Washington Post
September 10, 2008

The White House Responds

“The War Within” portrays President Bush as slow to act in the summer of 2006 when he realizes that the Iraq war strategy is failing. Bush waited several months before ordering a full strategy review, and no one from the military was involved. The review was done “under the radar screen” to avoid political fallout, Woodward writes. On Monday, after the book’s release, White House press secretary Dana Perino made the following comments about Woodward’s assessment:
“I would submit to you that President Bush initiated and oversaw a very comprehensive, thorough, well-managed process . . . Some people might say that it was too slow in its development. But when you are making a decision where you are asking young men and women to put their lives on the line, it was the right type of assessment. It was sober; it was very clear-eyed; it was brutal in terms of the amount of hours.

“And I also take issue with the notion about a war within. I can’t imagine that anybody in Washington would be shocked that if you bring people together to talk about one of the most difficult problems in our time, that they might have a disagreement over what is the best option. And in fact, we should all want that to happen.

“In addition, there is no possible way that you can have such a debate in public. We’re not going to have this debate on CNN or Fox or MSNBC or ABC, CBS, NBC. There’s just no way to do that. There are discussions that need to be taken in very private quarters so that everybody can feel confident that what they’re saying and laying out there on the table will be held in confidence, and that the president can get the best advice and not be constrained by any options that might be put on the table.”

And Neo, yes, that is exactly what Biden is suggesting.

I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy, because there’s joy to it as well, the joy and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect. Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don’t you support stem cell research? — Joe Biden

There are few scientists, if any, who believe that stem cell research will produce a treatment of Down’s Syndrome or other developmental disabilities, so is Joe Biden suggesting that Sarah Palin should have sacrificed her son, Trig, at the altar of science in the hope that perhaps his cells “could” produce a cure for juvenile diabetes or such ?

Gordon Brown has broken with British convention and made clear that he favours Barack Obama as the next US President.

In a departure from the usual self-denying ordinance of Prime Ministers past, Brown has written an article for The Monitor magazine in which he praises Obama’s plans to get the US out of the housing slump.

Referring to the anxieties facing voters across the globe during the economic slowdown, he says: “Around the world, it is progressive politicians who are grappling with these challenges….In the electrifying US Presidential campaign, it is the Democrats who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times. To help prevent people from losing their home, Barack Obama has proposed a Foreclosure Prevention Fund to increase emergency pre-foreclosure counselling, and help families facing repossession.”

Who Cares who Gordon Brown or the rest of the world thinks our President should be?!?!?!? If the rest of the world cared more about the world than their perspective country, they certainly don’t show it, so why should we give a squat what they think. America is the country the people of the world come to. America has done more things to help the people of the world in it’s short 200 year life span than ALL the rest of the world in all of history, combined. We will do what we will do, and the rest of world will just have to deal with it. I don’t particularly care who Gordon Brown thinks I should vote for. I quit caring the day King George had his tush handed to him by George Washington. So Mr. Brown, I politely say to you, bugger off.

These people are so deceived by this individual. He is an empty suit, I have said that for over a year now, there is nothing new about him. He is not dynamic, he is not eloquent. In fact you get him off prompter and he sounds sorta stupid. The more I see of this man the more certain I am that he is a prelude to the deception that will follow the anti-christ. It is rather bothersome. – Lorica