GOP unwise to call Obama inexperienced

[babylonsister]

GOP unwise to call Obama inexperienced
By GARRY SOUTH | 6/2/08 1:41 PM EST

South says in comparison to Bush, Obama "looks like a veritable Gulliver."
Photo: AP


snip//

But the danger is that the criticisms might just provoke an unwelcome retrospective on the inexplicably scrawny foreign policy credentials and international exposure of the past two cycles’ GOP nominee, the man whom the Gallup Poll says 60 percent of Republicans still think is doing a bang-up job: George W. Bush.

Yes, the same Bush who has a record-high 71 percent disapproval rating among Americans; who is viewed by citizens of our closest ally, Great Britain, as being a bigger threat to world peace than the leaders of Iran and North Korea; whose ratings in putatively friendly Saudi Arabia are lower than those of Osama bin Laden; and whose foreign policy blunders and reckless unilateralism have driven American credibility and prestige around the world to all-time lows (a 15 percent U.S. approval rating in Pakistan and a 9 percent rating in Turkey, according to the Pew Research Center).

Unlike many of my fellow Democrats, I don’t think Bush is a complete moron. (I know, I know, damning with faint praise.) A favorite bumper sticker on Democrat-owned Volvos and Toyota Priuses reads, “Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot.” Actually, I believe Bush is serviceably bright, rather clever in some ways, and a better overall politician than his father was.

What I also believe, however, is that Bush has clearly and incontrovertibly demonstrated a lifelong intellectual laziness and lack of curiosity, especially about the larger world. Public television features a series about H.A. and Margret Rey’s superinquisitive monkey named Curious George, but it’s not likely there will ever be a similar show about George W. Bush. He has been the least qualified and most inexperienced president in terms of foreign affairs in the lifetime of most Americans today — largely because of Bush’s self-imposed blissful ignorance of the world. This, as we all now know, has cost the U.S. dearly.

Think this is just harsh Democratic spin? In his newly minted book about life in W’s White House, Bush’s fellow Texan, longtime aide and former White House press secretary Scott McClellan criticizes Bush’s “lack of inquisitiveness.” In my book, that’s a euphemism for self-imposed blissful ignorance.

more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10758.html

[baldguy]

1. The GOPs biggest problem is that they believe their own propaganda.

[babylonsister]

2. Hopefully that will be their undoing! nt

[blondeatlast]

4. Exactly--and lately the public doesn't. nt

[papau]

15. At this point the "he is inexperienced" is working for the GOP - Obama needs to develop an answer

[opihimoimoi]

3. The Hubris the Bush dudes bring to the table is insurmountable..their collective inexperience is

evidenced by the disaster they have foisted on America...a slurry of poor decisions from the Decider himself...when it comes to Solving...Bush ain't shit

[bonito]

5. And Mc Cain wrecked 5 planes than got caught

An experienced idiot from what I hear.

[tavalon]

6. The GOP just came up with their slogan "Change You Deserve!"

If that doesn't show off just how out of touch and stupid the RNC has become, nothing will. They will go after this talking point and we will blow it up in their face. Just where was the bush baby during those months he was supposed to be flying with the Champagne elite in Texas. 8 year ago, we just had the talking morons on TV, now we have the tubes and we can have the conversation much more honestly and loudly. But to think for a moment that the RNC is smart enough to step around this one, is well, giving them more credit than they ever could deserve.

[FightingIrish]

7. John McCain's experience is largely a myth.

I spent a good part of the day researching our opponent and found that his feet of clay are actually feet of shit. His Navy career was distinguished by bad behavior and the high profile that comes with being an admiral's son and a POW. It turns out that he did not see combat until almost ten years after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. His dismal pilot skills got him assigned to fly A1 Skyraiders, the same plane we trained our South Vietnamese friends to fly. He moved up to A4 Skyhawks and may have been the trigger that set the USS Forrestal on fire, killing 167 of his shipmates.

If we were looking for a cocksman to rival Bill Clinton, McCain might be our guy. I rather think it is time to select our leader from the top of the class and consider judgment ahead of questionable experience.

[Median Democrat]

19. McCain's Service Should Be Honored, But His Combat Record...

Out of five airplane crashes, only 1 was in combat. The rest were due to his poor piloting skills. So, McCain lost five military aircraft in 10 years.

McCain, the “below par” pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.

While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”

Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain’s grandfather.

In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he had met at Annapolis. They were married in Philadelphia on July 3, 1965.

Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees.

The Navy dismissed the crash as “unavoidable” and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down and captured by the Vietnamese.

[bemildred]

8. Obama just kicked the Clinton's ass.

The Clinton's kicked the Republican's ass twice.
You do the math.

[babylonsister]

11. Perfect! nt

[kentuck]

9. He's inexperienced ??

But he's the biggest "liberal" in the Senate? How would they know if he has no experience??

[babylonsister]

12. Compared to gramps, that's all they have. So I think gramp's

discrepancies in his voting record, with experience, should be examined with a fine tooth comb. I have no doubt that will happen.

[cynatnite]

10. It was attempted during the primaries and didn't work there...

what makes them think it'll work in the GE?

[Mz Pip]

13. Somewhere in the archives

of DU is my first post from the spring of 2001. Before 9/11, before Iraq. Way back then those of us who were paying attention thought Bush was intellectually lazy and therefore a danger to this country.

It's sort of tragic that the rest of the country just now seems to be catching on to this.

One can only hope that the country won't want to do intellectually lazy again. John McCain may be a bit brighter than Bush but he, too, lacks any interest in hearing any opinion that differs from his on. On the rare occasions where he has differed with the GOP he doesn't stand his ground. He caves. Not because he believes in what he hears, but because it's easier. He doesn't take risks, he doesn't really want to be bothered.

The fact that on some rare occasion he has a mild difference of opinion has given him the moniker of Maverick. Bullshit.

[PM7nj]

14. That was already tried...

...didn't work out too well.

[iris88]

16. I have come up with something that seems to work.

If experience was so crucial in being President, Bush would have been getting better all along. Seems to end that argument pretty quick.

[kevinbgoode]

17. What elected office did Eisenhower ever hold?

One wonders if Republicans think the only qualification for the presidency is training in a in a strict military dictatorship.

What would a general know about economic and domestic policy?

[VP505]

18. That's a loosing proposition either way.

If they claim Obama is inexperienced, just point to Booo$h and ask what experience HE had. If they claim Booo$h had experience ask why is everything so screwed up then, apparently his experience meant nothing. McSame wants to push the same crap that Booo$h has, which basically makes comparing him to Booo$h valid, IMO. I hope they use that meme its another looser.

[FrenchieCat]

20. Experience doing what, exactly?

supporting war we didn't need to fight?
Voting against Veteran's GI Bills?
Sitting in Washington D.C. Year after year after year after year?
Cozying up to Lobbyists?

experience at What? :shrug:

Some of Obama's experience
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6303258

[and-justice-for-all]

21. Curious George could not manage a small company...

just how in the fuck did they think he could manage an entire country!!? Inexperience! GWB is pretty fucking inexperienced! He was handed the presidency, he did not earn it based on his merits.