Garry Wills
It is time for me to break a silence I have observed for over a year, against my better judgment. On June 30, 2009, I and eight other historians were invited to a dinner with President Obama and three of his staffers, to discuss what history could teach him about conducting the presidency. I was asked shortly after by several news media what went on there, and I replied that it was off the record. I have argued elsewhere that the imposition of secrecy to insure that the president gets “candid advice” is a cover for something else—making sure that what is said about the people’s business does not reach the people. But I went along this time, since the president said that he wanted this dinner to be a continuing thing, and I thought that revealing its first contents would jeopardize the continuation of a project that might be a source of information for him.
But there has been no follow up on the first dinner, and certainly no sign that he learned anything from it. The only thing achieved has been the silencing of the main point the dinner guests tried to make—that pursuit of war in Afghanistan would be for him what Vietnam was to Lyndon Johnson.
& just like LBJ, he probably shouldn’t run again.
Sorry, dude. You spent too much time making sure the Republicans were comfortable and let their bullshit get out of control instead of actually doing most of what you promised.
Agreed. As much as I’d love to see him take a 2nd term and really turn shit around for himself, it’s just not going to happen. His rabid “Yes We Can” support base has been totally disillusioned. Bush’s 3rd term, but with better sentence structure.
I’m having a hard time imagining anyone else doing any better. By which I mean, I think we’re fucked. I’d like to believe that democrats could find a better candidate if he didn’t run again, but realistically I’ll be voting 3rd party or not voting in 2012.
from Dick Cheney's Weather Machine



