Last night I watched The Biggest Loser on TV….
No, not that one…
This one…the TV show with the severely obese contestants who compete with each other to lose as much weight as possible and end up being “The Biggest Loser”. Each week, there is a weigh-in and whichever two people lose the least amount of weight will fall below the yellow line and face an elimination vote by their fellow contestants.
Just so ya know I didn’t shirk my duties as amateur political blogger, I did read the text of Obama’s speech. I also read the opinions on a few blogs to see what their reaction was. I’m seeing mixed feelings about the speech that has been dubbed Obama’s “defining moment”. How many “defining moments” has he had so far, anyway? Seems to me like there is about one every other week. Moving on…
The Republicans seem to be somewhat happy with the content of the speech. Michael Steele, the RNC Chairman, said this:
“Although this decision took far too long and it should not have, I am glad the president will finally provide General McChrystal with the troops he needs. However, tonight’s speech must be the beginning, not the end, of the case President Obama makes to the American people as to why this is, as he said during the campaign, ‘a war we have to win.’ If the president remains committed to this crucial fight, Republicans – and the American people – will stand with him. But sending mixed signals by outlining the exit before these troops even get on the ground undermines their ability to succeed.”
There are some pretty annoyed Democrats on the Hill, however. They wonder where in the world we’re going to get the money to continue this war. Congressman Dave Obey said:
“The biggest threat to our long-term national security is a stunted economy. If this endeavor is to be pursued, we must have a renewed sense of shared sacrifice – because right now only military families are paying the cost of this war. A progressive war surtax is the fairest way to pay for it – fairest to working class families and fairest to military families.”
Now, in my opinion, I don’t think this so-called “progressive war surtax” will ever see the light of day because I have no idea how they will get away with passing any kind of tax to support this war when they are trying to simultaneously pass a piece of crap health care bill that’s going to cost us billions of dollars already. What part of “it’s the economy, stupid” don’t these guys get?
Democratic Senator Russ Feingold said:
“I do not support the president’s decision to send additional troops to fight a war in Afghanistan that is no longer in our national security interest. It’s an expensive gamble to undertake armed nation-building on behalf of a corrupt government of questionable legitimacy.[...] While I appreciate that the president made clear we won’t be in Afghanistan forever, I am disappointed by his decision not to offer a timetable for ending our military presence there.”
Yes, Russ Feingold is “disappointed” but that won’t keep him from supporting everything Obama does. He’ll make a bunch of speeches and whine about it, but in the end, he’ll give Obama whatever he wants.
Besides, Obama does have an “exit strategy”. He plans on getting the troops out of there before he hits the campaign trail for the next Presidential election in 2012. At the very least, he’ll promise to start pulling them out right after the election…after he wins the votes he needs from the gullible Progressives who fell for his rhetoric in the last election. Once in office again, all bets are off.
I would like nothing more than to see a successful end to the war in Afghanistan, but the definition of “success” keeps changing depending on what the opinion polls are looking like that month. Will another $300 billion a year dumped into this war really do any good if Obama is going to pull the troops out in a little over a year anyway? What can be accomplished in 18 months? We already know that President Hamid Karzai is rotten to the core. How much of that money will be used to support his corrupt government and how many more of our soldiers have to die to that end?
So…will Obama end up being the “biggest loser” with his decision to send in 30,000 more troops, or will it be the American people who are already war weary and are suffering in one of the worst economic downturns since Jimmy Carter?
In the meantime, I’m wondering if it will be Amanda or Liz who will be shielded from elimination this week? It’s too bad we don’t have the same system with Congress and the Senate. At the end of the month we can compare their progress and if they fall below the yellow line…they’re out. And if any of them start bellowing… Jillian will knock the hot air right outta ‘em.














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