The Case Against Obama

James Wimberly observes that the NYT's Steve Erlanger seemed pretty hard-up for a "to be sure" graf in his article about Barack Obama's triumphant European tour:

Obama was vague on crucial issues of trade, defense and foreign policy that currently divide Washington from Europe and are likely to continue to do so even if Obama becomes president. The issues include Russia, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, as well as new refueling tankers and chlorinated chickens, the focus of an 11-year European ban on U.S. poultry imports.

And it's true, Obama was so busy talking about Afghanistan, Iraq, international terrorism, climate change, and human rights policy that he didn't find time for the long-festering chicken issue. Similarly, I didn't here President Sarkozy mention anything about America's ban on the import of unpasteurized soft white cheese. So basically nothing of substance transpired.

Photo by Flickr user Fuzzy used under a Creative Commons license

Comments

Cause we know that McCain's got the whole chlorinated chicken beat down pat.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | July 28, 2008 9:27 AM

Also from the NYT: Bill Kristol now uses the Bush Jr. triumvirate as a reason voters will reject Obama as preznit:

...[T]hen it occurred to me that one man’s “deadlock-proof” Democratic majority is another’s unchecked Democratic majority. Given the unpopularity of the current Democratic Congress, given Americans’ tendency to prefer divided government, given the voters’ repudiations of the Republicans in 2006 and of the Democrats in 1994 — isn’t the prospect of across-the-board, one-party Democratic governance more likely to move votes to McCain than to Obama?

So I cheered up once again. For it will become increasingly obvious, as we approach November, that the Democrats will continue to control Congress for the next couple of years. But if the voters elect Obama as president, they’ll be putting Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in untrammeled control of our future.

...We’ll soon start hearing more from McCain about the deficiencies of today’s surge-opposing, drilling-blocking, earmark-loving Congress.

And McCain will then assert that if you don’t like the Congress in which Senator Obama serves in the majority right now, you really should be alarmed about a President Obama rubber-stamping the deeds of a Democratic Congress next year. A President McCain, on the other hand, could check Congressional appetites — as well as work across the aisle with a Democratic Congress in a bipartisan spirit where appropriate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/opinion/28kristol.html

Thus, the radical right is reduced to High Broderism.

Posted by El Cid | July 28, 2008 9:40 AM

Matt, how much time do you spend looking for creative photos for your posts? Sometimes you find really awesome ones.

Posted by Jeremy | July 28, 2008 9:42 AM

Chlorinated chickens are why I'm voting for Kodos--the only candidate with the courage to address the swimming-pool/potboiler dilemma.

Posted by southpaw | July 28, 2008 9:43 AM

The best part about chlorinated chickens is that you can go right in the pool after you eat them, you don't have to wait the half-hour.

The picture reminds me of the video I saw on Deadspin where the Atlanta Hawk is randomly tooling around the streets on a motorcycle.

Posted by Delicious Pundit | July 28, 2008 9:43 AM

"I didn't here President Sarkozy mention anything"

-- head said one thing, hands typed another ... you mean "hear".

Posted by Doug | July 28, 2008 9:48 AM

It's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Taking away the chickens, for a moment, had Obama talked policy specifics in general, he would be criticized for being "presumptuous" and stepping on Bush's foreign policy.

http://strategy08.wordpress.com

Posted by Dan | July 28, 2008 10:05 AM

A tip of the Hatlo hat to Delicious Pundit.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | July 28, 2008 10:10 AM

the focus of an 11-year European ban on U.S. poultry imports.

If I was another country, I'd ban US poultry products as well. Considering we have to treat our poultry products like it's biohazardous.

Posted by JordanT | July 28, 2008 10:17 AM

Have you ever noticed how every chlorinated food tastes like chlorinated chicken?

Posted by Notorious P.A.T. | July 28, 2008 10:26 AM

Considering we have to treat our poultry products like it's biohazardous.

Even our tomatoes get salmonella; who knows what's in our chicken?

Posted by Notorious P.A.T. | July 28, 2008 10:29 AM

I actually think the caveats in this article end up being helpful for Obama in terms of domestic politics. The basic point of the article is that while Obama would be seen as a welcome break from the extremely unpopular Bush Administration, he isn't likely to give Europeans exactly what they would want on a variety of policy issues. It seems to me that is pretty much exactly what Americans would like to hear.

Posted by DTM | July 28, 2008 10:35 AM

The man went to the Middle East and Europe for an entire week and never brought up the pressing chlorinated chicken issue; can we really see him as president?

The right is becoming so very inept that I'm starting to suspect they're working in tandem to lure the left into a false sense of security. (See also the sad news about McCain bumper stickers from the Corner.) I really wish someone--maybe the Corner and WSJ--would try to rile people up about the chicken issue--France rejects our chlorinated chickens!!!!--because, while at first blush there's not much that could drive Republican approval ratings even lower, I bet being for chlorinated chickens could do it.

Posted by Deborah | July 28, 2008 10:43 AM

The other commentators have pointed out that industrial agriculture in the US has become so noxious that other countries should be banning its products, to protect their publics, until we clean up our act. This would eventually benefit American consumers as well.

Posted by Ed | July 28, 2008 10:55 AM

'long-festering chicken issue' ... I really hope that is an intentional ambiguity of phrasing!

How many long-festering chickens does the US have to export?

Posted by Thomas D | July 28, 2008 11:19 AM

We have a ban on unpasteurized soft white cheese from France?

WTF?

Posted by joe from Lowell | July 28, 2008 11:49 AM

Joe -

There is, indeed, a ban on importing cheese made from unpasteurized milk that hasn't been aged over, I believe, 60 days. So most hard cheeses made from unpasteurized milk can be imported, but the soft cheeses cannot. It's a travesty, really. We are so concerned with pasteurization that we won't let people eat cheese that has been made for hundreds of years and that millions of people in Europe eat every day without anyone getting sick. Crazy.

Posted by Charles | July 28, 2008 12:19 PM

Some Italian meats, too....that's what a lot of the food smuggling on international flights comes down to, trying to slip in illegal cheese.

Posted by Deborah | July 28, 2008 1:18 PM