Quick Links 9/20/09

*You know who quietly helped his Hall of Fame case this season? Bobby Abreu. Stayed healthy for a winning team, close to .300 average, .400 OBP and 30 steals, on the verge of his 7th straight 100-RBI season.
*Obama points out to David Paterson that he’s already dead. Apparently redistricting trumps racial solidarity (so much for Paterson’s effort to argue that all criticisms of him were racist, an argument that was especially dangerous to Obama due to Paterson’s effort to equate himself with Obama; Obama has enough problems of his own without carrying Paterson as baggage). Of course, with only one GOP-held Congressional seat and few others even potentially competitive, redistricting isn’t as big a deal as it will be in California, Texas, Illinois or Florida, but it’s still a priority for the White House to bigfoot governors’ races.
*Kaus waits for the next shoe to drop from Breitbart.
*Excellent post by Ace on right-wing rhetoric.
*Ben Domenech notes that Salon’s polling shows that Obama had an 85% approval rating among Hispanics the week before the Sotomayor nomination, but 68% after her confirmation. So much for that battle damaging the GOP.
*Michael van der Galien looks at how Afghanistan has replaced Iraq as the anti-war Left’s next target, with the declining salience of Iraq and the departure of President Bush dispensing with the need to pretend to be in favor of pressing on with the war that was started when America was attacked from Afghan territory by terrorists who were essentially indistringuishable from the Taliban. This was entirely predictable to anyone familiar with the Left, but it has nonetheless been more depressing than amusing to watch the turn in particular among the leading left-wing bloggers.

9 thoughts on “Quick Links 9/20/09”

  1. Crank, of course the Left is salivating for us to run out of Afghanistan. Their greatest
    “accomplishment” was turning America against the Vietnam War. For over three decades we have had to listen to these losers pontificate endlessly about the “lessons of Vietnam” (other than the millions killed by Communists in SE Asia after we left, re-educaton camps, etc) and breathlessly use the word quagmire for every real or potential conflict. That we won the Cold War by doing the exact opposite of everything they wanted us to do. No lesson learned, no joy for the millions freed from the tyranny of Communism, just anger and bile towards Reagan and conservatives.
    The second Iraq war?, they were so close, just like a pedophile who almost got the kid into the car, they almost got what they wanted, they could taste it. They love seeing their country run away. They get off on seeing their country lose and they were so close to getting what they thirsted for, so close and then that …….. idiot, moron, war monger George Bush, doubled down, stayed the course, changed generals and tactics and we won. Just look at the posters on this site who still can’t acknowledge the “surge” worked and that we won-they are palpably sad and mad that their country won.
    So what do they have left…… Afghanistan. They can’t use the no blood for oil meme and they can’t use the terrorists were not from there meme, but it doesn’t matter they see that their victory ( the US’s loss) is so close. That they can get the US out of Afghanistan and hand the Taliban, Al Quaeda and all our enemies a victory-it is Viagara for them. Of course, they will do the usual mental gymnastics they engage in to forget all their comments supporting war in Afghanistan for the last 8 years because that is what they do. just look at everything they threw in the memory hole regarding Iraq. They have no honor or positive values.
    We will be hearing over the next few years the following-too many people are dying, it is costing us too much, we can’t win, we need to talk to the “moderate” Taliban factions, or my favorite “the international community” (a group that should mean less to us than jock itch) is against us.
    It is so predictable what they are going to try and do,they have a playbook and they stick with it. The horde of flying monkeys that they command never notices. It will be interesting to see if Obama does the right thing or the expedient thing.

  2. I’ve always liked Abreu. I think he’s been underrated. Although, he’s been well paid.
    It would be hard for me to support his candidacy though. Is he better than Will Clark? Bernie Williams? Jack Clark? Paul O’Neill? Maybe he is a touch better than those players. But not enough to put him into the HOF, I don’t think.
    Of course, then there’s Tim Raines.

  3. Lets say Abreu gets into the hall of fame as a compiler but not as a dominent player. Are there any players in the Hall who were not regarded as hall of famers during their careers? I would guess Rizzuto is one. I wonder if the lack of any contemporaneous recognition as a potential HOF’er should count against a player?

  4. I think there are plenty of players who weren’t considered HOF-caliber when they played, who are now in the HOF. Particularly all those players from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, who were inducted through the Frisch-era Veterans Committee and/or because of The Glory of Their Times. The HOF wasn’t in existence yet, but nobody thought Chick Hafey was a great player when he played. Just one example.
    If Abreu does get in, I doubt it will be as a compiler. I don’t think he’s going to reach any big milestones.

  5. You tell them Crankster. 68% approval rating for Dems among Hispanics is proof the GOP is coming on strong in 2010!

  6. Republicans can win in most places without winning a majority of Hispanics, as long as the Democrats aren’t rolling up huge majorities. At any rate, a 17-point drop in his approval rating from before to after the nomination suggests that Latino voters are concerned with more than just the ethnic politics of a single nomination.

  7. Crank, don’t argue with the trolls. Everyone they know and talk to loves Obama and when they watch ABC, CBS,NBC, PBS,CNN,MSNBC -they sing his praises and how popular he is. Let them continue along this way until there clock gets cleaned in the mid-term.

  8. I think the Hall generally has better standards today, and I don’t think guys who spend their whole careers not being thought of as HOFers are going to get in except if they take the Don Sutton route and acheive exceptional career milestones.
    Abreu’s kind of an odd duck, in that he’s both overrated and underrated depending on who you ask. He appeals to statheads because of his diverse skills and high walk totals, but most people who rely on their eyes don’t think he’s as good as his numbers. Personally, I don’t really think he’s a better player than Bernie Williams, and I wouldn’t put Bernie in the Hall.

  9. Crank,
    Good conversation starter. That is an argument have each off season about who helped their case the most. We try not to focus on the obvious no-brainer HoF’r like Pujols. Abreu is a very good player, but he is not a Hall of Fame player. I’m not a fan who falls into the trap of saying “So&so didn’t seem like a Hall of Famer” so he doesn’t belong. I have no problem reassessing a player and changing my mind. Not every HoF’r needs 3 MVP’s and lots of black ink. Some guys make it by being solid players every year and reaching certain milestones without every being the absolutely most dominant in any one year. Bobby doesn’t seem to me to fit either definition. However, he could still change my position with a few more very good years. Though at 35 years old I don’t expect it. Separately, after hearing how he has helped several young Angels hitters be more selective this season I’d like to see him as a hitting coach in the future.

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