O’Reilly questions whether ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ song is ‘mean-spirited.’
O’Reilly questions whether ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ song is ‘mean-spirited.’
Yesterday, Bill O’Reilly discussed the controversy surrounding RNC chair candidate Chip Saltsman’s Christmas greeting that contained a CD with the now-infamous song, “Barack the Magic Negro.” But O’Reilly didn’t seem to understand the offensive nature of song, asking, “Well, what about the satire – what about the satirical element of this?”
O’REILLY: I want to get – I want Dr. Hill to clarify one thing. What is mean-spirited? What’s mean-spirited about satirizing Al Sharpton’s disenchantment that Barack Obama stole the spotlight? What is mean- spirited about that?
O’Reilly cautioned viewers: “But in order for us to report on this, we have to play some of the satire. So be forewarned.” Watch it:
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Roland Burris’s monument to himself.
Roland Burris’s monument to himself.
Politico notes that former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, whom Gov. Rod Blagojevich chose to fill President-elect Obama’s Senate seat, has already erected his “future grave” in a Chicago cemetery. The grave “lists his accomplishments” and leaves “plenty of room above the bench to mention his career in the Senate”:
Gonzales: ‘What Is It That I Did That Is So Fundamentally Wrong?’
Gonzales: ‘What Is It That I Did That Is So Fundamentally Wrong?’
Alberto Gonzales’s legal career at the White House and the Justice Department was a stain even for the Bush administration. Gonzales left office with a 28 percent approval rating, with over 40 percent of the country saying he should resign.
Yet, Gonzales is puzzled to this day why the public frowns upon his tenure in government. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gonzales asks, “What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?” He added, “For some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror.”
Fortunately, we can offer Gonzales some help in figuring out what he did that was so “fundamentally wrong.” Some lowlights:
Politicized the DOJ: – Gonzales approved the firing and hiring of federal prosecutors for political reasons and lied to Congress about the scandal.
Approved torture: In 2002, Gonzales “raised no objections and, without consulting military and State Department experts in the laws of torture and war,” approved an infamous August 2002 memo giving CIA interrogators “legal blessings.” Gonzales witnessed an interrogation at Gitmo in 2002 and approved of “whatever needs to be done” to detainees.
Lied about warrantless wiretapping: Gonzaled lied to Congress multiple times about the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping program, saying there wasn’t “any serious disagreement” about the program (there was).
Distorted pre-war intelligence: Last month, the House Oversight Committee revealed evidence showing that Gonzales lied to Congress in 2004 by claiming that the CIA “orally” approved Bush’s claim that Iraq sought uranium from Africa.
Furthermore, it appears Gonzales’s lying streak isn’t over. Gonzales told the WSJ that he didn’t play a central role in drafting the opinions allowing the CIA to use harsh interrogations. “John Yoo had strong views. No one could make him do anything he didn’t want to do,” he said. Gonzales also said he did not lie to Congress about the illegal surveillance program.
Gonzales also bizarrely claimed that he “found [John] Ashcroft as lucid as I’ve seen him at meetings in the White House,” referring to the infamous strong-arming of Ashcroft at his sickbed in 2002 in order to get approval of the illegal wiretapping program. In reality, Ashcroft had a severe case of gallstone pancreatitis and was a “very sick man,” according to then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey.
Since his resignation, Gonzales has still been unable to find work. “Any law firm that does due diligence on me sees all the investigations and the possibility that I might be indicted and they say, ‘Not right now,’” he said.
Gonzales’s bewilderment is similar to that of Vice President Cheney, who recently said he doesn’t have “any idea” why he has such low approval ratings.
Interior Dept. rule allowing guns in national parks may violate White House directive.
Interior Dept. rule allowing guns in national parks may violate White House directive.
Earlier this month, the Department of Interior overturned a Reagan-era regulation, allowing loaded firearms at most national park sites such as the National Mall. Yesterday, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence sued the administration, saying the rule “jeopardizes the safety of park visitors in violation of federal law.” The release notes that the Interior Dept. violated the White House’s own directive:
The suit charges that the Interior Department violated several federal laws in its rush to implement the rule before President Bush leaves office, including failing to conduct any environmental review of the harm that the rule will cause, as is required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The Department also violated a White House directive that no rules should be issued after November 1, 2008, except in “extraordinary circumstances,” issuing the last-minute rule change on December 10, 2008.
The Bush administration also violated its own directive in November with a last-minute rule gutting worker protections.
‘Key Ally In The War On Terror’ Breaks With U.S., Condemns Israel For Gaza Strikes
‘Key Ally In The War On Terror’ Breaks With U.S., Condemns Israel For Gaza Strikes
After disastrously invading and occupying Iraq, one of the justifications President Bush frequently offered for sustaining the enormous U.S. costs in lives and resources was that we were developing a “key ally” in the Middle East:
Together we’ll help Iraq become a strong democracy that protects the rights of its people and is a key ally in the war on terror. [9/22/05]
Our mission in Iraq is clear. … We’re helping Iraqis build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We’re advancing freedom in the broader Middle East. [6/28/05]
Freedom will prevail in Iraq; freedom will prevail in the Middle East; and as the hope of freedom spreads to nations that have not known it, these countries will become allies in the cause of peace. [3/20/06]
The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss notes that — in a central test of the U.S. alliance with Iraq — our “key ally” is instead more eager to disassociate itself completely from the United States:
Just as they did during Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah, Iraq’s leaders are now showing where their true sympathies lie. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Da’wa Party “issued a statement condemning the attacks and calling on Islamic countries to cut relations with Israel and end all ’secret and public talks’ with it.”
Khalid Hussain of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) told Gulf News “We have obligations towards Palestine and all Iraqi people are in solidarity with the people in Palestine, and we will support the people in Gaza.” [...]
“Iraqi resistance groups have to retaliate against the Israeli aggression on Gaza by escalating their operations against the US military in Iraq since the US position is in favour of this aggression, firstly, and secondly because the United States and Israel are both enemies of the Arabs,” Omar Al Kubaisi, an activist of the Sunni Muslim Clerics Association.
Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Sistani has also condemned the Gaza strikes. Duss concludes, “Looking on the bright side, if one can call it that, as with opposition to the U.S. occupation, Gaza is an issue on which Iraqis have achieved rare political consensus.”
Former U.S. Atty: Blagojevich appointment shows he’s ‘crazy like a fox,’ playing to future black jurors.
Former U.S. Atty: Blagojevich appointment shows he’s ‘crazy like a fox,’ playing to future black jurors.
Earlier today, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) appointed Roland Burris, the first African-American elected to statewide office in Illinois, to take Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. Democratic leaders have indicated they are planning to block the appointment. Speculating on Blagojevich’s motives, former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey told CNN that the Illinois governor may be acting “crazy like a fox” and looking ahead to his own potential trial. Coffey said Blagojevich’s “conniving strategy” may be an effort to persuade future African-American jurors:
COFFEY: My question is: is he crazy or is he crazy like a fox? Rick, consider the fact that everything that Rod Blagojevich does at this point is with reference to his concern about spending a lot of prison time. So what does this appointment do for him? [...]
Let’s get to what may be the more conniving strategy of Rod Blagojevich. He has now put an extremely prominent African-American in play, he says, to replace the ultimate respected African-American in politics right now, Barack Obama. And he is going to say, no matter what the Senate does, I did what I could, and those guys in the Senate blocked it, that Secretary of State blocked it, but I did the right thing. And how will that play if at all to African-American jurors on the Rod Blagojevich jury panel trial one day? He may be trying to get a few points down the road, because he is surely going to need all of the points he can get.
Watch it:
Transcript: More »
Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.
Bolton: Gaza Crisis Means We Should Attack Iran Now
Bolton: Gaza Crisis Means We Should Attack Iran Now
Yesterday, on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, Iran war hawk John Bolton said that Israel’s recent bombing campaign in Gaza is all the more reason for the United States to bomb Iran now. “So while our focus obviously is on Gaza right now, this could turn out to be a much larger conflict,” he said, adding that “we’re looking at potentially a multi-front war here.”
“You would strike Iran right now?” asked host Alan Colmes. “I would have done it before this,” Bolton responded. Colmes asked whether tensions and war across Middle East would escalate if the U.S. or Israel were to bomb Iran. Bolton said that the many Arab countries would secretly be cheering if Iran were attacked:
COLMES: So if we do that, they strike back, are we then in danger of creating a broader war?
BOLTON: I think in many Arab states in the region, although they wouldn’t say it publicly, they’d be doing the equivalent of popping champagne corks because the Arab states don’t want Iran with nuclear weapons any more than Israel does. What Iran could do is what’s already happening in the Gaza Strip or what might happen if they unleashed Hezbollah, terrorist attacks on Israel.
Watch it:
It’s hard to believe that the Arab world would be pulling out the party hats if Iran were attacked. Thanks to the policies of President Bush, the U.S is immensely unpopular across the Middle East. Iran, on the other hand, enjoys unprecedented support in Iraq, which is supposed to be America’s greatest ally in the region.
The LA Times reported last year that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “has transcended national and religious divides to become a folk hero across the Middle East.” Ahmadinejaded, “the leader of a non-Arab Shiite nation, has ingratiated himself with the Middle East’s predominantly Sunni Arab population.”
Without regard for the wider war and increased regional instability that an attack on Iran would likely cause, Bolton believes the solution to a Middle East already in flames is to throw more wood on the fire.
Blagojevich to name former Illinois Atty. General Roland Burris as Obama’s Senate successor.
Blagojevich to name former Illinois Atty. General Roland Burris as Obama’s Senate successor.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Attorney Gen. Roland Burris, the first African-American to win statewide office in 1978, to replace President-elect Obama in the Senate. The move comes after Democratic leaders criticized the prospect of Blagojevich going ahead with the appointment process. “No appointment by this governor under these circumstances could produce a credible replacement,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said this month. Burris reportedly “stepped up his efforts to win the governor’s support” in the days following Blagojevich’s arrest.
Krugman: GOP has ‘no coherent theory’ behind obstructing economic stimulus package.
Krugman: GOP has ‘no coherent theory’ behind obstructing economic stimulus package.
Recently, Republicans leaders have been preparing for a fight over President-elect Obama’s economic stimulus package, which is designed to create three million new jobs, calling it “wasteful spending.” On MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show yesterday, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said that Republican leaders have “no coherent theory” behind their attacks, calling their obstructionism a mixture of “politics” and “suspicion.” Obama’s stimulus package may need to be bigger, he explained:
KRUGMAN: But we’ve lost 2 million in the past year. And we need more than a million extra jobs just to keep up with population growth. We’re already down 3 million jobs right now. … By the time any stimulus package gets going really, we’re going to be way down in the whole. Three million is not going to be enough actually to close the gap.
Watch it:
Former Powell aide: Bush was ‘Sarah Palin-like’ in his knowledge of foreign policy.
Former Powell aide: Bush was ‘Sarah Palin-like’ in his knowledge of foreign policy.
In an interview with Vanity Fair for its upcoming issue on the Bush White House, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, ripped President Bush, saying that after the 2000 election, Bush’s knowledge of foreign affairs was as poor as that of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R):
We had this confluence of characters—and I use that term very carefully—that included people like Powell, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and so forth, which allowed one perception to be “the dream team.” It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin–like president—because, let’s face it, that’s what he was—was going to be protected by this national- security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire.
Bush famously was unable to name the leaders of Pakistan, Chechnya, and India when running for President in 1999. In a recent interview, he reflected on his early days as President, stating, “I think I was unprepared for war.” Similarly, in 2004, Bush said he “was not on point” prior to 9/11. “I didn’t feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling.”
After Backing Massive Wall Street Bailout, McConnell Plans To Block Obama’s Economic Stimulus Plan
After Backing Massive Wall Street Bailout, McConnell Plans To Block Obama’s Economic Stimulus Plan
President-elect Obama has made it clear that one of his first priorities when he takes office will be an economic stimulus package that could reach around $800 billion. Top economists have said that such investment — in areas such as infrastructure, health care, energy, and education — is essential for boosting the economy. As Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman has stated, the “risks of being too small are much bigger than the risks of being too big.”
Despite the urgency after eight years of the Bush administration doing nothing, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is now saying that he and his fellow conservatives are in no rush to provide this important economic relief and plan to put the brakes to attempts to quickly pass a package. From a statement he issued yesterday:
As of right now, Americans are left with more questions than answers about this unprecedented government spending, and I believe the taxpayers deserve to know a lot more about where it will be spent before we consider passing it.
According to the Washington Post, McConnell has also “called for a weeklong cooling off period between when the bill is drafted and when it is voted on, allowing time to dissect it for signs of ‘fraud and waste.’” Conservatives have the power to filibuster the legislation if they oppose it.
McConnell, however, had no problem quickly passing President Bush’s Wall Street bailout, even though that package had almost no oversight safeguards. In fact, as McClatchy reported, McConnell “led the battle” to pass the bill.
McConell also opposed Congress’s rescue package for auto workers, arguing that he couldn’t “ask the American taxpayer to subsidize failure” and using it as a political opportunity to bash unions.
MSNBC Host: It wouldn’t be ‘funny’ if someone called me ‘Tamron Hall the Magic Negro Anchor Lady.’
MSNBC Host: It wouldn’t be ‘funny’ if someone called me ‘Tamron Hall the Magic Negro Anchor Lady.’
Today on MSNBC, anchor Tamron Hall hosted a segment discussing RNC chair candidate Chip Saltsman’s Christmas greeting this year that contained a CD with the song “Barack the Magic Negro” on it. During the discussion, Kate Obenshain, vice president of Young America’s Foundation, defended the song, calling it “a parody.” But Hall, an African-American, quickly interjected, saying there is nothing “funny or amusing” about it:
HALL: Well let me tell you this — if someone referred to me as “Tamron Hall the Magic Negro Anchor Lady,” I would never see it as anything funny or amusing.
Hall later told Obenshain, “you’re not going to win a lot of people over calling them ‘Magic Negros.’” Watch it:
Transcript: More »
Bush Refuses To Interrupt His Final Vacation As Middle East Crisis Escalates
Bush Refuses To Interrupt His Final Vacation As Middle East Crisis Escalates
In an effort to “prevent Palestinians from attacking towns in southern Israel” with rockets, Israel today undertook its third day of offensive military airstrikes in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, raising the death toll to more than 300. The Palestinian casualty numbers have been described as the highest over such a brief period since the 1967 Six-Day war. Scores of Israelis have been wounded — and at least one killed — by rocket attacks fired by Palestinians. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the situation “all out war.”
While Bush has been briefed on the situation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, he has opted not to interrupt his final vacation as president to make a public statement on the crisis. For someone who has enjoyed the most vacation days as sitting president — including days spent relaxing in comfort during Hurricane Katrina and in the lead-up to 9/11 — it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Bush prioritizes vacationing over crisis management. ABC News reports:
Even an emerging crisis in the Middle East, one he pledged to resolve just 13 months ago, has not drawn President George W. Bush from his final vacation before leaving office. Despite his personal pledge at Annapolis last year to broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before 2009, this weekend Bush sent his spokesmen to comment in his stead. [...]
Since departing Washington for Crawford on Friday, President Bush has made no attempt to be seen in public. In fact, he has yet to leave his ranch.
Today, in a press briefing delivered from the “Western White House” in Crawford, TX, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe was asked what is on Bush’s schedule today. In addition to receiving “updates on the ongoing situation,” Johndroe said, “I expect he’ll probably ride his bicycle today and spend time with Mrs. Bush.” Watch it:
President-elect Barack Obama has also been monitoring the violence from his vacationing spot in Hawaii, staying in contact with Bush and Rice. “President Bush speaks for the United States until Jan. 20 and we’re going to honor that,” Obama adviser David Axelrod said.
One senior Bush administration official told the Washington Post that he thinks the Israelis acted in Gaza “because they want it to be over before the next administration comes in” and because “they can’t predict how the next administration will handle it.” Indeed, Bush has become fairly predictable in how he manages these sorts of crises.
Rove: Pardons And Commutations Are ‘Generally…Not Granted Within Five Years After The Offense’
Rove: Pardons And Commutations Are ‘Generally…Not Granted Within Five Years After The Offense’
On Christmas eve, the White House took the unprecedented step of revoking President Bush’s pardon of housing scam artist Isaac Toussie after media reports revealed a number of improprieties in the case. Attempting to explain the move, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Toussie’s pardon had not been reviewed by the pardon attorney because “it was filed less than five years from completion of his sentence” and Bush wanted the attorney to “have an opportunity to review this case before a decision on clemency is made.”
In an interview with Fox News on Friday, former Bush adviser Karl Rove echoed Perino and claimed that the Toussie family’s hefty donations to the GOP had nothing to do with the pardon. Rove also said that the fact that Toussie’s offense occurred “less than five years ago” was a factor in the reversal:
ROVE: I think the information that was alluded to was the nature of the offense, the death of the offense, and the fact that it happened less than five years ago. Generally pardons and commutations, except in rare instances, are not granted within five years after the offense.
Watch it:
Rove’s claim that pardons and commutations are “not granted within five years after the offense” is ironic in face of the fact that Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence just four months after he was convicted and before he served any time. At the time, Bush’s statement on the commutation of Libby’s sentence was not described as a “rare instance,” but as “an appropriate exercise” of the president’s power of clemency.
Study: Premarital abstinence pledges are ineffective.
Study: Premarital abstinence pledges are ineffective.
A cornerstone of many abstinence-only programs is the concept of virginity pledges, which encourages “children as young as 9 to promise to wait until marriage to have sex.” But a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that “teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do”:
The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a “virginity pledge,” but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.
“Taking a pledge doesn’t seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior,” said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. “But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking.”
Rosenbaum’s study isn’t the first to indicate that virginity pledges are ineffective. In 2005, a study by Yale and Columbia University researchers found that “adolescents who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are more likely to substitute high-risk sexual behaviors that increase the likelihood of transmitting sexually transmitted diseases.”
Broadcast networks have stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq.
Broadcast networks have stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq.
As violence has subsided and the U.S. focus is shifting to Afghanistan, “America’s three broadcast network news divisions have stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq.” The decision will likely move Iraq even further from the minds of Americans. In 2007, according to television news consultant Andrew Tyndall, the three network evening newscasts devoted 1,888 minutes to Iraq. This past year, through Dec. 19, Iraq received only 423 minutes of coverage. ABC, CBS and NBC refused to speak on the record about their decisions, but the New York Times reports that “the staff cuts appear to be the latest evidence of budget pressures at the networks. According to some executives, Iraq has been “the most expensive war ever for TV news organizations.”
Bolton: ‘In 100 years people aren’t going to remember Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib.’
Bolton: ‘In 100 years people aren’t going to remember Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib.’
With President Bush’s time in office rapidly coming to an end, his loyal supporters are working overtime to spin his legacy positively. In an interview with the Telegraph, Bush’s former UN ambassador, John Bolton, claims that “in 100 years,” people won’t remember two of the biggest stains on Bush’s record, Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib:
“In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he was strong and decisive and that was critical for both the country and for the Western world,” believes John Bolton. “In 100 years people aren’t going to remember Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib, they’re going to remember 9/11 and Bush’s reaction to it.”
Bolton’s claim that history will forget Bush’s human rights abuses is similar to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack’s claim that in 50 years no one will remember the shoe-hurling Iraqi journalist.
Cheney: ‘I Don’t Have Any Idea’ Why People Don’t Like Me
Cheney: ‘I Don’t Have Any Idea’ Why People Don’t Like Me
Only 29 percent of Americans approve of the job Dick Cheney is doing as Vice President. In an interview with his hometown Wyoming newspaper, The Caspar Star-Tribune, Cheney expressed his bewilderment over his low approval numbers:
QUESTION: How do you explain your low approval rating?
CHENEY: I don’t have any idea. I don’t follow the polls.
My experience has been over the years that if you govern based upon poll numbers, upon trying to improve your overall poll ratings, people I’ve encountered who do that are people who won’t make tough decisions. And the job the president has and those who advise him is to make those basic fundamental decisions for the nation that nobody else is authorized or able to make.
In addition to his well-documented abuse of power and disregard for the rule of law, Cheney’s public disapproval ratings might be explained in part by his own personal disregard for the public. When told that two-thirds of Americans disapproved of the Iraq war, Cheney responded “so?,” adding that he didn’t care what the American people thought.
While he says he doesn’t follow the polls, Cheney was all too proud to state shortly after the 2004 elections: “President George W. Bush won the greatest number of popular votes of any presidential candidate in history.” (That’s no longer true.)
Cheney is still holding out hope, however, that the polls will turn his way. He said recently, “I’m personally persuaded that this president and this administration will look very good 20 or 30 years down the road in light of what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Rice: Much Of Bush’s Foreign Policy Agenda Deserves An ‘A+’
Rice: Much Of Bush’s Foreign Policy Agenda Deserves An ‘A+’
This morning on CBS, Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver interviewed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In a portion of the interview that does not appear to have aired, Braver noted the results of the recent Pew Global Attitudes survey which found that “the U.S. image abroad is suffering almost everywhere.” Braver prompted Rice saying, “It has to be more than just a perception problem.” Rice dismissed the poll’s results, claiming that the Bush administration has “left a lot of good foundations”:
Q: Looking at the big picture of what’s the whole foreign policy of this Administration – you come out of the academic tradition so I think it’s fair to ask, what kind of grade do you give yourself and this Administration on foreign policy?
RICE: Oh, I don’t know. It depends on the subject. I’m sure that there are some that deserve an A-plus and some that deserve a lot less. … We’ve left a lot of good foundations.
Q: You know, you say that, but the Pew Global Attitudes Project released a new report very recently. On the very first page it says, “The U.S. image abroad is suffering almost everywhere.” … It has to be more than just a perception problem.
RICE: No. Rita, first of all, it depends on where you’re talking about. In two of the most populous countries, China and India, the United States is not just well regarded for its policies, but well regarded.
When pressed further, Rice responded by saying, “It’s not a popularity contest.”
While the U.S. is indeed well-regarded in India, Rice’s claim that the U.S. is “well regarded” in China is puzzling. The Pew Survey that Braver noted found that in China, the U.S. is viewed favorably by just 41 percent of the country. Similarly, just 30 percent of China has confidence in the Bush administration. A BBC poll from April of this year found similar results for many other nations around the world.
Overall, the Bush administration’s foreign policy agenda has seen few successes. U.S. influence abroad is predicted to decline over the next 20 years. The U.S. military is weaker now than it was five years ago, while the State Department is suffering from staffing shortages and low morale. The recent violence in Israel dramatically highlights the fact that Bush largely ignored the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
No matter how many times Rice repeats herself, the fact that the world does not look kindly on the Bush administration’s foreign policy record will not change.
Also during the interview, Rice would soon “start to thank this president for what he’s done.”
Bush library may become a ‘white elephant.’
Bush library may become a ‘white elephant.’
The London Sunday Times suggests today that the cost of President Bush’s library may exceed its usefulness, writing that the library is “in danger of becoming a white elephant.” The Times notes that while the National Archive uses taxpayer dollars to pay presidential library staffers to maintain presidential papers, an executive order Bush signed in 2001 will allow him to withhold any documents he chooses from the library’s collection. The order threatens the traditional usefulness of presidential libraries that generally “show the president ‘warts and all.’”
(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)
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