The Gore Endorsement

[arisbe]

"Quagmire"? Al Gore is saying Sens. Clinton, Kerry, Lieberman and Edwards, and Rep. Dick Gephardt blundered in giving George W. Bush a blank check for war. He has thus made the war the issue of the primaries of 2004, and perhaps of the election of 2008, when Gore obviously believes those who voted for the war will have much to answer for to history.

A masterful analysis by Pat Buchanan comparing Gore in 2004 with Nixon in 1964. Well worth a careful reading, whatever you may think of the author.

Comments

Iraq=Vietnam?

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

Well, there's probably even more in Gore's augury than what Buchanan asserts: I think he sees Iraq turning into a deadly morass for America, as do I. Perhaps Gore doesn't want the extricating process for THIS ONE to last so long as the one for Vietnam did, and wants the country to be in a position to abandon a lost cause FAST. Dean would get us out in 2004, Gore in 2008, but at least it wouldn't last more than a decade, like Vietnam did.

Re: Iraq=Vietnam?

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Yes, the sooner we extricate ourselves the better. Or chances may be better in Iraq than in VN, as we are not yet married to a single ally, or head to head with a single enemy.

[limejellybeans.livejournal.com]

A brilliant analysis. It is true and the strategy is uncanny. I suppose we have yet to see it played out in this next year.

much to answer for

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

It is no secret, and you might say and
be right that it is some frailty of mine
some softness of brain or at least of thought,
that I dislike the sort of rhetoric which
makes everything so as it seems to me charged
with bitterness...'much to be answerable for
to history' ... I have never understood this
charge of bitterness against the President and
his people which I find in many and have supposed
it must have psychological basis ...but that
is not really a fair response. Fr Schmemann was
wont to that, when someone would propose a political
idea he disliked he would call it "criminal
insanity"... whereas it would have been enough
to observe that the interlocuter was a democrat
etc but rhetoric leads to responding rhetoric.
All of this seems to me to be the work at least of
men determined to be RIGHT...to be, and perhaps this
is the Buchanan psychology a little shown up in the
word much to answer for in those who disagree with him,
to be regarded as having been right by history.
"Yes they didnt vote for Pat back when we could
have saved the Republic but they lived to regret it"

a poor response...in no better tone than his...
I am sorry but since it is a place for responses this
is mine and I can do no better
+Seraphim.

Re: much to answer for

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Well Pat thinks that Al is or ought to be mighty upset with the Democrats who went along with Mr. Bush so easily.

I think by now even the President wishes they hadn't!

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

I do believe that mighty upset and violent
rhetoric ought to be used with great restraint and
no less in politics than in also of course theology
and other subjects...I am appaled at the rhetoric
I see coming from the left and from paleocons too
which seems to have a real bitterness which as I
say I find inexplicable.
you may say that is because "I dont get it"...
perhaps.
anyway I have allowed myself to respond on this sort
of thing today but also to one other very nice lj cyber
friend who posted an insinuation that capturing sadam
was a plot to upstage dean's long awaited speech on
foreign policy. long awaited maybe by gary trudeau
surely but not I think by me...allowed myself because
I am upset by the out flow of money on my car and
all sorts of things,
am I on The Road to Serfdom?
but I think maybe to rent one for a month I cannot
do this every week... well, and stomach etc and...nothing
compared to kidney stones which are surely a major
suffering but I am not a very strong man in some ways
or anyway kvetch a lot.
+Seraphim.

Kvetch is cool

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

People do seem to losing theirs, don't they? Their cool, I mean.

Then again, people are getting killed.

Fr. John only made one reference to Saddam in yesterday's sermon. He said, "I hear they captured Saddam Hussein. Please remember that real peace is not just the absence of war." And then moved on to more important things.

getting killed

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

when did people begin to get killed..some say
it was prior to the bush administration.

Re: getting killed

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Oh, my, yes.

And at least one guy behind a lot of it is now out of the picture.

That's still very good news.

further response after ,uh, reading the thing

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

well I see what it is more clearly...it is the
paragraph you cite which I most react to and a
bit out of context. the rest seems of its
kind reasonable commentary
of a politically driven man ...I am reminded of
Metropolitan Vladimir in Japan and sitting in
his kitchen and how he would talk about what this
bishop or that bishop was thinking and which were
close to which and thinking he would be better off
if he could forget about that little world for a
while but to him it seemed the whole of his world I
suppose and so with men like Buchanan...or so it
seems to me.

Re: further response after ,uh, reading the thing

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Well I guess it's fair to think of people who care about endorsements in primary elections as politically drive.

As your Metropolitan was ecclesiastically driven.

As for me, if I can figure out what I'm driven by, I might get where I'm going quicker. If I can figure out where that is.

It's sort of interesting to see Dean characterized as a Goldwater of the left, as I like 'em both. An interesting thing in Buchanan's mag compares Dean's situation with that of Al Smith, but with a better shot at it.

encouraged

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

encouraged that you like dean, because I deeply respect you
and I suppose dean might be elected so it would give me
some confidence that he cannot be the doonesbury
character I imagine him to be, a veritable johnanderson,
that is to say a humorless selfimportant puffed up jerk...
hmm talk about rough rhetoric. and I know fr Plekon
and Vinogradov will vote for any democrat who has
vital signs so I will have some confidence...some
people I like who like...friend of the friends etc
and you know I am not being ironic or something...
I think part of the violence of many peoples approach is
because they are unable to feel a contact with the other
side(as they have set it up) and so the President has to
be a fascist out to smash into my bedroom or something
because precisely I have never met a republican etc.
so if they nominate dean I half hope you and
other friends will support him! same with hilary clinton or
others I do not easily relate to...
+Seraphim.

Re: encouraged

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Well even the President is in many ways a good man, as you have said, and I might vote for him again, depending on who is running against him.

driven by and getting there

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

as to getting there if you knew what you are driven by...
maybe, you must consider it as each man or woman must.
I know what I am driven by, the desire to know God and
to reach my Term... I do not think I am very close to getting
there so perhaps knowledge is not power in anything
important?
+Seraphim.