Andy Sullivan: You Know, I Kinda Like This Guy, Obama

Along with a large full face glossy of Obama, I'm guessing he uses it as his desktop, Andy Sullivan has miraculously transported himself back in time. It isn't as if Obama is dithering on Afghanistan. Nah! He's simply doing the prudent thing while deaths and casualities mount up as he's now taking time to consider his options on the war.

Sullivan is so far down in the tank, there can't be any oxygen down there. Maybe that explains his posts for the last year, or so. 

What strikes me about this is the enormous self-confidence this reveals. Here is a young president, prepared to allow himself to be portrayed as "weak" or "dithering" in the slow and meticulous arrival at public policy. He is trusting the reality to help expose what we need to do. He is allowing the debate - however messy and confusing and emotional - to take its time and reveal the real choices in front of us.

The news that Obama has refused to sign off on any of the four major options presented to him in Afghanistan reminds me of why he was elected president. This critical decision - arguably the most critical of his young presidency - is one that will not be rushed the way such decisions often are. His insistence that the civilian branch truly control policy there and that empire not be passively accepted as a fait accompli are real signs of strength in the struggle to recalibrate American foreign policy.

Comments

[Rokker]

Sullivan is right.

[Sweating Through Fog]

We have a sycophant

[Proud Liberal]

Like I said before, it is such a pleasure to have an adult occupy the White House. Someone that will not act just to appear tough like the last faux strutting cowboy who bellowed, "wanted dead or alive" "he can run but he can't hide" "Mission Accomplished" yeah, yeah, yeah..... the cowboy from Kennebunkport. lol

It is EXACTLY because there are deaths and casualties at stake that Obama wants to make sure that we have a strategy that gets us out of Afghanistan and that we don't just throw more troops at the problem.

[Bob]

So being "in the tank" means that Sullivan likes and respects Obama? By the same token, is Dan Riehl "in the tank" for Sarah Palin? Riehl could never allow himself to make an intellectually honest statement about anything associated with Obama. No matter what happens, according to Riehl, it's always bad for Obama. Speaking of Sullivan, I enjoyed this post about Little Green Football's Charles Johnson, who had the following to say as he continues to distance himself from his former allies in the conservative blogosphere:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/getting-off-the-bandwagon.html

"The main reason I can’t march along with the right wing blogosphere any more, not to put too fine a point on it, is that most of them have succumbed to Obama Derangement Syndrome. One “nontroversy” after another, followed by the outrage of the day, followed by conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, all delivered in breathless, angry prose that’s just wearying and depressing to read."

Sullivan adds:
"[Robert Stacy] McCain's views are, strictly speaking, fascist in tone and intent. His open declaration that he would be open to the genocide of Palestinians is depraved. That he remains in the polite company of the bloggy right is a sign of just how degenerate much of it has become."

Suck on THAT, Riehl.

[john]

"Like I said before, it is such a pleasure to have an adult occupy the White House."

Yes, it always takes four months for an adult to give a straight answer to the general in charge of our forces in the field.

He's been President for roughly a year and had plenty of time to decide upon which course of action to take. One would think that someone who has been going on about Afghanistan being the "right" war since 2007 would have some sort of idea of the strategy he wants.

[alanstorm]

As I've written before, I seem to recall some other president being exhorted to listen to his generals in regard to another theater of war. But now? Why isn't the same thing being said about Obama?

And PLEASE don't try to tell me it's because Obama is such a genius as to not need to listen to those with experience - I haven't noticed any genius emanating from the White House in the last 10 months. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's been a veritable flood of wishful thinking and half-assed ideas, none of which will accomplish anything beneficial to the country.

PL, we don't have an adult in the WH right now. We have an egotistical adolescent with delusions of adequacy.

[North Dallas Thirty]

"He is trusting the reality to help expose what we need to do."

Translation of Obama's actual thought: If enough troops are slaughtered, the American people will demand that we withdraw -- and the best way for me to ensure that that happens is to deny them reinforcements, supplies, and support, just like my party and I tried to do with Iraq when I was in the Senate.

And as far as Sullivan's attempt to smear R.S. McCain, there is an easy answer; if all these charges are true, Sullivan should have no problem linking to examples of them, inasmuch as he was able to link to the person making the charges.

But again, it's the Obama theory; no matter what I say, syncophants like Sullivan and Bob will repeat it as gospel truth, with or without evidence. Sullivan learned the hard way not to provide evidence when he was made a fool of for repeating Rush Limbaugh "quotes" that, oddly enough, no one was ever actually able to find.

[Anon]

Obama has been president for almost a year and he allegedly had his own ideas and plan on Afganistan all along.

I don't have a problem w/Obama wanting an exist strategy or with telling the military..find me some more options...but to make this public is to me, totally self serving and is just another of his gazillion trial balloons to see how it plays out with the media and the public.

I am still stunned that after Andrew Sullivan's mental meltdown over Sarah Palin's reproductive history that anyone takes him serioulsy, it is a huge blot on The Atlantic Monthly that he wasn't fired.

[gary gulrud]

Stop! All you sickos who get off on the deplorable, diseased, depravity of the clinically disturbed, Stop!

Stop ready Sully, pervert-enabling low-lifes!

[x11b1p]

dan, i am sure the glossy photo of obama is lamenated, making it easy to clean off.

[O!]

Bob, thank you for that additional helping of Journolist/Axelturf talking point spam.

2010.

[DaMav]

I especially like the 'adult' way Obama blames Bush every time he encounters the slightest adversity. Apparently that is a true sign of maturity.

[x11b1p]

Anon, it appears that Sullivan has a fix for people that he deems as a type of demigod. whether its Palin's supernatural ability to control nature when it comes to reproduction or Obama's supernatural ability to control his synaptic system that is wired into a frontal lobe never seen before, it is too mesmorizing for a guy like him all he can do is stop and stare and we get to hear his mouth breathing in the form of his written drool.

[Anon]

Or, maybe Andrew Sullivan is nothing more than an old emotional "queen" with a favorites list and an enemies list and not much intellectual underpinning for anything he says. His "blog" and I use the word very, very loosely is little more than a glorified links page with Andy throwing in mostly one liners or on occasion, a couple paragraphs worth of hissy fit.

He Is Not Credible.

[JustOneMan]

"prepared to allow himself to be portrayed as "weak" or "dithering"....a sign of stregnth and leadership....

Yes I am choose to look old and fat to show how handsome and athletic I am!

LOL LOL LOL LOL....

[Jamie Lockett]

Sullivan has been a joke for a long time now - its sad that people still pay attention to him.

[Bob]

"Or, maybe Andrew Sullivan is nothing more than an old emotional "queen" with a favorites list and an enemies list and not much intellectual underpinning for anything he says."

This from a regular reader here at Riehl World View. I used to think you at least had the capacity for intellectual honesty . . . I've since realized otherwise. LOL.

[O!]

Bob, thank you for that additional helping of Journolist/Axelturf talking point spam.

2010.

[Wintoon]

That President Obama is so principled and brave that I just can't get enough. As Mr. Sullivan so accurately and sensitively points out, " He is allowing the debate - however messy and confusing and emotional - to take its time and reveal the real choices in front of us". What a man! If he sticks by his principles he may be able to forestall an unduly hasty decision on Afghanistan until the end of his term. Now that's what I call nuanced leadership. Maybe he can apply some of this method to the health care take over bills.

[A Stephens]

"it is such a pleasure to have an adult occupy the White House" Interesting definition of adulthood.

Most adults I know have a clear grasp of their beliefs and principles. Proven leaders throughout history have been grounded with a core sense of moral clarity. While sober deliberation is essential to governance, hesitancy, particularly in matters of life and security is anathema to great leadership.

Your guy may be an adult but he's hopelessly (ironic adverb) failing the leadership test.

[Frank G]

wow. The Obamabot desperation rush to defend is quick. The Axelrod alertnet must've been humming. Smells like someone messed themselves

[betheweb]

Obama is just waiting until the Taliban can pull off some kind of Little Big Horn so he can declare defeat and go home. He just needs the Jihadists to kill 268 + 1 to declare that the war can't be won and go home. Victory is just such a distasteful concept you know. It means someone has to lose and suffer a crinkle in their self-esteem. Progressive educators like Bill Ayers tell us that is so. Research proves it.

[trashhauler]

Proud Liberal wrote: "...Obama wants to make sure that we have a strategy that gets us out of Afghanistan...."
_______________

You see, that's a problem, because at this point the only strategies that will highlight our exit are those that offer nothing but failure. If your primary goal is a sure departure, then you cannot be very interested in success, which by its very nature must be uncertain, with its form unknowable at this stage. While it is theoretically possible to want an exit strategy because departure will enhance our chances of success, that isn't what is motivating most liberals. They just want out.

Putting our departure first among war goals is the essence of a weak, ultimately futile foreign policy.

[mark l.]

"Here is a young president, prepared..."

bwahahahaha...

oxymoron alert.

[anony mouse]

Bob, quoting Sullivan wrote:
"[Robert Stacy] McCain's views are, strictly speaking, fascist in tone and intent. His open declaration that he would be open to the genocide of Palestinians is depraved. That he remains in the polite company of the bloggy right is a sign of just how degenerate much of it has become."

Hmmmm. Hey Bob, do you remember the article from the Times where they suggested that a genocide may occur if we left Iraq, but EVEN IF A GENOCIDE WERE TO OCCUR we had to get out of Iraq? Do you Bob? Irrespective of what RS Mccain said or meant about the Palestinians how is that statement uttered by the Times all that different? And wasn't that the statement held by nearly ALL of the antiwar crowd who felt, no matter what happened we had to leave. OR had to prop up dictators there because they can't handle democracy etc etc etc.
So by your logic, the antiwar crowd is both depraved and fascist in tone and intent, correct? Because they were open to genocide in IRaq as well, or for putting actual fascist jack booted thugs back in charge as that was the only way to keep order. Or do you characterize the lefts attempted sabotage of our war effort in more rosy terms? Please describe the differences please where one stance would make you a facist and the other would have you on the side of the angels?

Suck on that Bob.

[vanderleun]

I think it's wonderful that Sullivan wannabe Bob closes off with "Suck on THAT, Riehl." Surely his champagne dreams would be more fruitfully directed at Andrew.

[SukieTawdry]

Obama quote from the AP: "I want to make sure that we have tested all the assumptions we're making before we send young men and women into harm's way."

Obamaese gobbledygook. I would like him to identify an assumption and then take us through its testing process.

[anony mouse]

Suckietawdry quoting Obama in the AP wrote:
Obama quote from the AP: "I want to make sure that we have tested all the assumptions we're making before we send young men and women into harm's way."

Er, except, didn't Obama already escalate the war in Afghanistan on taking office and commit and send more troops into harms way already? Mighty convenient of him to forget this fact. Understandable as it did happen a few months ago, and politicians have really short attention spans. I wonder if he forgot to test all the assumptions before sending you men and women into harms way the first time? Does he even know that he did send troops?

[Bob]

There's lots of room -- for conservatives amongst themselves, liberals amongst themselves, or everybody all together -- for a serious debate about Afghanistan. There are lots of different opinions on every side. Too bad none of the wingnut regulars at RWV are capable of having such a serious debate. You're too busy making queer jokes about Sullivan or whining about Obama to have anything to add to any adult conversation. Sullivan was right to use the term "degenerate" to describe this intellectual backwater.

[anony mouse]

And what Bob is contributing is an example of the adult conversation with his "Suck on that, Riehl" and routine commentary on his opponents as wingnuts. OH, he was being ironic! Should have known.Or rather, the rules of the game are different for libs. They can be snide and condescending, and that is of course serious adult conversation. It's bizarro lib logic, and Bob here is a textbook case.

[American-American]

Apparently that major at Ft. Hood didn't get the word that President Obama had declared a timeout while he tries to figure out what to do.

[Mike G in Corvallis]

There's lots of room -- for conservatives amongst themselves, liberals amongst themselves, or everybody all together -- for a serious debate about Afghanistan.

Gee, I thought that part of that "serious debate" took place during the campaign more than a year ago, when your hero derided John McCain for not being sufficiently gung-ho in fighting the Taliban. Didn't Candidate Obama pledge to track Osama bin Ladin down to the entrance of his cave? Didn't Candidate Obama say he was willing to invade Pakistan to defeat the Taliban? Why yes, he did:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080101233.html

Oh ... there's this, too:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19862711/

SUNAPEE, N.H. (Friday, July 20, 2007) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

I'd say that Barack Obama's open declaration that he would be open to the genocide of Iraqis is depraved. Wouldn't you?

[JR Dogman]

Re Rokker: "Sullivan is right."

In general Sullivan's wrong about Obama on most things, but...

He may be right on this. It may not even be that he is right that Obama is "right". It might just be that by dithering, O is accidentally doing the right thing. Not making a decision is, after all, making a decision: it's deciding to let events make the decision for you.

If, as some argue, Afghanistan can never function as a nation, then O's dithering may lead us to the right non-decision decision. I.e.: O dithers, the Taliban keeps gaining strength, there's more and more chaos, and it becomes the concensus that we should just leave the country to its inevitable fate of endless chaos and unrest. No more U.S. soldiers die or are injured, and no more treasure is spent, in trying to fix the unfixable.

In short, not a wild success, but the best outcome we could hope for, no?

Now, if only O would dither more on domestic policy...

[Teleprompter Messiah]

Idiot Cowboy Worst President Ever: 65 days from 9/11 to fall of Kabul.

Smartest Greatest President Ever: Present! I'm thinking.

Obama's nuance is really paralysis.

[O!]

Bob, thank you for that additional helping of Journolist/Axelturf talking point spam.

2010.

[Mark A. Flacy]

Dogman: "O is accidentally doing the right thing. Not making a decision is, after all, making a decision: it's deciding to let events make the decision for you."

Oh, bullshit. "I'm going to jump off of a cliff. I'll let gravity decide what happens next."

Dogman: "No more U.S. soldiers die or are injured[...]"

Well, except for the ones that are there now.

[vanderleun]

Whenever I read Charles Johnson describing others as "One “nontroversy” after another, followed by the outrage of the day, followed by conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, all delivered in breathless, angry prose that’s just wearying and depressing to read." my pot-to-kettle meter arrow just wraps itself around the stop pin.

The problem with these autodidacts who come late to the reading of books is that they really have no foundations for thinking.

[Joe]

There is so much sugar in that we all just became Type II diabetics.

[JorgXMckie]

Obdurate, oblivious ignorance of reality is such a pitiful thing. Bob must have to work very hard.

[Baxter Greene]

Like I said before, it is such a pleasure to have an adult occupy the White House. Someone that will not act just to appear tough like the last faux strutting cowboy who bellowed, "wanted dead or alive" "he can run but he can't hide" "Mission Accomplished" yeah, yeah, yeah..... the cowboy from Kennebunkport.
Posted by: Proud Liberal | Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 03:57 PM

wow...proud liberal must really have a good time in that huffington post bubble she lives in.

Is this liberal a "cowboy" also:

"Every nation has to either be with us, or against us. 
Those who harbor terrorists, or who finance them, are going to pay a price."

    Senator Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York)
    During an interview on CBS Evening News with Dan Rather
    September 13, 2001

OOOOOOHHHHH....in liberal land those words were supposed to have turned the world against us and was a large reason for "going it alone" in Iraq ......AAhhh....except for the more than 35 countries that helped us there.

But Bush was being a real "cowboy" for wanting Osama dead or alive.
How terrible of him to want to take down one of al-qaeda's leaders and the financier of 9/11.

Here is Obama:

“We will kill bin Laden; we will crush Al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”
Obama on Afghanistan/Pakistan during the 2008 Presidential debates

Dam#!!! Obama wants to kill him to.

"mission accomplished"......You do know we won in Iraq right.
So "Mission accomplished" is now a fact, unlike Afghanistan that is falling apart after Obama said for 2 years he was smarter and had a better plan.
Looks like Obama's banner will read "surrender accomplished".

Hey, proud liberal still has "smart power" to feel proud of right......

"The towers fell in New York on 9/11/01, Kabul fell to American led forces on 11/14/01. That’s 65 days.

President Obama’s hand-picked replacement commander in Afghanistan, GEN McChrystal, delivered his Afghanistan war plans to President Obama on 8/30/09, and President Obama hasn’t acted on his General’s recommendations as of today, 11/11/09. That’s 73 days, and waiting."

Wow!!!
No hurry though, I am sure Obama has some more campaign stops to make or some more golf games to get into.....

.....all that tough talk about winning the "good war" in Afghanistan and Mr. 57 states did not even have a plan or a clue what to do the whole time.
Real genius!!!!

Obama no Commander and Chief

Obama at the White House March 27th, 2009:

“Today I am announcing a comprehensive new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan..........
…......This marks the conclusion of a careful policy review.

Now Obama says:

“ “Until I'm satisfied that we've got the right strategy I'm not gonna be sending some young man or woman over there — beyond what we already have,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Sept. 21, 2009

"We need to finish the fight in Afghanistan... George Bush and John McCain have been weak on terrorism. It's time to finish the fight in Afghanistan."
Barack Obama
2008 Presidential Campaigning

When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell--but he won't even go to the cave where he lives. . . .
I will . . . finish the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Barack Obama
August,2008

Although Mr. Obama has said that a stable Afghanistan is central to the security of the United States,

Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War
NY Times, Sept. 22, 2009

(AP)  U.S. President-elect Barack Obama pledged in a telephone conversation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and the region would be a top priority during his administration, Karzai's office said Sunday.
Karzai: Obama Promises To Fight Terror
Nov. 23, 2008
CBSNEWS

“The only reason I send a single young man or woman in uniform anywhere in the world is because I think it’s necessary to keep us safe,” the president said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Obama on Face The Nation
Sept. 20, 2009

According to Obama, Eliminating the terrorist safe havens,training camps,and ability to launch attacks from Afghanistan and Pakistan is vital to America's safety.

“We will kill bin Laden; we will crush Al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”
“[al Qaeda] are now operating in 60 countries. We have to go to the root cause, and that is in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's going to be critical. “

“...every intelligence agency will acknowledge that al Qaeda is the greatest threat against the United States and that Secretary of Defense Gates acknowledged the central front -- that the place where we have to deal with these folks is going to be in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.”

And until we do, Americans here at home are not going to be safe.
Obama on Afghanistan/Pakistan during the 2008 Presidential debates

So why would Obama deny our military what it needs to win?

[bishop]

It's embarassing that Charles Johnson has forgotten the reason why he took up the anti jihadism campaign.
The sources of the problem have not changed; so why should his earlier incarnation would regard as a surrender pose, be considered seriously.

[Elmo]

Who's Andy Sullivan? (And) Vandy raggin on Chuckles .... (stupid smiles here).

Signed, ain't redd no book in years [not proud (sh*t, having trouble just getting through Peter Sellers/Goons, in Down With the Zed Men).

Who ya gunna call ....

[Anon]

FYI for Bob "queen" is a term that was originated by the gay community, it is no slur but is a quite accurate term for a certain type of usually older gay man, which fits Andrew Sullivan to a T....but no surprise that a typical liberal would interpret it as being derogatory, when its simply descriptive. I wonder do you even know any gay men? LOL

[templar knight]

Anon, don't confront Bob with facts. He can't handle them, and has never been here for any kind of discussion, but as a liberal plant meant to disrupt.

As for Andy Sullivan, he has a sexual fixation on Obama, much the same as the white news girls who thought Barack, being half white, might just be acceptable to their daddies. Charles Johnson can be included in that group as well. The magic Negro, if you will.

And I find it rather strange that Andy and Charles have changed their minds about Afghanistan, and now want to turn the fight over to people who are not prepared to win. And it's not like I'm saying these thing in a vacumn, as I have a son in the Army, who is likely to go to Afghanistan. Soon. I will tell you that this dithering, or whatever you wish to call it, is taking a toll on our soldier's and marines's morale. Most of them who are doing the fighting, my son is in the Army Infantry, have lost faith in this President, and just wish to leave the Army as soon as possible.

[templar knight]

Let me correct myself. I said most of the soldiers doing the fighting wished to leave the Army. I don't know that, I just know that my son told me that most of the guys in his unit feel that way. I should not have extrapolated that statement to include the entire Army infantry, as I obviously have no way to know that.

And speaking of serious discussion, Bob, Baxter Greene has decided to engage you. As he is not a regular here and doesn't know you, nor you he, why don't you respond to his post? That's what you say you want to do. We'll see if you are a man of your word.

[Anon]

I think Andrew is one of those people that simply cannot admit it when they are wrong, that is why he doubled down on his Sarah/Trig Palin fixation and continued even after the election to pretend that it was even possible she wasn't his mother. Same with Obama. Sullivan will never admit he was wrong about OBama unless the entire media turns on him, which will never happen because he's their AA president.

I don't know what the right answer is for Afganistan, but it certainly isn't failing to make any decision after being in office for almost a year when you claimed on the campaign trail that winning in Afganistan was your central goal.

[Rev. Dr. E. Buzz Biden-Miller, M.D., D.O]

"What strikes me about this is the enormous self-confidence this reveals. "

His massive throbbing self-confidence.

His hugely massive self-confidence.

His big stiffening self-confidence.

His tumescent dripping self-confidence.

His hard punishing self-confidence.

His relentless wide self-confidence.

His cut big hard self-confidence.

[Elmo]

His cut big hard self-confidence.

Posted by: Rev. Dr. E. Buzz Biden-Miller, M.D., D.O | Friday, November 13, 2009 at 02:25 PM

Purdy shoyr dat f*ckface clown still has his hat.

Born in Hawaii my ass.