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sundubuman
Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Location: seoul
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 Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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Obama's burying himself much quicker than I thought.
He's sounding more and more like some guy running for class president. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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Before people get bent out of shape over this, it should be mentioned that Howard was playing to a local audience, in an election year, and his comment was made in response to a direct question.
Howard's been running the country without any real opposition for over a decade. Now he's neck and neck in the polls with the latest in a long line of opposition leaders and one of the issues that he has little control over is Iraq.
The opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, has taken the same position as Obama so attacking the latter is having a go at the former. It's hardly interfering with another country's election.
For anyone interested here's a transcription of the interview.
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/political_transcripts/article_2124.asp
Here's the relevant section.
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LAURIE OAKES: Proposition two for your comment: Australians are increasingly opposed to the Iraq War, and it's starting to bite electorally, undermining the advantage you've had over Labor on national security issues?
JOHN HOWARD: ... but I've got to now look at the current situation, and the impact on the alliance, the impact on the future of Iraq, if we were to get up and go, and Mr Rudd can't slip and slide and have it both ways, as he tried to do this morning. You either go or you stay, you either rat on the ally or stay with the ally, it's as simple as that. And, if it's alright for us to go, it's alright for the Americans and the British to go, and if everybody goes Iraq will descend into total civil chaos ...
LAURIE OAKES: On that very subject,
JOHN HOWARD: �and there'll be a lot of bloodshed.
LAURIE OAKES: On that subject, Senator Barack Obama's announced overnight he's running for the Democrat Presidential nomination, and he says if he gets it he has a plan to bring troops home by March, 2008 and his direct quote is "Letting the Iraqis know we'll not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunies and Shiah to come to the table and find peace". So, basically he's agreeing with the Labor Party.
JOHN HOWARD: Yes, I think he's wrong, I mean, he's a long way from being President of the United States. I think he's wrong. I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilise and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for Obama victory. If I was running Al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats.
LAURIE OAKES: If he wins, and you're still there, bad news for the alliance.
JOHN HOWARD: Well I tell you what would be even worse news for the fight against terrorism, if America is defeated in Iraq... |
I'm usually not in the habit of agreeing with Little Johnny, as Howard is also known, but he's right on this one. |
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Alias
Joined: 24 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Howard has done Obama a big favor! |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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his comment was made in response to a direct question.
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Granted, but still...
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LAURIE OAKES: On that subject, Senator Barack Obama's announced overnight he's running for the Democrat Presidential nomination, and he says if he gets it he has a plan to bring troops home by March, 2008 and his direct quote is "Letting the Iraqis know we'll not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunies and Shiah to come to the table and find peace". So, basically he's agreeing with the Labor Party.
JOHN HOWARD: Yes, I think he's wrong, I mean, he's a long way from being President of the United States. I think he's wrong. I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilise and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for Obama victory. If I was running Al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats.
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Surely there could have been a way to answer the question without suggesting that Obama, not to mention the entire Democratic party, is the preferred choice of terrorists. He could have simply said "well, I disagree with that", and then outlined his reasons. If the reporter was trying to bait him into commenting on American politics, he should have had the skill to avoid the trap. |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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It's a typical war hawk response. It's meant to instill fear in the voters and solidify their power base.
Pure bull, in other words |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:07 am Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
Surely there could have been a way to answer the question without suggesting that Obama, not to mention the entire Democratic party, is the preferred choice of terrorists. He could have simply said "well, I disagree with that", and then outlined his reasons. If the reporter was trying to bait him into commenting on American politics, he should have had the skill to avoid the trap. |
What you say is true OTOH, but I think this issue is suffering from an American centric point of view. Again, I'll stress that this is an election year for Howard, and he's in election mode.
For many Australians there's a clear parrallel between the two major political parties in Australia and America. In Aus the conservative party are the Liberals (god only knows why they came up with this name, because they're anything but) and they are closely associated with the American Republican party, in many people's minds. The Aus opposition are the Labor party who are the local version of the Democrats.
I'm sure Howard knew what he was doing in putting the boot into Obama and the Democrats. It's a sly proxy attack on the local opposition and a means by which to say, as TWG correctly calls it, a vote for the Labor party is a vote for terrorists. A bit of fearmongering, and politcal smearing that he doesn't have to take responsibility for.
Howard's the Australian version of Bush, but he's a bit more cunning in the way he goes about it. A smart bastard is how I usually put it. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:49 am Post subject: |
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| In Aus the conservative party are the Liberals (god only knows why they came up with this name, because they're anything but |
I think it's only in the US, Canada, and the UK that "Liberal" means slightly-left-of-center. There was a small right-wing party called the Liberals here in South Korea, and conservative parties in Scandanavia and Japan are called Liberal.
As for your other points, I'm sure that's all true, and that it's basically a maneouver on the domestic front. Just that your mentioning that it was in response to a direct question led me to think that you were saying he was likely speaking off the top of his head. Which would slightly contradict the idea that he was making a calculated attack on the Labor Party. |
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