Joe Biden should give serious consideration to naming former US Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor Susan Rice as his Vice Presidential running mate.
Why? Here she is today in a NYT op-ed on Trump’s treason : “What must we conclude from all this? At best, our commander in chief is utterly derelict in his duties, presiding over a dangerously dysfunctional national security process that is putting our country and those who wear its uniforms at great risk. At worst, the White House is being run by liars and wimps catering to a tyrannical president who is actively advancing our arch adversary’s nefarious interests.”
Please share widely!
bob-gardner says
Here’s something about Susan Rice from a few weeks ago:
“Former Obama adviser Susan Rice has blamed the violent protests that rocked major American cities over the weekend on “foreign actors,” and even suggested that Russia could be involved in stirring them up.
“I’m not reading the intelligence today, or these days — but based on my experience, this is right out of the Russian playbook,” Rice, who served as national-security adviser to president Obama, said in a CNN interview on Sunday. “But we cannot allow the extremists, the foreign actors, to distract from the real problems we have in this country that are longstanding, centuries old, and need to be addressed responsibly”
Sorry for the lack of a cite for this but you can easily find it on the web.
If you think the Russians are behind the recent protests, like Susan Rice does, then I guess you won’t mind her as Vice President.
fredrichlariccia says
There you go again, Bob. 🙂
Christopher says
BLM and their allies are legit, but I certainly wouldn’t put it past Russia to stir things up to make them look bad.
SomervilleTom says
More knee-jerk hostility from our usual source of same.
bob-gardner says
Where’s the hostility? No doubt you’ve seen the above quoted interview on CNN. Is it hostile to bring it up?
SomervilleTom says
Q: “Where’s the hostility”
A:
bob-gardner says
That’s what she said. Do you agree or not? And please, for once, no handwaving about my attitude, or the level or discourse. In the last thread, you called me a liar, called me an idiot, said I was blustering, and then had an attack of the vapors when I made a joke about you commenting on things you know nothing about.
I try to be direct and provocative, so I have to expect some name calling. But try to stick to the subject a little.
Implying that the protests are being stirred up by “foreign actors” is right out of the J Edgar Hoover/George Wallace handbook.
SomervilleTom says
Here is the link to the Susan Rice interview: https://twitter.com/i/status/1267184451077001216
I note that it is from May 31 — much has happened since then.
Here is more of what she said, including the parts you left out:
I absolutely and enthusiastically agree with everything she said. In the other threads, as in this one, I have accurately characterized your commentary.
Refusing to admit that Russia and Vladimir Putin is in the midst of a protracted campaign to destroy us from within is right out of the Vladimir Putin propaganda effort.
I stand by my previous commentary here and on the thread you reference.
Christopher says
He could do worse, but Rice doubles down on what is already Biden’s wheelhouse and we can prepare for another cycle of Benghazi.
jconway says
Maybe bring it on? She made an innocent mistake based on day old intel, how long has Teflon Don day on the Russian bounties for our soldiers? Why did he sit on them? I’m fine making that comparison. 3 military contractors and an ambassador were killed for being in a place they should not have been, thanks to cuts in foreign service security we can thank the Tea Party for.
We lost more soldiers in the bungled raid in Nigeria, the one where Trump berated the mother of the victims over the phone. Or the time his election sponsor put bounties on the heads of the troops. Time for select committees on both.
Christopher says
I’m personally in agreement with all that. Now if only everyone thought that way. Like Adlai Stevenson, every thinking person will vote for Biden, but alas, he needs a majority!:)
jconway says
I prefer Harris or Duckworth myself.
SomervilleTom says
It sounds as though you didn’t get to the original interview.
First, it happened on 31-May-2020 — nearly a month ago. Second, everything she says is bang-on.
Ms. Rice is, in fact, saying exactly what I want a Vice President to be saying, in stark contrast to Mr. Pence.
bob-gardner says
Gary Leupp, a local Tufts professor, is considerably more thoughtful about the latest Russian scandal https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/02/traditional-russophobia-in-an-unusual-election-year/
doubleman says
A progressive would be nice.
A uniquely hawkish Dem administration would be a tragedy.
fredrichlariccia says
Mark Hamill at Biden fundraiser recently: “So to paraphrase a princess who is near and dear to my heart. Help us JOE-B-ONE. You’re our only hope.”
doubleman says
I find comments like that disturbing.
fredrichlariccia says
How about this? Trump calls him Sleepy Joe because America (and me) will be able to sleep again knowing Biden is our President.
doubleman says
Same. He’s acceptable at best, he is not someone to put any hope in (same goes for the party in general). WE have to make the changes. That is clear.
fredrichlariccia says
George Takei for the SCORE ! : “Dear Donald, There are now 11 million Asian Americans eligible to vote in November. We will be the margin of difference in your defeat in several battleground states. So keep up with the “Kung-Flu.” Your words aren’t nearly as powerful as our votes.”
jconway says
I’ll add Duckworth or Harris are Asian Americans who would bring added visibility to that contrast. This is a historically Republican group in many ways. My own state rep Donald Wong is a typical anti-communist/third generation small business owning Chinese American Republican. A few students parents from Vietnam or Cambodia fall in that bucket. So do Taiwanese and Filipino Americans due to social conservatism, fiscal conservatism, or hawkishness.
I can’t speak for Wong, I know those Vietnamese parents won’t be voting for Trump the second time around because of his racist record and because Biden is more moderate. I think despite Trump’s overtures to Indian Americans with his inappropriate Modi rally, he is losing South Asians as well. So this could be a watershed election to realign Asian Americans fully behind the Democrats.
bob-gardner says
George Takei in the White House would be bad news to any statues of FDR.
jconway says
I’ll take it. I think he’s putting left wingers on his team like AOC, Sanders, and Warren. I don’t see him pushing the envelope, but I do see him being pushed to do so by a vigorous grassroots progressive movement.
The left has two choices. Take an “elect Sanders or stay home” mentality, which is as self limiting as it is self defeating. Or “hold the nose for Biden and hold his feet to the fire after he wins”. I’m in the latter camp. I won’t defend his problematic past positions, I will defend the progressive platform he is running on against the racist reactionary in the White House.
doubleman says
The left has another choice and it is not an electoral one.
And . . . [gestures, opening arms] look around.
People on this site think electoral politics is the whole game.
SomervilleTom says
Perhaps you can be more specific about what you mean by this other choice.
Of course electoral politics is not the “whole game”.
“Electoral politics” emerged as a more reliable way of choosing governance (whatever THAT means) than the many other alternatives that have been tried over the past few thousand years.
Some alternatives that have been less successful, historically, include:
Successful electoral politics nearly always includes at least nods and winks, if not outright dog-whistles, towards one or more of these others.
In the context of this thread, I hope you’ll say more about what you have in mind.
doubleman says
There has been more movement on policing in this country in the last few weeks from direct, sustained action than there has been from 40 years of “Vote Blue No Matter Who.” And remember – all these cities with bloated police budgets and awful police records – they are all Dem controlled.
The “choice” laid out in this thread was a binary one solely based in electoral politics. As if “getting involved” can only be about elections. There are lots of (and better) ways to be “involved” and achieve real change than making some calls every 2 to 4 years.
The idea that there are tons of Sanders diehards doing nothing now is so condescending and wrong, but people will say that if their only lens is electoral and the most important metric is how much time these people put in for Biden.
SomervilleTom says
I appreciate the clarification.
I don’t know how well you know James Conway in real life — I’m pretty sure he will agree with me that “electoral politics” embraces a much wider range of activities than you seem to imply.
I didn’t read his comment as suggesting that “there are tons of Sanders diehards doing nothing now”. I think he is instead referring to a hopefully small number of “Bernie Bros” who appear to be just as self-destructive in 2020 as they were in 2016.
I haven’t seen anybody here at BMG suggesting that “the most important metric is how much time these people put in for Biden.”
“Holding [Biden’s] feet to the fire” includes aggressive local organizing for progressive causes. It includes recruiting and running progressive candidates for local offices. It includes supporting candidates like Anna Callahan who want to take down Bob DeLeo. It includes replacing even well-loved elected officials like Mike Capuano with assertive new faces like Ayanna Pressley — and then holding THEIR feet to the fire as well.
All those are valuable and necessary parts of advancing a progressive agenda. All of them are “electoral politics.”
One of the ways to feel less alienated is to be more willing to accept and welcome those who already agree with you.
doubleman says
You’re still narrowing things to candidates and elections.
That work is an exceedingly small part of the organizing that is being done and can be done by those of the Left.
Christopher says
Do all those things, but ultimately if you don’t vote you can’t complain.
doubleman says
Actually, you can.
Christopher says
Well sure, you CAN, but IMO you’ve lost the moral authority to.
Christopher says
Policies ultimately can only change if you change policy makers, or at very least imply that you will vote out any policy makers who don’t themselves change their views.
jconway says
A meme my students were sharing. The same ones who organized Revere BLM. I happen to think he’ll be fine, but even if you think he sucks, he’s still committed publicly to doing very progressive things.
Biden was probably the dovest member of the Obama administration. Had Obama listened to him, we’d be out of Afghanistan already. He’s committed to the Iran deal, Cuba normalization, and would be more productive and consistent on China.