The Des Moines Register has a great write up on Senator Dodd's discussions of foreign policy and the situation in Pakistan at an event in Logan today. It goes on to talk about the Caucus for Results bus tour and how Senator Dodd is reaching out to voters in the closing days before the Iowa caucus.
DMR on Dodd's foreign policy experience
posted by Matt Browner-Hamlin, Campaign Blogger on December 29, 2007 - 5:26pm
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Matt -
Chris Dodd is favored over Hillary Clinton, among others, by Wall Street Journal political columnist Peggy Noonan in this weekend's edition:
Speaking of Senator Dodd and Senator Biden as presidential candidates, she says
"...They've read a raw threat file or two. They have experience, sophistication, the long view. They know how it works. No one will have to explain it to them."
Read the full discussion of why experience, and "reasonableness" matter in a president in the Saturday/Sunday Dec 29-30 2007 WSJ. Chris Dodd for President!
I had a conversation on a playground during the summer of 2003 that has since help shape my view of our government and myself. While my child was playing with another child I was talking with the child's mother. I found out that she was from the middle east, I believe Pakistan but maybe not. She seemed to be dismayed by US policy. I told her I assumed she should be glad that our election was coming up, with as bad as Bush was doing I could not image that he would be reelected, you know that fool me once shame on me, fool me twice... well you understand. Her answer embarrassed me. She said it did not matter America did what America did and administrations come and go but the policy is basically the same. Now I know this is not ground breaking news but hearing it, one to one, one parent to one parent really shook me. She basically told me I was Bush and she was that woman caught in the crossfire of downtown Baghdad and I would never be anyone else and she would never be anyone else.
So am I a blame America first leftist? I think America needs to take responsibility for her actions is that is what the question implies. That question begs the follow on question though, What is America, who is America? I don't think one can simply say that we are not the Bush policies. Maybe we are the Bush policies. Maybe the whole problem with Bush administration has been a lack of discretion. I feel like an alcoholic staring in the mirror saying do I quit now or do I mask the symptoms better. There is a voice inside my head saying, why blame yourself, it is them that have the problem, not you. There is a voice a stronger voice that tells me I can be a better person, I need to get a hold of myself and I need be strong for myself and others in my life.
I am America and the voice inside myself saying that I can be a better person and has a plan that can get me to the whole person I was born as and always meant to be is Chris Dodd.
What I'm thinking after reading a couple of diaries on KOS is that the land of liberty has a problem, or maybe two.
First, there's the problem that a majority of the people who came here from somewhere else did so to escape the repression they experienced at home. So, they created the land of liberty and then discovered that their liberty would be sweeter, if they could subjugate some other group. And so it's been ever since. At the moment, it seems to be the so-called "illegal immigrants" turn to play the subordinate role, regardless of the fact that "illegal immigrant" is as oxymoronic as it gets.
The second problem has to do with our economy--i.e. the way we deal with trade and exchange. Ambivalence reigns here, as well. The assumption that trade and exchange are self-regulating and there's no need for social control is widely preferred. However, given that the rewards are greater if the deal is assured, monopoly conditions are always in favor and here, too, the law is a reliable help. So, for example, "legal" pharmaceuticals thrive in part because "illegals" are suppressed.
Some people would argue that hypocrisy is the root cause of these contradictory habits. What I'd suggest is there's a logical flaw to blame. It seems logical to assume that the object of an action is also the cause--that when someone is hit it's because his behavior is to be changed. But, as often as not, the motivation for an action has nothing to do with the thing at which it is directed object at all. When, for example, recent arrivals are denied sustenance because of the mistaken expectation that those who've been here longer will get more, there's a mistaken attribution of agency. Indeed, there's no evidence that deprivation will benefit anyone at all.
However, while we're tangled up in causes that aren't, the country is being robbed blind by the greedy one percent. Or, while the monkey does tricks, our pockets are being picked. And that's where the real problem lies.
Hello Monica, I like the way you post. When you post I wonder about however, 6:51 am?
To my point of view it all comes down to education. We are a democracy and we the people have to run this country. When we don't know enough to run this country other people will gladly run it for us, corporations, the military, foreign governments, plenty of interests are willing take the burden of running the country off the people's hands. For enough money there are some that will be glad to sell someone yours and my piece of America. Just look at the AT&T issue. AT&T does not want to play fair and the intelligence community decided that they would like to spy on everyone. So they made a deal. Well when the American public heard about it they did not want to be burdened with running the country. They said, it's ok, let AT&T and the intelligence community run the country for us. If the American public had learned their American government in civics class they would have known that it is not in their best interest to let others run the government for them. Sen. Sessions stood on the Senate floor saying the blame America first leftist are trying to harm America but in actuality Sen. Sessions looks at the power and money offered by the telecoms and the military community and sided with the very ones who are trying to steal the country from the people. Chris Dodd understands that the Constitution that states "We the People" is the bedrock of this country and that people like Sen. Sessions have put the Constitution up for sale. Unfortunately the education of the American public has been inadequate and we may no longer be able enough as a people to protect that which the founding fathers left us. That's what the republicans are counting on anyway.