He's Cratering! Oh wait...Never mind.
Pete Wehner, like many over at the Commentary blog, suffer from Obama Failure Tourette's Syndrome...every few hours, like clockwork, they jump up and shout, "He's Failing! It's falling apart! He's cratering!"
Today's hilarious edition comes as a new poll shows that the President's approval rating has nudged up a bit to a very solid 58%. Not that polls mean anything at this stage of an Administration. This President is trying to do difficult things in both the domestic and foreign arenas. They are not whiz-bang things like invasions or tax cuts, the constant, irresponsible Republican opiates. They are the sort of efforts--health care, middle east negotiations, financial sector reform--that require the investment of political capital in the hopes of reward down the road.
All of these Obama efforts may come a cropper. His presidency may well fail. But I haven't seen him do anything as flagrantly irresponsible yet as George W. Bush's 2001 tax cuts, his co-President Dick Cheney's refusal to take Al Qaeda seriously before 9/11, the furious effort to gin up a rationale to go to war with Iraq and the disgraceful neglect of the situation in Afghanistan--all of which Obama is trying to clean up now. And make no mistake, the cynicism of the more intellectual Republican commentators--pretending Obama's (and Bush's) Keynesian efforts to deal with the recession are the reason for momentous Bush deficits...plus the gathering effort to paint him into an Afghan war escalation--is every bit as toxic as the populist craziness sweeping the base of the party. I see lots of political tactics, not very many substantive policy suggestions, from the disloyal opposition these days.
Wehner fearlessly predicts that Obama's alleged unpopularity will lead to crippling defeats in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races, which will cause a lot of "damage" to the Democratic Party. Maybe so, but I've been doing this a long time--and I've seen Presidents come back from far worse. Bill Clinton lost the Congress in a 1994 tidal wave and won the presidency in 1996. George W. Bush approved torture policies that migrated from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib and he still won reelection after the disgusting effects of those policies were revealed in the spring of 2004.
Of course, both Clinton and Bush faced uninspiring challengers. The Republicans are fairly deficient in the leadership department at the moment. Their potential candidates are cowed by Boss Rush--it was sad to see Tim Pawlenty, a good governor, make a fool of himself, pandering to the Boss, on the subject of health care rationing last week--"rationing" being the baloney euphemism for death panels among the non-nutter GOPS who still feel the need to fudge this issue. (And, as I've pointed out before, pulling the plug on granny is the last thing we have to worry about to so long as doctors are paid by the blood test, rather than salaries. Granny is a cash cow who needs to be kept alive.)
The point is, this sky-is-falling screeching is easy, painless and, occasionally, short-term, effective. But Republicans would be better served if they started thinking about policy rather than tactics--and their potential leaders started thinking about courage rather than fudge.
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1
More GOP wishful thinking.
The level of self-delusion is staggering.
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2
Media seem to forget that approval ratings may not hold up uniformly across the country, especially true around election time. BO's 58% app rating doesn't count in Arkansas and may be too low in Callie. And what is meant by "approval" anyway? What criteria are we using other than a popularity contest?
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2.1
That last point is so true, foghorn. Does approval mean approval of his personality, speeches, etc? Or does it mean approval with his policies and progress? Pretty vague.
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3
Well, the folks at Commentary are hysterical extremists. Kind of reassuring that some things never change.
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Had you heard that a large majority of doctors support a public option? It's true! Also, people like Andrea Mitchell are quite a bit more destructive than everyone in Commentary put together, because they fantasize and project that they are without bias. Please criticize that kind of mindless "centrism"; it's more a clear and present danger than neoconservatism.-
3.1
Mrs. Alan Greenspan (or e.g. her buddy Chris Matthews) believing they know what that average person in country feels (and more importantly, believing that a poll showing large scale support among said people for something like a PO must somehow be wrong because a few old white people are still uninformed and aloud and angry) is WAY more toxic and destructive to our country's state of discourse and understanding than someone saying something stupid at Commentary.
Course the green room at Mrs. Alan Greenspan's place has a lot better cocktail weenies than the ones they serve at Commentary.
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4
Considering the economy is leveling off (remember! this is only day two-hundred-something!) and showing signs of revival, I don't think Obama is going to fail.
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On the other hand, none of the disaffection the independents have had with Obama recently has accrued to the GOP.
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I might venture that what really is happening here is a process of marginalization. It is the GOP that is cratering....-
4.1
I trust this will look awful copy and pasted, but the info is available here. America likes Obama and hates the GOP.
FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE DON'T KNOW NET CHANGE
PRESIDENT OBAMA 56 (52) 39 (43) 5 (5) 8
CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 38 (39) 57 (56) 5 (5) -2
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 17 (18) 70 (69) 13 (13) -2
DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 40 (39) 51 (52) 9 (9) 2
REPUBLICAN PARTY: 22 (23) 68 (69) 10 (8) 0
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5
Not just the neocons at Commentary attack without thinking; so-called "progressives" at DKos, et al, continue to misread Obama's moves bigtime.
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5.1
I agree! I'm a long-time Kossack but the purity bloggers are in deep political denial, imho!
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6
Wow. Even the execrable Associated (with terrorists) Press has mentioned the latest videos exposing Obama's massive voter fraud outfit and criminal enterprise ObamAcorn. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9ANCH580&show_article=1
Evidently, Obama's useful idiots (i.e., the Washington/New York press corps), having been exposed, again, as frauds for ignoring the infestation of the Obama administration with whack job 9/11 Truther conspiracy theorists, doesn't want to risk further exposure of their political agendas.
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6.1
textee:
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The Obama MSM comprised of TIME, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC or the press versions of the LA Times or NY Times will never expose Obama's relationships until the people demand it.
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So long as we have Daily Kos, Huffington Post and the rest of the liberal bloggers, such as we have here in the swamp, they control the news now-a-days. TIME journalist here at the swamp are followers, not leaders.
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Obambi and Emmanuel put out their daily talking points through Gibbs, and the lap dogs sniff their balls like good liberal dogs. Wag their tails, and tilt their heads from side to side, oblivious to the goings on around them.
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But, the past few days are showing promise. rather than totally ignoring ACORN's recent videos, ACORN is at least being mentioned again on the back pages. I will be absolutely shocked to see anything about ACORN or SEIU written on this blog, the only thing which will force the issue is when other blog sites take up the story, and TIME as usual will come running in behind. -
6.2
Awwww . . . how cute! Rusty and textee: a match made in Rush Limbaugh's pants.
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6.3
Rustee and textee: WAAAAAA!!! I lost. I'm a sore loser. I'm a poor sport. I'm a jacka$$ crybaby, waaaaa!!
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6.4
It's all a vast left wing conspiracy you buttsniffers!
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Get with the program!
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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/15/congressman-says-some-people-arent-worth-peeing-on/
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7
The GOP is a rump party, bereft of any ideas or credible leaders.
Honestly, what else would we expect them to say at this point, when all they have left to peddle is fear, and the hope that Obama and America fail.
This same desperation is also what drives them to fraudulently inflate attendance figures at their failed Teabagger Convention last weekend in D..C. (aka "Baggerstock"), or boorishly heckle a President from the House floor.
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7.1
"...fraudulently inflated attendance figures..."
I suppose you think that the British press reported well over a million attendees because they have the same journalistic integrity that the American press does (just different sources). After all, the British press couldn't have actually had an eyewitness reporter at the event. And they don't bother doing actual investigation before reporting their facts, just like the American press. Right?
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And Joe Wilson was not just "boorishly [heckling] a president". He was making a specific charge about a specific point of the speech. He is either correct about the charge, or he is wrong. Do your research and find out which it is. -
7.2
Hey walt, go crapp in your hat, and then cram your condescending "lectures."
The figures the right claims for "Baggerstock" attendance are fraudulent. Period. And I can't help notice you conveniently fail to identify the ONE RIGHT-WING British publication which fraudulently carried the teabagger lie.
And yes, Joe "Racist Douchebag" Wilson is a boorish heckler AND a liar, intentionally distorting fact for political gain.. Nice job of attempting (In vain) to divert from attention from Wilson's lying, boorish, despicable behavior though.
I HAVE researched it. Evidently, you didn't.
EPIC FAIL, little man.
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7.3
Well, bentonf, thank you for your courteous, liberal minded discussion. I see that your conclusions are well reasoned and based upon the facts discovered by a thorough investigation of the evidence. Why don't you enlighten everyone with the fact-checking you did to show that what Joe Wilson said was not true?
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Of course, you might not have the time for such obvious stuff. So when I get the time, I will do so myself. Look for the posting here tomorrow night. -
7.4
I have a short while this morning to address the issue of the president's speech, and the point at which Joe Wilson charged him with lying. Please google the text of the speech for yourself and read it carefully.
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(Just a tangent issue: note the paragraph which begins, "What this plan will do is to make the insurance you have work better for you." Could anyone tell me how insurance will do all that without suddenly becoming unaffordable to many millions more of Americans?)
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Now for the paragraph which begins with, "There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false – the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." This is the point at which Joe Wilson charged Obama with Lying.
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Perhaps Joe did so, with such passion, because the Democrat controlled house had just killed two amendments which would have provided a means to accomplish what the president promises his plan will do.
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Now, bentonf, please present your evidence that what Joe Wilson said, was a lie.
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If anyone wishes to discuss the text of the speech, let us do so.
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I will check on other points this evening, as time permits. But if you care to do some investigation for yourself, I'm sure you can google pictures of crowds in Washington, D. C. -
7.5
As per my previous post, please do a bit of googling for pictures of the 912 gathering. It is indeed unfortunate that somebody erroneously reported that ABC had given a million + figure when (apparently) they had done no such thing. And it is sad that somebody had put out an aerial photo, which was apparently actually of an event from years previous. (This is especially regrettable because it was entirely unnecessary.)
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But let's talk about fraudulent numbers.
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First, compare the true and accurate "aerial" photos of the 9/12 crowd with the few pictures of the Million Man March which are still accessible on the internet from the first couple pages of a google search.
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Then, I'm feeling a little nostalgic:
I remember parades in Seattle, WA which would have a dozen to 15 or so marching bands, 6 to a dozen drum-and-bugle corps, several floats, cars with dignitaries, equestrian groups, etc. The whole 2k to 2.5k parade participants would pass any given point in about and hour and a quarter, including the bands halting the parade for a couple minutes each to put on a show for the judges in the grandstands.
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One of my favorite graphics demonstrating the size of the crowd before the White House on 9/12 is the time-lapse pictures taken from 14th and E Street NW, refreshed every 2 seconds for about three hours and a half. This doesn't just dwarf a Seattle SeaFair parade (as in 10X to 20X). I don't see how anybody could claim that this is any less than a couple orders of magnitude larger than an old SeaFair parade, and hope to have any credibility left.
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(...but then, there is always *somebody* doing something astoundingly odd....)
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8
I have been fascinated by the spin that we should NOT allow a partisan passage because healthcare comprises 1/6th of the economy....What a wonderfully deceptive finesse!
Tim Pawlenty trotted it out Sunday on ABC's “This Week with George” , “I don't think its a good idea to transform 1/7th of the nation's economy on a partisan basis with just Democrats.” I.E. It is better to do nothing than to take partisan action. As a conservative, Pawlenti is rather liberal with his rounding (1/7th would be 14% and we are way beyond that). But more to the point: That health care comprises 1/6th of GDP (and climbing far faster than inflation) is precisely why aggressive, decisive, and universal action is needed. It has gotten out of hand because we allowed it.
Sorry, Pawlenti....We wouldn't have to do it on a partisan basis if you hadn't recently lost so many seats in both houses....So let's all just sit on our hands until Republicans regain control in 40 years....for you.
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8.1
Did you happen to have a civics course at any time in your education? Did you know that the reason for two houses of legislature is to slow things down? This is not just a recent Republican invention. The senate was even designed to have different dynamics and different motivations from the house of representatives as a sort of filter, to keep either of them from just passing into law whatever they felt like passing on any given day.
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And, as for the growing costs of health care, relative to the size of the economy:
Do you know anything much about the demographics of the USA? Do you know where the growing burden is? (Hint: think "Baby-boomers".) If the government takes over the administration of health care, and starts handling the money, guess where they are going to have to cut costs if they are to keep the cost from mushrooming (let alone actually reducing the cost).
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9
09/15/2009 Rassmussen Report has it as:
Date Presidential Approval Index -4
Strongly Approve 34%
Strongly Disapprove 38%
Total Approve 50%
Total Disapprove 50%Forty-five percent (45%) now favor passage of the Congressional health care reform plan, a figure that's up just a single point since the speech. Fifty-two percent (52%) are now opposed. Those figures include 23% who Strongly Favor the plan and 41% who are Strongly Opposed.
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Of course when you have favorable ratings from within the MSM, such as TIME and CNN, you can basically report any findings you deem are most favorable to the President. Not doing so, and you get your talking points ripped out of your hands by Rahm Emmanuel, isn't that right Joe Klein?
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Zogby has it at 49%, up from 42% just prior to the healtchcare speech. So who do we believe? A media which is fully in bed with this administration and their agenda? Or, independent polling from Zogby or Rassmussen?
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http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1743
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How many ACORN dollars do you get back Joe, when you write this garbage?-
9.1
Elections are neither won nor lost based on how popular a law is before it is passed. They are won or lost on the results of the legislation. Now is the time for our legislators to ignore public opinion on healthcare/insurance reform.
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10
When the psuedo-intellectuals of the right wing run out of crappy, unworkable ideas, Pete Wehner is their go-to guy.
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11
T'aint just the repubs, Joe; it's the democrats too.
I can understand it from the repubs; that's their job; correction, that's what they think their job is, as opposed to their actual job which is to contribute to the good governance of your country.
Obama is just like Bush! Obama isn't populist enough! Obama's trying to do too many thing! Obama isn't strong enough! Obama has betrayed us! Obama is a corporate whore who isn't really what he says he is and isn't doing what he says he's doing! Obama hasn't pulled out of Iraq yet!
A typical example was his speech yesterday to Wall Street. How many articles by people left of centre were along the lines of "pretty words, but he won't do anything because he's bought and sold by the banks".
It's absolutely pathetic as far as I am concerned.
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11.1
Rusty,
I am a bit confused? Are you having a go at Obama because of his association with the Unions per se or just because you think that this association will lead to extremely liberal policies? If it is the latter, I don't understand what the problem is since you lay out his so-called betrayals of the liberal left pretty clearly. If it is the former than so what?
I do have some sympathy with your earlier point about talking points being distributed via the normal channels. I think what you fail to realise or point out is that it is exactly the same for republicans and the news channels and outlets you refer to actually lean more towards the republican talking points than the democratic ones. I do wince sometimes when I hear the same talking points from the mouths of the chattering classes (including their 'guests', because, let's face it they're such an incestuous bunch it might as well be that they each have their own little talk show - you know the characters I mean that seem to flit amongst the channels like fairies spreading fake wisdom dust around) but I guess they become representative of a certain way of thinking. Depending on what talking points you subscribe to, that shows where you are on the political scale.
Personally, I go for the democratic talking points because I am more assured that their ideas are better ones (even if they're not always the perfect ones) than the republican ones. And, you know, it's not even better or worse sometimes (sometimes it is), it's about what an individual cares about more; people think the public option is a good idea because it will involve a benefit to people and don't really care if it lessens the profits of insurance companies; those who oppose it care more about - I won't say insurance companies per se - the general right to make a profit and don't really care that larger profits means people go without healthcare.
The other reason I go for the democratic talking points is that sometimes the republican ones are so nuts.
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12
"It's absolutely pathetic as far as I am concerned."
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First off you failed to also mention his love affair with big labor and his associations with the likes of ACORN / SEIU.
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They are all political whores (politicians as a whole), sitting and waiting for the next campaign dollar to slide into their corrupt fingers from whatever person or group decides to grease the wheels.
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The recent Tea Party rally held this past Saturday was just one example of how fed up the average person in America is today with ALL politicians.
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Obama is simply playing to his base of support, and potential base for 2012 with the big banks he has bailed out, GM and Chrysler and big Union.
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I guess what I do wonder is how far do the people that voted for the "Community Organizer" turned President let him go against everything he promised you in the years preceeding the election? How much do you let him dissapoint you before you begin to speak out against his actions and policies? FISA anyone? Public Option anyone? Pull out of Iraq anyone? Bailouts that were set up for big business anyone? Stimulus packages that only favor big unions anyone?
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Where is he speaking today? I do believe it is an AFL-CIO rally, no?-
12.1
Alright, I'll bite. What is it precisely about ACORN that has you so incensed? I'm dumbfounded that this lame talking point has made it this far past the election season, so please explain what it is exactly that has you wingnuts so outraged?
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12.2
D'OH, I responded to the wrong comment, Rusty look above.
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But Republicans would be better served if they started thinking about policy rather than tactics
Why? They're getting the policy shifts they want by throwing hissy fits. (cf Baucus plan)
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"The point is, this sky-is-falling screeching is easy, painless and, occasionally, short-term, effective."
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I won't be painless or very effective, even short-term, if the rest of the corporate press tells the public the truth about them as you are doing here. -
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As I read the comments that have been posted, what I don't understand is where does the animus directed towards Obama come from? He's a likeable enough guy, so is it just party affiliation? Or is it what rustyreturns states; "how fed up the average person in America is today with ALL politicians." which would be easier to believe if he directed his contempt at politicians of both parties. As rusty and textee talk of how the "liberal" MSM simply parrots the talking pints of the current administration, isn't that what the MSM did for the past 8 years? And now the MSM should be held to a higher standard because there is a Dem occupying the Oval office?!
I understand that in today's political environment it is much more effective to villify those who hold views that do not conform to your personal ideology but one party rule isn't going to happen anytime soon, so in the immortal words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"
Oh, for the good ol days, hold on....there never were any good ol days...-
15.1
Very cogent sentiments. I am entirely in agreement.
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"Tim Pawlenty, a good governor"
Asserted, not demonstrated.
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Pawlenty's taking heat here in MN for his comments. We pride ourselves in MN for being cutting edge, so to speak, on health care issues.
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17.1
Please tell me he is taking heat for his suggestion that Obama asked school kids to write to him so he could collect the addresses and use them for some unknown but nefarious purpose?
I thought that was one of the stupidest and irresponsible things I have hear in a long time, especially from someone fancied as a presidential candidate.
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[...] 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment joe klein: [Obama's] presidency may well fail. But I haven’t seen him do anything as flagrantly [...]
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"and their political leaders started thinking about courage rather than fudge"
Are you stirring things up or just making another Larry Craig joke?
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