Slate Magazine: Obama doesn't dodge the "what if" questions

[snowbear]

Hooray for Hypotheticals

Obama doesn't dodge "what if" questions. Good for him!
By John Dickerson
Posted Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007, at 6:42 PM ET

To hide the fact that they're hiding something, candidates elevate their refusal to a virtue. "One of the jobs of a president is being very reasoned in approaching these issues," Hillary Clinton said to a hypothetical question about sending ground troops to Darfur. "And I don't think it's useful to be talking in these kinds of abstract hypothetical terms." Two days later, Mitt Romney cried hypothetical when asked in a debate whether, in hindsight, going to war in Iraq was a mistake. To give the dodge extra weight, he criticized the question in Latin (calling it a "non sequitur"), on fairness grounds (saying it was "unreasonable"), and, finally, mathematically (labeling it a "null set"), as if to suggest there was some immutable arithmetic law that made entertaining the whole notion absurd.




>snip<

Fortunately, one candidate is answering hypotheticals. For the last two weeks, the Democratic political conversation has been consumed with hypothetical questions. Last week, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton engaged in a multiday set-to over whether they would meet with nasty dictators. This week, Barack Obama doubled down on hypotheticals by raising his own hypothetical situation in his sweeping speech on foreign policy. If he found actionable intelligence about al-Qaida leaders hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan, he said he would send in troops whether the Pakistani government liked it or not.

Perhaps as a former law professor, Obama isn't afraid of these kinds of questions. Law school is nothing but hypotheticals. Or perhaps Obama is comfortable because his answer to the 2002 hypothetical about whether he would vote to authorize force against Iraq has worked to his political advantage. If he'd ducked then, he couldn't gloat now.

Continued: http://www.slate.com/id/2171610/

[sandnsea]

1. I think these are policy questions

I don't think terrorists on the Pakistan border is a hypothetical. Neither was the war vote in 2002. Both very real. I think he expressed his opinion because he knows his mind and knows where he wants to lead the country.

That's very different from some sort of abstract hypothetical about ticking timebombs and such.

[Cha]

2. "Gloat" is such an

unattractive word..how about "he wouldn't be vindicated now"?

[MannyGoldstein]

3. I Think Obama Is Fine With Saying What He Thinks Is Right

He doesn't seem to be a waffling dissembler. He has an opinion and he states it.

I don't always agree with him - for example, his health care policy is a bad one - but I hold his forthrightness in very, very high regard.

[illinoisprogressive]

4. I think he rather enjoys those sorts of questions and discussions.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

5. I agree, he was a law school professor

So it comes natural to him since law school is nothing but a series of hypotheticals.

[Superman Returns]

6. why are you so mean spirited all the time?

Edwards would not endorse your negative sentiments on DU.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

7. Um...I was complimenting Obama and agreeing with one of the biggest BO supporters here...

:wtf: