(LIVE THREAD) Foreign Policy Debate

[Valin]

Foreign Policy:

10/19/12

 

While we have no doubt that Bob Schieffer, the moderator of Monday night's foreign policy debate, will have plenty of material to choose from in formulating his questions for the candidates, we couldn't resist a chance to add our own suggestions. Following are some potential questions for the debate as submitted by the Shadow Government crew:

 

(Snip)

Peter Feaver:

 

1. Mr. President, is there any foreign policy challenge America faces that you would concede has gotten worse on your watch because of actions you have taken or not taken? In other words, is there any foreign policy problem that you would say can be blamed at least partly on you and not entirely on Republicans or President Bush?

 

(Snip)

 

Paul Bonicelli:

 

2. For both: Isn't a reform of our foreign aid system and institutions long overdue, and shouldn't reform have as its primary goal the promotion of direct and tangible US interests, such as more trade with more countries that govern themselves democratically? If this is truly the appropriate goal for international development funds, then why aren't all aid recipients required to practice sustained and real democracy?

 

Phil Levy:

 

3. For both: In 2009, in response to the stimulus bill, a top Chinese economic official said, ""We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion... we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do...." Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, has accused the United States Federal Reserve of igniting a global currency war with its policies of quantitative easing. To what extent does the United States need to consider the international ramifications of its economic policies? Do you believe a strong dollar is in the U.S. interest? If so, what does that mean?

 

(Snip)

[Pepper]

Paging the Incredible Hulk, Candy Nose Guard Crowley, pick up the black courtesy phone, your expertise is needed to rig the debate for The One.

[Valin]

Paging the Incredible Hulk, Candy Nose Guard Crowley, pick up the black courtesy phone, your expertise is needed to rig the debate for The One.

 

I have this small dream. I dream of someday watching a real live actual debate between two Presidential candidates. instead of a joint press conference.

[Pepper]

Paging the Incredible Hulk, Candy Nose Guard Crowley, pick up the black courtesy phone, your expertise is needed to rig the debate for The One.

 

I have this small dream. I dream of someday watching a real live actual debate between two Presidential candidates. instead of a joint press conference.

 

Pic of Candy Crowley....

[Valin]

Paging the Incredible Hulk, Candy Nose Guard Crowley, pick up the black courtesy phone, your expertise is needed to rig the debate for The One.

 

I have this small dream. I dream of someday watching a real live actual debate between two Presidential candidates. instead of a joint press conference.

 

Pic of Candy Crowley....

 

I haven't clicked it, I'm afraid I might go blind.

 

Now just to ruin your life, think Candy Crowley in a string bikini.

[cudjo]

Paging the Incredible Hulk, Candy Nose Guard Crowley, pick up the black courtesy phone, your expertise is needed to rig the debate for The One.

 

I have this small dream. I dream of someday watching a real live actual debate between two Presidential candidates. instead of a joint press conference.

 

Pic of Candy Crowley....

 

I haven't clicked it, I'm afraid I might go blind.

 

Now just to ruin your life, think Candy Crowley in a string bikini.

 

that thiking is flat spooky

[Casino67]

I wonder what version of the Benghazi events we are going to get Monday?

 

They were trying so hard to protect the Dear Leader. Now they are seeing where their dishonesty is getting them.

 

I haven't been watching much tv other than Fox, are the other stations talking about this? Dana Perino said the administration if trying to 'starve the story of oxygen' to make it difficult for the press to report about it. Is it working?

[Pepper]

I wonder what version of the Benghazi events we are going to get Monday?

 

They were trying so hard to protect the Dear Leader. Now they are seeing where their dishonesty is getting them.

 

I haven't been watching much tv other than Fox, are the other stations talking about this? Dana Perino said the administration if trying to 'starve the story of oxygen' to make it difficult for the press to report about it. Is it working?

 

The MSM is doing its best to help the Obama White House bury the Libya story as deep as the four Americans who were murdered.

[logicnreason]

Here is my guess as to what will happen this coming Monday re: Lybia and the terrorist murder of four US citizens including one who is (or was) the direct representative of the US president.

 

At the first question posed by Mr. Romney to the stain regarding this subject, the stain will:

1. Admit to a serious failure in the "language" used to describe the incident

2. Admit his mistake with all the humility he can fake.

3. Ask the American public to please forgive him with the promise that the mistake won't be repeated, followed by a strong statement about going after all terrorists the way he went after and ordered OSB "brought to justice".

4. And finally, state that the entire subject of the terrorist attack on the consulate is being investigated thoroughly by an "independent" team of experts and until the report from the investigation is provided, the subject matter is closed, and no further answers or statements will be made with regard to it.

 

Watch for it!!

[Pepper]

Here is my guess as to what will happen this coming Monday re: Lybia and the terrorist murder of four US citizens including one who is (or was) the direct representative of the US president.

 

At the first question posed by Mr. Romney to the stain regarding this subject, the stain will:

1. Admit to a serious failure in the "language" used to describe the incident

2. Admit his mistake with all the humility he can fake.

3. Ask the American public to please forgive him with the promise that the mistake won't be repeated, followed by a strong statement about going after all terrorists the way he went after and ordered OSB "brought to justice".

4. And finally, state that the entire subject of the terrorist attack on the consulate is being investigated thoroughly by an "independent" team of experts and until the report from the investigation is provided, the subject matter is closed, and no further answers or statements will be made with regard to it.

 

Watch for it!!

 

And then afterwards we can safely assume that the stain will resurrect the four dead Americans.

 

“We’re going to fix it. All of it.” pResident Obama on John Stewart show

[logicnreason]

Here is my guess as to what will happen this coming Monday re: Lybia and the terrorist murder of four US citizens including one who is (or was) the direct representative of the US president.

 

At the first question posed by Mr. Romney to the stain regarding this subject, the stain will:

1. Admit to a serious failure in the "language" used to describe the incident

2. Admit his mistake with all the humility he can fake.

3. Ask the American public to please forgive him with the promise that the mistake won't be repeated, followed by a strong statement about going after all terrorists the way he went after and ordered OSB "brought to justice".

4. And finally, state that the entire subject of the terrorist attack on the consulate is being investigated thoroughly by an "independent" team of experts and until the report from the investigation is provided, the subject matter is closed, and no further answers or statements will be made with regard to it.

 

Watch for it!!

 

And then afterwards we can safely assume that the stain will resurrect the four dead Americans.

 

“We’re going to fix it. All of it.” pResident Obama on John Stewart show

 

 

The only other tactic I can think of that may have been given to the stain is that his handlers have instructed him to pre-empt Romney and to declare the entire Lybian incident a "matter of national security" and further declare that it therefore will not be a topic open to the debate.

 

The "weasel-in-chief" will manage....or <hopefully> collapse.

[Argyle58]

I am seriously considering skipping the "debate" and the subsequent conversation as to who "won". I already know who I am voting for, I see no need to hear the same old drivel, nor to wait for the "Gotcha" moment.

[Valin]

I am seriously considering skipping the "debate" and the subsequent conversation as to who "won". I already know who I am voting for, I see no need to hear the same old drivel, nor to wait for the "Gotcha" moment.

 

I can't say I blame you.

I'd love to see a Real Debate instead of the Joint Press conferences we get now.

There was a debate last Dec. As I recall Frank Luntz ran it. All the candidates sat around a table, Frank asked a question...stepped back and let them talk. It was a wonderful format.

[Valin]

Obama’s Foreign-Policy Record

He has embraced Jimmy Carter’s double standard against ourselves and our friends.

Ira Straus

10/22/12

 

(Snip)

The Obama administration played a substantial role in this shift from the start, even a decisive one, although it does not seem to realize this. Its role began in the first moments of the protests in Tunisia and Egypt when it, alongside Al-Jazeera and the Western global media, treated the demonstrators as special, almost sacred. It called the regimes “intolerable” if they took any of the traditional measures through which they had always easily dispersed such demonstrations before they could get out of hand (and if they blocked Twitter). The U.S. government twisted the arms of the national militaries — utilizing its long-cultivated, well-paid influence over them — to get them to tolerate the demonstrations, depose Ben Ali and Mubarak, and fully legalize the Islamist parties (even while outlawing and expropriating the secular national parties of the old regimes, which were the main rallying points for moderates in the two countries). It denounced the militaries for trying to hold onto some of their traditional power as guarantors of national moderation. It pressed them to truly empower the elected Muslim Brotherhood leaders. It prepared to punish Egypt if the old-school moderate Ahmed Shafiq won the presidential election, but to send emergency aid to reward a victory by Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi won, by a thin 3 percent margin; the U.S. pressures added together made far more than this 3 percent difference. The U.S. continues, to this day, providing aid with the specified aim of making a success of the new Muslim Brotherhood government.

 

(Snip)

 

It made a “reset” in relations with Russia. Regrettably, this fizzled. However, in this case President Obama was not — whatever he may have believed — striking out into new territory. Every previous new president since 1989 made such a reset. Each reset raised hopes of finally fulfilling the promise of a positive relationship with Russia after the end of Communism. Each fizzled after a few years, requiring a new reset. Romney could be the author of the next one.

 

(Snip)

 

Too often we have had a repetition of the fatal sensibility of President Carter: righteously refusing to pursue our own legitimate interests, giving benefits of the doubt to our foes, zealously denouncing our friends for lesser faults, proudly joining in toppling them — in sum, a double standard against ourselves and our friends. It is the wrong double standard, favoring greater evils over lesser ones. Its sources seem to lie in a transference to the Left of the function of the bearer of the conscience; we have seen repeatedly a deferential, leaning-over-backwards response to the accusations from the Left — inevitable accusations, no matter what we do — of our having a self-interested double standard. Our leaders seem unaware that a pro-self double standard is normal and healthy, and often necessary if there is to be any morality at all.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

I am seriously considering skipping the "debate" and the subsequent conversation as to who "won". I already know who I am voting for, I see no need to hear the same old drivel, nor to wait for the "Gotcha" moment.

 

 

 

[Valin]

Iran Is Closer to a Weapon Than Joe Biden Asserts

10/21/12

 

Regarding your editorial "Biden's Intelligence" (Oct. 13): I'm writing to clear up the nuclear misinformation spouted by Vice President Joe Biden which was not rebutted during the Oct. 11 debate. Iran's nuclear program is going critical.

 

Mr. Biden said, in effect: Don't worry. Even if Iran gets fissile material, it needs something to put it in.

 

But the facts are quite different. Once any nuclear wannabe gets 160 pounds of uranium enriched to 80% U-235 (the enrichment level of the Hiroshima bomb and of South Africa's Melba) he has a weapon. "Little Boy," the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, did not need to be tested; we knew it would work. The design is now in the open literature: It is 1940s technology, easy to build.

 

(Snip)

[nickydog]

I am seriously considering skipping the "debate" and the subsequent conversation as to who "won". I already know who I am voting for, I see no need to hear the same old drivel, nor to wait for the "Gotcha" moment.

 

 

 

 

I bet this will be the story in lots of homes tonight.

[Valin]

I am seriously considering skipping the "debate" and the subsequent conversation as to who "won". I already know who I am voting for, I see no need to hear the same old drivel, nor to wait for the "Gotcha" moment.

 

 

 

 

I bet this will be the story in lots of homes tonight.

 

Can't really blame people.

Way to many spinmiesters in both campaigns.

[Valin]

The Third Debate: Romney Needs A Tie

Walter Russell Mead

10/22/12

 

Yesterday I looked at how the third debate offers President Obama his best hope for a knockout victory in this series of one-on-one match ups that has riveted much of the country over the last few weeks. But Governor Romney also has an opportunity here too, and while foreign policy has helped the President more than either the state of the domestic economy or the popularity of his health care reform, Governor Romney has some significant opportunities tonight.

 

Governor Romney doesn’t have to discredit President Obama’s foreign policy or win a big argument over America’s global priorities to have a good night. His goal is a simpler one and easier to achieve; he wants to complete the work he began at the first debate and continued at the Al Smith dinner. Romney has made progress in the polls by establishing himself as a qualified alternative for voters looking for a change. Romney isn’t running for wonk-in-chief or the biggest, toughest hawk in the tree. His goal is to impress swing voters that he’s an acceptable replacement for the incumbent, and to perform effectively in the debate he needs to keep that goal firmly in mind.

 

(Snip)

 

If President Obama’s biggest problem in a foreign policy debate is that his grand strategy is in crisis, Governor Romney’s biggest problem is that the Obama strategy offers what most voters want. Americans are profoundly tired by the Middle East; they don’t think we can do much good over there, they don’t like or understand the region and they want to get out. If voters come to believe that Romney thinks that the problem with President Obama’s foreign policy is that the Obama White House isn’t threatening enough foreigners with war and invading enough countries and not locking the United States into enough long term expensive nation-building projects overseas, it will be game set and match for the Democrat.

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

Foreign Policy

 

 

By Rich Galen · October 22, 2012

 

Tonight's debate will center on foreign policy.

 

The problem with foreign policy is that as President you just need so many of them.

 

It's a big world. There are 193 members of the United Nations and 192 of them are not named The United States of America.

 

Every one of those countries has problems. Some are problems with too many people earning too little money, like Haiti. Some are problems with too much money that they use to buy off their non-working population, like Saudi Arabia.

 

Some are problems with too few natural resources, like Japan. Some have become too dependent on their natural resources, like South Africa. Some have on-going problems with their neighbors, like Israel.

 

Some don't have any neighbors and are too isolated, like Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean that is 1,750 mi from South Africa and 2,090 mi from South America http://patriotpost.us/opinion/15134

[Draggingtree]

The final debate

By Editorial Board, Published: October 21

LISTENING TO the last presidential debate, you’d think the only foreign policy issues President Obama and Mitt Romney have to discuss is when the word “terror” was first used to describe the attack on the Benghazi consulate and which man has invested more money in China. In fact, within months the occupier of the White House will have critical decisions to make on entirely different issues, from Afghanistan and Iran to Syria. We’d like to believe Monday’s debate will force the candidates to talk about some of those choices.

Fortunately, moderator Bob Schieffer has selected five topics that could prompt some specifics. The first, after “America’s role in the world,” is on

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-final-presidential-debate/2012/10/21/208cb9f4-1a0b-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story.html

[mozartlover]

I am seriously considering skipping the "debate" and the subsequent conversation as to who "won". I already know who I am voting for, I see no need to hear the same old drivel, nor to wait for the "Gotcha" moment.

 

 

 

 

 

Tough choice. One of these events could influence the future of the world as we know it, and that's the one I will be watching.

 

I guess I can check in on the debate during commercials, though.............

[Valin]

I am seriously considering skipping the "debate" and the subsequent conversation as to who "won". I already know who I am voting for, I see no need to hear the same old drivel, nor to wait for the "Gotcha" moment.

 

 

 

 

 

Tough choice. One of these events could influence the future of the world as we know it, and that's the one I will be watching.

 

I guess I can check in on the debate during commercials, though.............

 

So let us know how the game is going.

[mozartlover]

It is the NFC North, after all.

 

(GO LIONS!!! BEAT DOSE BEARS!!!!!!!!)

[Rheo]

Obama’s Bear-Hugger Invited To Debate