Clinton's self-serving remarks on Africa

Even though I dislike him, and the many failures of his foreign policy, I gave Bill Clinton credit for giving a very lucid speech at the Democrats' convention in Denver. Now a few words concerning his remarks about Africa on Meet the Press yesterday.

Basically, Clinton is saying that the American image is very popular in Africa, with which I agree - and my readers know that I travel to Senegal frequently:

We're not going to have the America we want unless prosperity is broadly shared, and to do that, we have to have economic opportunity in the poorest parts of America. And in the world, the places where America is popular today in the world, really popular, 10 countries in central and eastern Africa. Look at the Pew poll. Wildly popular. Why? Because they see us through the prism of President Bush's AIDS and malaria programs and the work the Gates Foundation does, the work that I do, the work that others do. So we can--this should be presented to the American people that as a part of our participation in the interdependent world, we actually make more partners and fewer enemies.

From plenty of first hand experience, I can vouch for the fact that American businesspeople are perceived as forthright and honest in business dealing, while American products enjoy an outstanding reputation for quality and reliability. Couple this with leftover resentment of French/British colonizers, and Americans have a great opportunity to establish fruitful relationships in Africa.

This does not, however, require a Bush-style outlay of capital to fund AIDS/Malaria projects. If Clinton, Gates, or other non-taxpayer funded organization wish to act, brilliant. I salute them. In the meantime, entrepreneurs like me will continue to do our thing. I'm proud to represent my country in Africa, and do my small part to reverse the US's trade deficit. I note regularly, however, that the Chinese seem to have absorbed the advice of America's founders better than we have: commerce with all, alliance with none.

Clinton also makes a worthwhile point about media attitudes toward Africa:

"I wish we could have a cessation in the use of the word Africa for just 18 months while America learns that Africa is a continent that just in sub-Saharan Africa has 48 separate countries, and that it's not just the geography, it's the politics, the culture, the language, everything is different..."

True, each country has its own challenges and characteristics. We Americans tend to look at the whole continent as one village! Identities in Africa are complex - tribal/ethnic linkages remain important, as do national allegiances - but a pan-African consciousness does remain as well.

Slick Willy manages to whitewash his selective interventionism, however:

"Yes, there's been bad news in Darfur, yes, there's been bad news out of Zimbabwe, but you have country after country after country with very high growth rates and remarkable progress. I mean, Rwanda, genocide in '94, 10 percent of the country dies in 90 days. Four years later, their per capita income still well under $300 a year, 10 years later, $1,000 a year. Nearly quadrupled their per capita income. That's the real Africa. That is far more representative of what the African people are doing and can do tomorrow than the other..."

And perhaps the least effective way of encouraging this positive trend is by dumping more foreign aid directly into the laps of corrupt governments.

Sky News - mock debate

I appeared on Sky News this evening in what was supposed to be a "mock debate" this evening, opposite a London MeetUp organizer for Obama, Ms. Carole Bell. I hear the M4 (major London highway) was closed, however, which caused Carole to arrive late in the studio, so the format had to be altered slightly.

Exile on Baker Street - the 1st 3 Sky News clips

Apologies for the delay, but without access to TIVO in London, I had to rely upon Sky to provide me with a DVD of my appearances during the 2 convention weeks. Below are the first 3 clips, which are also included in my complete YouTube page that archives all my tv appearances.

GOP convention and Hurricane Gustav:


McCain's surprise selection of Sarah Palin:


Democrat convention kick-off:

"I thought we could muddle through..."

Sarah Palin came out last night and got as much applause as President Clinton got at the Democrat convention, more than 2 mintues worth. Impressive hero worship for a woman to whom the audience was mostly introduced just last Friday.

Her delivery was outstanding. She was snappy with the one liners, and super confident. She came out wearing a skirt, and spent a good 30% of her speech laying out her own biography and introducing her family, solidifying her image as the all-American girl and devoted working mom.

She doted on her husband who was "still my guy" and touted her PTA and "hockey mom" credentials, explaining with impeccable delivery that "the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick".

In fact, for the better part of the introduction, it was more like a speech you'd expect to hear from a ass-kicker of a 1st lady, not a candidate for VP. But, these are unchartered waters for the GOP, alas.

Much like Obama's bit on the 1st night in Denver, Palin's family spotlight will have great appeal across America, and runs the risk of overshadowing McCain himself. Because of Hurricane Gustav, Cindy McCain played a very minor role at the GOP convention, which is strategically unfortunate.

Palin used the example of Democrat Harry Truman, to extol the virutes of small-town roots, and with an obvious swipe at Michelle Obama, proclaimed the inhabitants of those places as being "always proud of America".

The rest of Palin's speech fit into 3 themes - reformer, McCain surrogate, and attack dog.

If Sarah Palin is the evangelical Christian's dream candidate, you'd never guess it from this speech - she used the word God twice, exactly as many time as Barack Obama did in his keynote remarks last week. This suggests that either 1) the McCain team is afraid of Palin being chastised by the ultra-religious right and the liberal left as a hypocrite, considering her daughter's misfortune, or 2) they are once again taking conservative Christians for granted: the evangelicals have skipped the light fandango and turned cartwheels across the floor for McCain's shade of Palin, and they're in the bag.

Her speech was peppered with snappy digs at Obama in particular, but she didn't refer to her counterpart much at all:

• "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer', except that you have actual responsibilities - the video showed someone dragged away for protesting
• "In small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening"
• "We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco"
• on the media - "I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion, I'm going to Washington to serve this great country"
• "When the stadium lights go out, and those styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan?"
• "Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems - as if we all didn't know that already"
• "...the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals" (ouch!)
  
• "Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the current do-nothing Senate..."
• "He said, quote, 'I can't stand John McCain'...clearly what the Majority Leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain"
• "The American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of 'personal discovery'"
• "This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn't just need an organizer"
  

Today during the live blog chat on the Sky News website, I sparred with their US correspondent Jon-Christopher Bau, for saying that I was surprised that Palin played the attack dog. Bau countered that the running mate always plays that role. Generally, this is true. However, in a speech that sounded for 12 minutes at least like Palin was auditioning for the role of 1st lady, showing off her "girl next door" credentials, it took some good talent to pull off the sassy lines later in the speech.

This was her debut performance, and she exceled. What remains to be seen is how well Palin can walk the tightrope of likability and readiness to attack.

As for her Reform credentials, she listed them in a straightforward fashion, but didn't tie the theme as strongly to McCain as she probably should have.

Key reform-oriented quotes:

• "I stood up to the special interests, the lobbyists, big oil companies, and the good-ol' boys network"
• "I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for (brilliantly timed pause)...that luxury jet was over the top - I put it on eBay"
• "I thought we could muddle through without the governor's personal chef - although I've got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her" (how could you not like that line?)
  
• "thanks, but no thanks, on that bridge to nowhere...if our state wanted to build a bridge, we were gonna build it ourselves"

She also boated of being aggressive on the Veto, a lovely gesture to those fiscal hawks among us hopelessly upset with Bush. Palin threw out the figure of $.5 billion worth of vetoed spending. Alaska's total annual budget is $11.2 billion. So in 2 years, Palin vetoed nearly 2.2% of all spending. Without the exact figures, I'm going to guess that Bush's combined 8 years have a total vetoed spending percentage that is an order of magnitude below Palin's as Alaska Governor.

Palin closed with a good deal of admiration for McCain, focusing on energy issues, although I must say her tone was not totally hawkish. For example, she didn't say, "those who hate us", she said, "dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart". Same message, classier delivery. Interesting choice.

Again, an outstanding performance. Can Palin maintain this level of energy, and balance the likability with the attacks? I look forward to watching.

Meanwhile, the website still sucks and the audio was beyond horrible. The closing 5 minutes to Palin's speech, when McCain came out and joined her, were ridiculously unprofessional.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis...

I have heard from numerous sources that some footage that the Ron Paul campaign recorded of me speaking about his candidacy at the Arab American Institute conference from last October was broadcast at the Rally for the Republic held this week as a "shadow convention" in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Here is a pic.


If anyone has video of this segment, which I was told was played around the time of the great Tom Woods' speech, please send it to me.

UPDATE - here is the C-SPAN footage - I come on at 1:19:00.

"I know many of you are angry and frustrated..."

Last night, the Republican Party sold out its dignity and allowed the turncoat Senator Joseph Lieberman to address the delegates. This is nothing short of sickening and disgusting, and shame on any Republican who approved of or applauded this action. A special disdain is reserved for the architects of McCain's appearance. If anyone knows of any delegates who spoke out against it publicly, please let me know, I'd like to congratulate them and thank them.

Yes, as Lieberman said:

"I know many of you are angry and frustrated by our government and our politics, and for good reason."

Joe, what dignified political activists are frustrated by is the acceptance of turncoats like you. If you wanted to speak at the Republican convention, you should have switched your registration and announced that you would henceforth caucus with the GOP. I don't know who to pity more - the spineless Republican delegates who clapped like trained seals for you last night, or the Democrat leaders who continue to accept you as one of their own.

So, what did Turncoat Joe have to say? Well, my personal favorite was his quoting from George Washington's farewell address. Well, here is a clip from that speech that Lieberman seems to have missed:

"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated...Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest."

Yes, Joe, you hit the nail on the head when you told us last night:

"George Washington was absolutely right. The sad truth is -- today we are living through his worst nightmare, in the capital city that bears his name."

Speaking of "particular nations", we heard from Joe that "what we need most is not more party unity in America but more national unity!" That's right, folks! "We are all Georgians!"

Of course, Turncoat Joe's top task was to gin up support for the hyper-interventionist foreign policy that he and McCain embrace. He noted:

"When others were silent, John McCain had the judgment to sound the alarm about the mistakes we were making in Iraq. John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion..."

Too bad it's not the "original maverick" McCain from 1982, who said:

"The fundamental question is: What is the United States' interest in Lebanon? It is said we are there to keep the peace. I ask, what peace? It is said we are there to aid the government. I ask, what government? It is said we are there to stabilize the region. I ask, how can the U.S. presence stabilize the region?... The longer we stay in Lebanon, the harder it will be for us to leave. We will be trapped by the case we make for having our troops there in the first place.

What can we expect if we withdraw from Lebanon? The same as will happen if we stay. I acknowledge that the level of fighting will increase if we leave. I regretfully acknowledge that many innocent civilians will be hurt. But I firmly believe this will happen in any event."

Yeah, and Sarah Palin supported Pat Buchanan in 1996. Oh, how things change...

Serving a cause lesser than web design expertise

As was my custom last week, I logged on this morning in London to view the videos from last night's convention. First, I went to the RNC main site. No obvious link to the convention site. So I went back and found the actual convention site.

Looks good on the surface. I click on "Videos". It immediately begins playing Laura Bush standing in front the crowd, being applauded for a long while, and then talking about Gustav. No idea who introduced her or how.

Then I try to find the entire video log of speeches, play by play of the convention. I find something that resembles it, but all they have are the videotaped addresses of the 4 GOP Gulf-state Governors, the Laura Bush clip I already saw, and Cindy McCain's address.

I click on the Cindy McCain one, it was a very short clip, lasting less than 4 minutes, and focusing only on the hurricane. The crowd looked pretty full to me - did they really bother to assemble for such little content, or is the media plan of the RNC team WAY below standard? This does not make me happy.

Secondly, on the Dem site, there was a dedicated, very high-quality video player, which, though it required installation of 2 plug-ins (at least for Firefox on the Mac it did) was well worth it, because the quality was outstanding. The GOP opted for YouTube. Now I'm a fan of YouTube as everyone who reads this site knows. And I use it regularly to promote my activities. But I'm not the Republican Party at a national level.

The clips looked to be of poor quality, and for lack of a better word, "cheesy". Granted, it is easy to embed Cindy McCain's charity appeal (see below), which wasn't the case on the Democrats' site. But watching it felt like just any other mediocre YouTube video.

Finally, I click on each day on the main page, and Tuesday through Thursday are identical, not updated. The theme for each day "Serving a Cause Great than Self Interest" (sic - no hyphen), is the same. Amateur hour.

And all I was worried about was that the Democrats would have a better house band?!?! My party had better suss this out immediately.