Posts Tagged ‘petraeus’

Talk about grading on a curve

Posted: July 2, 2010 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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If your goal is to make a political point then ranking a sitting president all time is useful, but frankly any group that ranks President Obama over Reagan is idiotic and not to be trusted.

In terms of ranking he also has the unfair disadvantage of the expectations game, if you compare him to expectations he would rank near Hoover except that he didn’t have you know anything near the actual accomplishments of Hoover before the presidency.

My own rankings of presidents is here but they are not numerical they are by group. I still think he has to potential to end up almost anywhere in the list because of the major crisis that he has to deal with. The trick is the results of many of them aren’t going to be apparent for a while, maybe even not until years after he is out of office.

I don’t care for this president, but it’s just not fair to try and rank his place in history right now. I’m too close to it and there are too many variables.

For example regardless of the reason for it the appointment of Petraeus could dramatically change things, if congress changes sides as is likely how he manages to work with such a congress can make a difference. We are still not even half way into his first term.

Do I expect positive changes? Frankly no, but that doesn’t mean the can’t or won’t happen. He is the president of my country and I want the best for my country, I don’t think he will bring it but I’d be very happy if he did.

When those historians rank this president where they do they once again create a set expectations that have great potential to be unmet. They serve him and the country very poorly.

Update: Smitty makes the same point I did

David Petraeus: Time Lord!

Posted: June 25, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, fun
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Ron Futrell is confused there seems to be two different reactions by the same people to David Petraeus and has concluded there must be more than one:

Is this the same General Petraeus? I know that name from somewhere and I’m pretty sure it’s spelled the same.

Futrell goes on to list the differences between the two Petraeus’ and his confusion.

The answer seems to me quite simple. Petraeus is a time Lord.

His ability to turn spend so much time dealing with individual tribes obviously comes from being able to use his TARDIS to go back in time to learn all these customs and travel back and forth to have the time to get to all of these places.

As for the attitude change, that’s easy; he has obviously recently regenerated and like the Doctor’s daughter Jenny had one of those rare regenerations where his physical appearance doesn’t change.

The first sign of said regeneration was the collapse. He must have been at the beginning of his regeneration cycle

This would also explain the different take of the media, they without a question didn’t care for the 1st version of Petraeus but since regeneration changes personality then of course they are looking at him in a different light.

Now it simply remains to be seen if this new regeneration of David Petraeus is just as effective a soldier as the previous one.

Stacy Discovers Morning Joe and MSNBC…

Posted: June 25, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, opinion/news, war
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…covering this politico story and discovers they are likely not quite on-board with the whole victory thing:

You can read the rest of that, but it’s a pretty simple story: All those Democrats who spent six years complaining that the Iraq war was a mistake because it distracted from fighting the real enemy in Afghanistan were . . . eh, lying.

Anti-war Democrats aren’t just against bad wars and, in truth, they’re not actually anti-war. They’re just anti-America.

This is not exactly news as I wrote before:

the concept that the replacement of McChrystal with Petraeus brought one line of argument, basically that it shouldn’t be used to try to win

Here is the big conundrum: Smart Pols understand that it is not a political winner to be identified with losing a war or being responsible for losing a war. Not for the president, not for themselves and if there is anything more sacred than the humbling of America to the left, it is retaining power.

The question becomes: What is more important to the left; retaining power they crave or losing the war and humbling the west? We will find out in 2 1/2 years.

Talk about talking points

Posted: June 24, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, elections, media, opinion/news, war
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The only words that Joe Scarborough & Co seemed to know were “Joe Barton” during their interview with Eric Cantor.

Why Cantor didn’t say to Joe: “I know that the democratic talking points are to try to make the election about Joe Barton rather than Barack Obama, and if that’s the Democrats plan to keep power and win elections then they have very little respect for the intelligence of the American people.”

It’s moment like this why I wonder why I watch the show.

Now that Claire McCaskill is now I wonder if she is going to be grilled or pressed Will they ask about the “Betray Us” vote? The closest thing to a tough question was why are we in Afghanistan from Barnicle.

If this is how even Morning Joe is going to play the game, then I might have to change my opinion on if the GOP should bother going on the show. Why bother when the alternate media is out there?

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