Good on you Rachel!

[lonestarnot]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0901/maddow-outraged-obamas-kind-words-bush-iraq-speech/


Maddow blasts Obama for praising Bush, letting WMD liars ‘get off easy’
In an Oval Office speech to the nation, President Barack Obama officially declared an end to US combat operations in Iraq Tuesday. The speech's praise for President George W. Bush quickly drew outrage from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.

In 2002 while Obama was an Illinois state senator, he was one of the few elected officials to attend an anti-war rally in Federal Plaza. "An anti-war, anti-Bush speech would make him even more appealing to Democrats who were feeling distraught and powerless over the country’s race to war and were still angry about the 2000 presidential election," wrote NBC Chicago's Edward McClelland.

But eight years later, Obama found himself praising the president that started the war in his Oval Office speech.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Obama was right about the war when that discussion mattered most

Revisiting it would look like a trip down memory lane and avoidance behavior (Iraq is nowhere near his main problem right now).

Rachel's Greatest Hits was fun last night, but she's got a TV show to run, not a country.

[CTyankee]

2. I saw the vid on msnbc-tv.com. Rachel was terrific!

She went thru each "excuse" for the invasion of Iraq, and pointed out that each one was NOT TRUE.

Rachel Maddow is a national treasure...

[emulatorloo]

3. All reasonable people know about Bush and the WMD liars. It is what it is, a Rabid anti bush rant

doesn't have much place in an oval office speech that was mostly "Now that that thing is done, we can stop wasting money there and invest here in the US.

[zipplewrath]

4. The big lie

I'm not sure why the speach had to include a lie about how much Bush cared about the troops. He sent them on a needless war, kept them there for 7 years, and got a whole bunch killed. Never mind that when they started coming home injured, he didn't arrange for them to be cared for. How that is "caring" is beyond me.

But since Obama is keeping them there for another 2.5 years, maybe he felt he needed some cover.

[alsame]

11. I can think of only one reason he said it, and that is

for the troops who were killed or injured during the Bush years.

I say this because I recently met a woman whose husband was killed in Iraq in 2005. She said she keeps her sanity by believing that he died for a good cause and in the service of a President who cared deeply about the troops. She tells her children that their father was a hero who kept America safe from attack.

I think the families of the fallen have to believe the lies, because it's the only thing that makes their loss bearable.

So I don't think any President would ever publically admit that any war was unnecessary and that troops were killed or maimed for nothing. It's okay for Vets to come home and say that, as Kerry did after Viet Nam, but would be cruel for a President to admit that all the losses were in vain.

That being said, I hope Obama didn't believe a word of it.

[zipplewrath]

12. He could have said nothing

He didn't have to do the whole, "Bush cared for the troops". He didn't have to lie. He could have said that he executed the SOFA negotiated under Gibbs/Bush and that was "consistent with his position of ending this conflict".

[alsame]

13. I agree with you, I would have preferred no

mention of Bush at all. I'm just speculating that he may have included those words to provide comfort to those who needed it.

[zipplewrath]

15. Not sure why you would conclude that?

I'm not sure why you would presume such a favorable motivation for a guy that has decided to escalate a war in Afghanistan, and prolong one in Iraq. If he was motivated by a desire to comfort, he'd end this madness.

[alsame]

16. I'm not concluding that at all, I'm just speculating because I'm

trying to make sense of his words.

Another possibility is that he was trying to make a comparison to himself - as being patriotic and caring about the troops - even as he escalates in Afghanistan. Using Bush's behavior to justify his own, so to speak.

[zipplewrath]

17. Pretty much my conclusion

His approach to Iraq seems to have consistently been to try to "protect his right" by mimicing Bush extensively. Right down to having Petreaus involved in the planning and execution. He executed the SOFA that Bush negotiated (and probably never would have stuck to). He has kept on the Sec Def of Bush that was one of Bush senior's close advisors. He needs to have Bush's actions seem "honorable" some how since he's planning on doing much the same thing.

[alsame]

18. Sadly, I think that's exactly it. nt

[mike r]

5. Be nice, and you'll get to play golf with Papa Bush

That's all.

[Winterblues]

6. Her audience is way too small IMO.

She is a very good instructer. She makes learning a pleasure. I only wish she had a larger audience because she is a National Treasure.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. +1000000000000000000

[Raster]

8. Tell it, Sister Woman and Thank you!

Shame on you, President Obama. You just gave the biggest war criminals a free pass. Disgusting!

[ladjf]

9. She is the top "Educator of Politics" in the Country. nt

[WI_DEM]

10. Who cares? it's mainstream America who matters and they probably liked his approach.

It was presidential and bipartisan.

[TheWatcher]

14. So now allowing War Criminals to get off scott free and never be held accountable is "Presedential."

Wow, The Stockholm Syndrome this country is under is BREATHTAKING.

I think I'd rather have Rule Of Law, and a President that believed that came first over Pandering, Image, and Political Victory.

As for Mainstream America:




If this is what we stand for now, we are truly finished as a country.

We are going to regret this President's "Bi-Partisanship".

I truly hope this is all worth it for those who cheer it on.

And that your happy memories of artificial, meaningless Political Theater and Pablum that made you feel good will keep you warm, cozy, and cocooned in indifference when the consequences come to bear.

Our Nation is Truly Broken.

[emulatorloo]

19. No offense but you're kind of on Hyperbole overdrive. Other than that callling mainstream Americans

idiots doesn't sit well.

[TheWatcher]

20. And no offense to you, but you're in Denial Overdrive.

Which is typically why people like you respond with insults and no refutation whatsoever.

Because you can't.

You seem to think by cocooning yourself in false paradigms, fabricated reality, and fake Political Theater that means absolutely nothing, that everything will be magically fine.

And that anyone that DARES express what's actually going on is hyperbolic, a conspiracy kook, and "unhelpful."

I'd rather have Representative Government and Rule Of Law.

Traitors and War Criminals should GO TO JAIL. They should be held ACCOUNTABLE. Not fellated and praised on the National Stage in some sort of sick act of "bi-partisanship."

Traitors and Criminals are not supposed to GET "bi-partisanship."

They are supposed to be HELD ACCOUNTABLE for their Crimes.

This is not some argument over Budget legislation.

This is a question of TREASON, and allowing TREASON to go UNPUNISHED.

Now, go Worship Snooki and play with your Pony in Never Never land.

You don't get it, and you CAN'T be BOTHERED to.

[fascisthunter]

21. there was nothing hyberbolic in that statement

its the truth, face it because nothing will change unless you do, as painful and irritating as it might be.

[Lucian]

23. If mainstream Americans think the same way you do...

then they are idiots.

[tallahasseedem]

25. Keep it classy...

:eyes:

[Lucian]

22. Why the fuck should a Democrat president be bipartisan...

when the Republican presidents aren't?

It was cowardly and he pushed away more of his base.

[tallahasseedem]

24. Precisely...

that is something that is being completely lost on several posters.