One has to agree that Edwards’ affair fess up is way TMI. Truly, his statement is bizarre. We’ll let the progressive blogosphere delve into all the angst, betrayals, and consternation. Timing the belated confession to coincide with Olympic opening night is his only good judgment on it so far.
Vlad also took advantage of the Olympics. Multiple security council negotiations are drowned out by fireworks and peoples’ fatigue of fighting in places with difficult names and even more incomprehensible grudges. So are political hacks’ tussling over which American candidate is answering the 3:00 AM phone call. Much easier to bask in Bob Costas’ authoritative discourse on volleyball arcana.
Of the two men, it is no surprise who is more adroit. Soaking in the pageantry and hospitality of America’s landlord, Vlad also gets to declare war while among his peers. (Medvedev? Please. A staffer). Putin also signals without doing so his disdain for and circumvention of the exhausted, palsied American attempts to contain and encircle him.Whether the Georgians began the crisis is – for the moment -irrelevant. Such unexpressed satisfaction there must be in certain circles in Beijing that the world is their stage, the fallen Warlord gets slapped down for his feeble mumbles about ‘liberty’, and then Putin’s (all too predictable) counter stroke.
Edwards? Apparently he still entertains delusions of speaking at an ice hockey arena in Denver.
Tbilisi says
I have a joke:
A narcissist, an idiot, and a murderer are trapped on a desert island. The idiot gives the narcissist a water gun but tells him its real, so the narcissist flicks the murderer’s ear, and the murderer chops off the narcissist’s wang, while the idiot starts screaming until he passes out.
I forget the punchline, though, and maybe I am getting the roles mixed up.
Regardless, it will all be decided on Wednesday: http://sport.scotsman.com/sport/Georgia-to-face-rivals-Russia.4375903.jp
Anon says
The Georgian Saakasvilli was on Wolf Blitzer today – he was occassionally flippant and mostly unimpressive making his case. He is in big trouble.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4493620.ece
DrLeoStrauss says
McCain’s reaction is predictable, aside from his own personal views or Scheuneman’s clientitis. It’s necessary for his base and to distinguish him from the Boy King’s also predictable pablum. Too many in polls and pundit land have said there is too little difference between them on the issues. Here is a marker he can lay down with no real consequences.
Georgia’s miscalculation is already having tragic consequences. This too foreseeable. Men willfully closing their eyes walking into a bramble of thorns. The difference is that Georgia’s actions are resulting in real life disaster and loss of life. McCain and the Boy King? Blather.
Anon says
McCain’s angry-seeming presser about Georgia was mostly harmless, but it’s just impossible to take him seriosly when he gets high and mighty about South Ossetia. He just has no idea wtf he is prattling about. The problem is that it may be an indicator of really dangerous thinking down the road, should he want to confront Putin.
Anon says
Here’s some good summary of McCain’s downside:
http://phoenixnewtimes.com/content/printVersion/848709
Anon says
McCain seemed over the top in his bellicose tone re Putin and Georgia – What the F does McCain know about Ossetia? Perhaps he just says what Randy Scheuneman (a lobbyist for Georgia) tells him to say.
Is Putin worried?