the NMI needs a token conservative, but if you must, could it please be someone smarter than this sleazy knuckledragger? From the dumb “Teh libruls hate our god and our freedums!” to the glib AM radio talking points about Obama’s “change” slogans, this reads like recycled comments from a Free Republic post.

I come to NMI for the great reporting on local issues, like the environment, and I’ve really come to appreciate the smart writing, thorough research and most importantly, a progressive perspective on stories. I, and most other NMI readers I suspect, could do without hearing anyone’s opinion on anything, regardless of its political viewpoint. There’s already a glut of opinion bloggers out there, and none of them are going to change anyone’s mind about anything.

I realize it’s about about Web hits, but I’d rather you stick to covering news, NMI.

” As we’ve seen lately, if there’s nothing to complain about, liberals will make something up” – I don’t think Harold Hobson was making anything up. Your opinions amount to a hill of beans Dan.

Chimpy and sven,

First of all, Dan isn’t a conservative, he is a neo-con. (quit trying to lump conservatives in with the neo-cons) Harold Hobson is a horse trader. Liberal do love to complain, they also hate having anybody have a different opinion. Not exactly a tolerance for different view points and different ideologies that they tend to profess to have, but rather a belief that their view is the only one that should be spoken. If you don’t like Dan’s trolling, then don’t bite the hook. He start the article pointing out that the purpose was to flame and start a debate. Stop trying to silence debate. If you can’t handle his point of view, stay out of the kitchen. Liberals and neo-cons two groups with heads stuck in the sand.

Thomas, Its not that I can’t handle the debate but rather that I choose not to engage with someone accused of miss using public trust to the extent that Mr. Foley may have. Perhaps Dan will have plenty of time to start debates when he serves out a lengthy prison sentence but such is yet to be determined. I hate shakers of public confidence Thomas. New Mexico needs altruistic leaders be they liberal, conservative or Martian and yes, I admit maybe I jumped the gun a bit but stories about public corruption strike a cord with me. So, back to the debate. Dan, There are obvious problems with the way that this country has been run by your party for the last 8 years and many reasons why both the office of the President and the nation at large should be looked at in an aggressive scrutinizing manner. Foremost for the last 8 years our office of head of state has been rocked by scandal after scandal. Whether it’s been egregious lies which have caused untold amounts of suffering and death all over the world or $4 gas that particular office is rife with corruption and I think it’s good that Barak is not afraid to say we have a problem there and it needs to be fixed. So what? You can’t handle that we have problems that need to be fixed? You like the good ole boy corruption system? Obviously. You need to take a good look at yourself and who you are before you criticize others who want to change our system for the better. By the way, Ronald Regan was the Devil. He enabled swine like you to lie, cheat and steal from honest hard working Americans. They ought to have fired his corps out of cannon into a sea of raw sewage.

Thomas – my comment goes beyond who’s a neo-whatever or who can’t handle disagreement.

What I’m saying is that there is already no shortage of this sort of pointless discussion on the Internet. I am arguing that NMI should consider itself above this sort of drivel.

I want to read progressively-minded, thoughtful news pieces. If I need some moron’s uninformed opinion, there’s always the Journal’s ed. page, or Daily Kos, LGF, Huffington Post or gazillions of other sources for endless arguing and bloviating.

In other words, rather than trying to silence debate, I’m humbly requesting that NMI seek to keep it a little more high-minded. By letting the sources and people quoted in stories—the folks who are actually doing something—be the voices.

Sven – Ronald Reagan did more for this country than any president in the last 70 years. He didn’t enable Dan. Dan is that way all by himself. And if you want to talk about the devil lets talk about the pig that degraded women and the office by failing to keep it in his pants. What sort enabling has his example set. He pushed the country so far that that they went and elected that bumbling idiot W into office. Of course what was the choice, the hypocritical prophet? No I am sorry you can’t link a neo-con like Foley to a conservative like Reagan, but you can surely link his conduct to the likes of slick willie.

Chimpy-I notice you spoke of only having progressively minded folks adding to the discussion. That appears to highlight a bias against conservative minded folk. Don’t want to hear the other side of the argument???

Thomas – I’m sorry I can’t simplify my argument any further for you.

No need Chimpy. I understood your argument. I was simply pointing out that in even in light of your “simplification” your argument is still logically flawed and hypocritical. In simpler words I got what you were trying to say, but I think its still horse hockey. ;)

The question should be do you want intelligence or four more years of a moron running this nation.

Lets see my choice is John McCain or that smart black man Barack Obama?

McCain who does not know how to use a computer but is willing to learn if we elect him – I’ll just vote for that smart black man.

My Choices are: John McCain who says the economic downturn is psychological? – Na! I’ll vote for the smart black man.

McCain who says you are better off under George Bush? – Nope I’ll vote for the smart black man.

Mc Cain who wants to continue killing more people looking for weapons of mass destruction that do not exist? – Gee! I’ll vote for the smart black man.

McCain who believes that we should stay the course but is not willing to support the people he puts in harms way. – I’ll take a chance on the smart black man.

Should I vote for a man that does not know that 9-11 was caused by Osama Bin Laden not Sedam Hussein? – Easy! I’ll vote for the smart black man.

Vote for the man who does not know if the Sunnis or Sheits are our enemies? – No way I’ll vote for the smart black man.

Vote for the man who helped put our government on the China, Saudi Arabia credit card? – Not a chance I’ll vote for the smart black man.

Vote for the man with the worst temper in the Senate to have his finger on the nuclear button? – No way – I’ll vote for the smart black man.

Lets see, Obama a rock star.
Lets look at some republicans celebrity status.
McCain: Cameo appearance in the movie the “Wedding Crashers”
Ronald Reagan…if I remember correcly he went from acting to politics.
The “Govenator” of CA.

My vote goes to the rock star.