Black Hole....errr The Political Roundtable

[Nivek]

It's amusing to find politicians changing positions, but...this tactic of accusing someone of "flip-flopping" is one I'd love to see drastically reduced. I change my views on stuff all the time -- when better information becomes available; when I realize the approach I've been using isn't working; when I find a flaw in my reasoning; when I become convinced that I was just plain ol' wrong. I think this is true for most people. Yet it's a fatal flaw for a politician. Something screwy with that.

That said, when someone does change positions for purely political reasons, I think they're fair game.

If a politician changes his views based on something real, I'd love for him/her to respond to a "flip flop" charge with, "You're darned right I changed my position, and here's why..." Instead of these tortured efforts to argue that their current position is entirely compatible with their previous position, and really, they've never changed their view.

[nate33]

This is hilarious and fantastic.

"I was happy to see that Newt Gingrich has staked out a position on the war, a position, or two, or maybe three. I don’t know. I think he has more war positions than he’s had wives. [...] There’s a big debate over there. Fox News can’t decide, what do they love more, bombing the Middle East or bashing the president? It’s like I was over there and there was an anchor going, they were pleading, can’t we do both? Can’t we bomb the Middle East and bash the president at the same time?

-- Senator Rand Paul [R-KY]

I agree with Rand Paul completely. The neocons are a joke on this issue. That said, it would be nice if the Democrats (other than Kucinich) would show some consistency too.

[Spence]

I agree with Rand Paul completely. The neocons are a joke on this issue. That said, it would be nice if the Democrats (other than Kucinich) would show some consistency too.

There are plenty of Dems in Congress and media who oppose the Libya intervention. [I didn't favor it.] Kucininch "consistency" on this issue makes him look very silly.

But what I loved was Paul calling out Fox News. [Making fun of Newt Gingrich is fun, but too easy to be impressive.] I think all of us, whatever our politics, can imagine the agony in Fox, trying to figure out how to attack Obama and support blasting the crap out of more Arabs at the same time. Very amusing. I didn't know these Aqua-Buddhists had such a good sense of humor.

[pineappleheadindc]

99 pages and our Australian friend lupin hasn't been around for a while (to make a new thread).

As a reminder, thead pages are limited to under 100 pages for back-end technical reasons.

Any volunteers to start a new politics thread please?

[Zonkerbl]

IBTL woohooo!