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| Jules Crittenden: winning by losing is still losing |
| 2007-08-05 |
What if Americans would rather win? US News and World Report:. . . The conservative New York Sun says this morning that “leading Democrats have seen little risk in demanding a withdrawal of American troops, buffeted by polls that show as many as seven in 10 voters are on their side.” But “what if the military situation in Iraq turns around?” Some “are advising caution, warning that Democrats could lose the high ground if they are perceived to be ignoring evidence that President Bush’s troop ’surge’ is achieving success.” In a column appearing in today’s Washington Times, Cal Thomas writes, “Most Democrats seem so invested in defeat in Iraq that they apparently have no ‘Plan B,’ which would be success.” Thomas goes on to note comments by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, reported Tuesday on the Washington Post’s website. Clyburn “said a favorable report from Gen. David Petraeus could lead 47 moderate-to-conservative ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats to oppose a withdrawal timetable, making it virtually impossible for the liberal leadership to pass such legislation. ‘[It would be] a real problem for us,’ said Mr. Clyburn.” One thing for sure. They don’t like losers: Bush 24 percent, DemCong 3. . . . The Democratic leadership’s strategy is one not seen since World War II, where the Japanese determined that their only chance of winning was their won self-destruction. No, hang on, that doesn’t work. The Japanese actually fought to the death, and killed themselves to avoid surrender, and here we’re seeing a case of surrendering to the death. It may be unprecedented. We’ll need to get the Oxford Medievalist in on this. Anyway, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is a fundamental problem with a strategy based on losing. Only by losing can you win. And what you have won is a loss. You can come at it from every side, but there’s just no way around it. But when every effort to win by losing keeps going down in ignominious defeat, and the win that you hope to portray as a loss keeps showing up as a win, you risk losing everything. Which, presumeably, must mean someone else is winning. But that’s a loss, which is victory. Stay with me here. It follows then that the greatest Democratic victory, short sword having already been honorably stuck in the belly, would be a merciful lopping off of all surrender dreams in November 2008, when Thompson or Romney or Giuliani gets elected, when Mother Sheehan takes Pelosi’s seat … OK, that might be a little farfetched … but when that glorious Democratic mandate of the people loses a dozen seats or whatever narrow margin it holds, because the American people, who can only be fooled some of the time, have finally figured out that losing is not winning. OK, bad analogy, I’ve got to get off that Japanese fatalism thing. We’ve already discussed the fact that the Japanese, unlike the Dems, did themselves in to avoid surrender, and honor certainly has nothing to do with what the Dems are up to now. The Dems, we can expect, will go whining loudly into the wilderness. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #1 I'm finding what is happening in our congress right now to be frightening. Look - the current Dem leaders are clowns. The liberal left is a shrinkinig minority who is getting so small, that they are becoming less than the margin of error. Only 3% approved of the way the Congress is handling the war. It's a shocking number. But what is more shocking to me is that rather than attempt to gain back the support of the people who put them in power, the Dems are beginnig to employ naked power grabs - as they did when shutting down the vote on Friday. And with the support of the MSM - they seem to be getting away with it. An animal is most dangerous when cornered. The People(TM) have spoken to the Congress and Senate: We don't support your handling of the war or immigration or taxes etc. Yet rather than to accept that and bend to the will of the people, they are simply grabbing the power and wresting it away from us. If that means shutting down free speech and confiscating our guns, they are willing to do it. It's easy to laugh it off - but they are in power and if they refuse to give it back to us, the consequences of that will be very dire indeed! |
| Posted by: AT 2007-08-05 11:11 |