Is Obama a Nihilist?
Garance Franke-Ruta thinks so:
All told, these episodes have started to make me wonder if maybe Obama would have somehow managed to be absent from the Senate the day of the 2002 vote on authorizing the use of force in Iraq, as well. It is a harsh thing to suggest, but his own campaign is now arguing that “we’re seeing history repeat itself” when it comes to the power of a vote he decided to skip, and his track record on missing controversial votes is increasingly disturbing. U.S. Senators have a rare power — there are but 100 of them for a nation of 300 million — and when they chose to use their voices but not their votes, they are abdicating their duties as elected officials. If Obama really thinks Clinton said just yes to war with Iran, he needs to explain why he couldn’t be bothered to say no.
While it’s disappointing that Obama didn’t show up to vote no on Kyl-Lieberman, Garance is obscuring the main point: Hillary voted yes on the amendment and voted yes on the Iraq War Authorization — and hasn’t admitted she was wrong. I’d really like to know from Garance what is worse: skipping a controversial vote or voting the wrong way? If you think the former, all I can say is that is a very odd way of looking at political responsibility and duty.
It gets weirder, Garance implies that Clinton would have changed her vote on Kyl-Lieberman had Obama shown up, given a speech and voted no on Kyl-Lieberman. Well, maybe Clinton would have voted no, but it’s not Obama’s responsibility to show up every time Clinton is about to make a stupid vote and shame her into voting the other way — it’s Clinton’s responsibility not to make bad votes.
Furthermore, GFR’s supposition that Obama would have been absent for the Iraq War Authorization bill had he been in the Senate is just bizarre. First of all, Obama was very strongly opposed to the war and stated so publicly. Even more importantly, Clinton did show up to vote that day and voted to authorize the war. Does Clinton get brownie points for showing up and making a crappy vote? I don’t think so. Now when Walter Sobchak expressed this sentiment, it was funny.
I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
