Please! Drop the meme of the dueling speeches! THERE'S NO COMPARISON!

[babylonsister]

THERE'S NO COMPARISON.... Tomorrow will feature two speeches on national security, one of which will matter. This piece, from the Politico's Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, frames the two speeches in an unhelpful way.

President Barack Obama will attempt to regain control of a boiling debate over anti-terrorism policy with a major speech on Thursday -- an address that comes on the same day that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be weighing in with his own speech on the same theme.

The dueling speeches amount to the most direct engagement so far between Obama and his conservative critics in the volatile argument over what tactics are justified in detaining and interrogating suspected enemy combatants.

Look, there is no "duel." Setting these addresses up as some kind of book-end speeches is silly.

President Obama is the Commander in Chief in a time of two wars. He'll be delivering a lengthy speech about U.S. national security, his recent decisions on matters like Gitmo and military commissions, and where U.S. policy is headed.

Dick Cheney used to hold office, but he's now a cranky private citizen, who's taken it upon himself to undermine the current administration. He'll be speaking at a think tank about how right he thinks he was, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, and why he'd like to see the White House's decisions fall in line with his own.

One of these speeches is consequential. The other will be delivered by Dick Cheney. He may have been vice president, but compared to Obama's address tomorrow, Cheney's thoughts on national security are about as relevant as my thoughts on the issue.

Update: Mark Halperin loves this "Obama vs. Cheney" dynamic, doing two items on this, characterizing the speeches as some kind of boxing match between competitive heavyweights. Sigh.

—Steve Benen

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018266.php

[MADem]

1. Whose speech was scheduled first?

If the answer is Cheney's, then Obama WANTS there to be a comparison made.

Cheney says the same thing every fucking time he talks about this subject. Here, let me give you an approximation of what he says:

Waah, waaah, waah, waah, terror, waah, waah, waah, waah, fear, waah, waah, waah, waah, enemies, waah, waah, waah, waah, do harm to American Way of Life, waah, waah, waah, waah, Osama, waah, waah, waah, waah, security, waah, waah, waah, waah, disloyal liberals, waah, waah, waah, waah, did I say terror?, waah, waah, waah, waah, shoot ya in the face, waah, waah, waah, waah,be very afraid...or else....

Cheney's shit is boiler-plate. Shouldn't be too difficult to craft something that knocks down all that "terra, terra, terra" nonsense.

[babylonsister]

2. That's not the point, but you know that. Cheney shouldn't be

given the time of day, period.

[graywarrior]

3. He should be given a prison sentence.

[MADem]

4. It's ENTIRELY the point. Obama could have easily backed away from Notre Dame, but he didn't.

He gave a speech that silenced critics AND made them look like assholes.

Cheney has been running around making a pain in the ass of himself. That is a fact. He's not going to go away because you or I "ignore" him or refuse to give him the time of day, period or paragraph.

He's getting press, he's been eating up the news cycle for over a week, and scolding people for noticing that is absurd.

If Obama scheduled his speech AFTER Cheney's, that means that Obama IS going to answer that Sidemouth Talking Asshole and wipe the floor with him. And that was his INTENTION.

And there's nothing wrong with him doing that.

[EFerrari]

5. No kidding. Why is that out of office war CRIMINAL being given equal billing?

[babylonsister]

8. I don't know. nt

[babylonsister]

6. CNN And MSNBC To Carry Cheney’s Big National Security Speech Live

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/cnn-and-msnbc-to-carry-cheney-national-security-speech-live/

CNN And MSNBC To Carry Cheney’s Big National Security Speech Live


Looks like Dick Cheney’s big national security speech at the American Enterprise Institute tomorrow is going to get wall-to-wall cable coverage — giving a major assist to those who hope that his speech will be seen as “dueling” with the one that Obama is planning to give on the same topic tomorrow.

Both CNN and MSNBC will be carrying Cheney’s speech live tomorrow, in addition to carrying Obama’s, spokespeople for both networks confirm to me, barring the intrusion of some major news event. Fox News will certainly be all over the Cheney speech tomorrow — a major cataclysm couldn’t tear them away from such a big moment. So that means roadblocked cable coverage for Cheney.

Obama is set to deliver his big speech on national security at 10 A.M. Cheney’s is set to follow at 10:45. Politico framed the story of tomorrow’s speeches in advance in a piece called: “Barack Obama, Dick Cheney plan dueling speeches.”

This, naturally, raised some hackles on the left, where people pointed out that Obama is the Commander in Chief, meaning his national security views have real-world significance, while Dick Cheney is a private citizen who only has his reputation at stake.

In other words, goes this argument, their speeches will only be “dueling” if folks in the media make the decision to present them that way. Republicans, meanwhile, hope that coverage does proceed along these lines, helping to elevate Cheney and taking down Obama a peg or two.

Looks like the cable nets have already made the call.

[burning rain]

7. Cheney's an odious criminal and that's only becoming clearer with time.

But here it seems you're on about the political contest, to whatever extent it's still a contest, between him as a Bush Administration dead-ender, and Obama. As unsavory as it is engaging with criminals, I say "Bring it on!" -- at least in the political sense. Those thugs got rumbled in 2006 and 2008 when they tried to keep flogging their patriotism / security / Iraq War issues far past their viability and they'll get rumbled this time as well.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. NOTHING from Politico is helpful.

Mike Allen can kiss my ass.

He's Matt Drudge Wannabe #77

[babylonsister]

10. I never go there unless I find a link of actual news.

I'm sure not interested in their 'opinions'.

[malaise]

11. I can't take anymore of this

Shite