Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Sunday, November 20, 2011

WTF?

By BJ Bjornson

I don�t know what kind of self-induced coma Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen have been in these last few years, but it must have been caused by some pretty heavy stuff.


When Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson accepted the reality that they could not effectively govern the nation if they sought re-election to the White House, both men took the moral high ground and decided against running for a new term as president. President Obama is facing a similar reality�and he must reach the same conclusion.

He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president's accomplishments. He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.


Now, I happen to think Hillary would make an excellent president and all, but it�s the reason these two think Hillary should take over that left my mouth hanging open.


But this is about more than electoral politics. Not only is Mrs. Clinton better positioned to win in 2012 than Mr. Obama, but she is better positioned to govern if she does. Given her strong public support, she has the ability to step above partisan politics, reach out to Republicans, change the dialogue, and break the gridlock in Washington.


Yep. As they see it, and even say further up the column, the problem with Obama has been his insistence on traveling down his overly partisan road, causing all of that nasty gridlock and fighting in Congress. If only they could find someone who could reach out to the Republicans and change the dialogue.

That they�ve completely missed the point of Republican obstructionism and Obama�s attempts to reach out and change the dialogue since he was elected, claiming he�s done the opposite, is bad enough. That they think that Hillary will somehow be the one to overcome the lockstep obstructionism on the Republican side just leaves me beyond words.

Seriously, what are these guys on?



7 comments:

  1. Myself I see none in the current stable of elites gilding either the main corridors of Jackass L'Esplanade or its fringes who'd make a reasonable chief executive. It is, I've concluded, one of those times in history when there is a general dearth of anyone with real convictions - genuine, actual, authentic, non-fictional or imaginary - and the charisma and drive to be able to really lead. This I think applies to all western so-called democracies. That said and likely better ignored I wonder if Caddell et Schoen have ever heard of the term 'vast right wing conspiracy'? Placing the name Hillary in front of the phrase in the Google search for slot gets you only about 1.6 hits. Yeah she has true neutral qualities. Sure she does.

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  2. Apparently if you think Hillary Clinton would make a good President you are on the same "medication" as Pat Caddell et al. Unless we somehow get a Presidential race between Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, the eventual of both parties next year and for the foreseeable future will be a tool of the corporations and banks that are funding the campaigns and own the Congress.

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  3. The WSJ column is just another bit of right-wing concern trolling. One of the authors works for Bloomberg. The other is a Fox News commenter. They are Democrats and have no validity, except to Obama haters like Taylor Marsh. The column was written with one goal in mind - to undermine Obama and try to influence Dems to turn on him.

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  4. Oops - I meant the are 'former Democrats'.

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  5. Caddell and Schoen are being mocked over at the Republican OTB.

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  6. Jymn has it right. Don't feed the trolls.

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  7. uture will be a tool of the corporations and banks that are funding the campaigns and own the Congress.

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