Topics to argue about. Let's have the Esteemed Audience pick five and we'll go from there.
1. Given the information available at the time, Bush should have done something differently about terrorism in the first eight months of his Administration.
2. Islamic terrorism is a problem that cannot be substantially reduced but only prevented and kept at a manageable level. Any project whose aim is the radical transformation of the Middle East is either doomed to fail or to make matters worse.
3. Kerry’s war statements and votes have displayed a consistent framework, responding differently to different circumstances; or have been driven by political expediency.
4. Kerry’s Vietnam War and antiwar record gives useful information as to whether he would have been a good Commander-in-Chief fighting against the global jihad. (This, while still as much fun as a root canal, says important things about the anti-Vietnam
war left and American national security policy.)
5. Social Security reform.
6. After 9/11, the Administration would have been unwise to rely on the CIA to confirm the existence of threats before acting.
7. In 2002, Saddam was/was not a significant threat.
8. Our attempt to create democracy in Iraq while under American military protection is doomed to failure.
9. If the Clinton-Gore Administration had remained in power, boy howdy they were just about to get around to taking care of Osama.
10. The Administration is usually not as in control of the federal bureaucracy as many, especially conspiratorialists, assume. (RE: Orange Alerts)
11. Randy Orton should immediately change his theme music to a remix of Kid Rock’s “[I Want to be a] Cowboy”, as it would fit perfectly both with his father’s legacy and his own position as the young, arrogant chosen one destined to dominate the business. (If you don't believe me, ask him.)
1. Given the information available at the time, Bush should have done something differently about terrorism in the first eight months of his Administration.
2. Islamic terrorism is a problem that cannot be substantially reduced but only prevented and kept at a manageable level. Any project whose aim is the radical transformation of the Middle East is either doomed to fail or to make matters worse.
3. Kerry’s war statements and votes have displayed a consistent framework, responding differently to different circumstances; or have been driven by political expediency.
4. Kerry’s Vietnam War and antiwar record gives useful information as to whether he would have been a good Commander-in-Chief fighting against the global jihad. (This, while still as much fun as a root canal, says important things about the anti-Vietnam
war left and American national security policy.)
5. Social Security reform.
6. After 9/11, the Administration would have been unwise to rely on the CIA to confirm the existence of threats before acting.
7. In 2002, Saddam was/was not a significant threat.
8. Our attempt to create democracy in Iraq while under American military protection is doomed to failure.
9. If the Clinton-Gore Administration had remained in power, boy howdy they were just about to get around to taking care of Osama.
10. The Administration is usually not as in control of the federal bureaucracy as many, especially conspiratorialists, assume. (RE: Orange Alerts)
11. Randy Orton should immediately change his theme music to a remix of Kid Rock’s “[I Want to be a] Cowboy”, as it would fit perfectly both with his father’s legacy and his own position as the young, arrogant chosen one destined to dominate the business. (If you don't believe me, ask him.)
4 Comments:
Tanketra here ... I've been asked to play the role of Esteemed Audience here. I'm going to try to narrow it down to the five topics that I'd most like to see discussed by other people. That is, I'm trying to avoid ones that would come to an immediate agreement unless people were just trying to be perverse; ones that realistically would be a smackdown for one side or the other (Kerry? An opportunist? THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD!!!); and ones that would give me headaches if someone wasn't "using my playbook", so to speak. If those criteria seem strange ... (shrug) I was asked ...
So, with all that in mind, to me it comes down to ...
#2--Part 1 of the Big Dance Question.
#5--Because it can't all be about Iraq and/or national security.
#7--Part 2 of the Big Dance Question.
#8--Part 3 of the Big Dance Question.
#10--It's an interesting question, and one I've recently seen evidence for both sides on.
I might have included #4, but I haven't read Franken's book, so I'm a little confused as to who's arguing what exactly, here. It seems a bit like political philosophy's answer to a Turing test.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
#4 isn't so much based on Franken's book as it is an attempt to drag a Kerry/Swift Boat discussion back to something relevant to the 21st century.
Part of the fun of this is that, if something actually does get resolved, or more likely we agree that it has been argued to death, we can move on to one of the others.
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