Tuesday, July 02, 2013

How chasing Ed Snowden harmed Dems 2016 chances


NSA whistle-blower Ed Snowden blew the lid off Barack Obama's spying on Americans and on the whole world.  He has global popular support but, currently, he's struggling to find a country to grant him asylum.

The Times of India quotes  the spokesperson for India's Foreign Ministry Syed Akbaruddin stating,  "Our embassy in Moscow did receive a communication dated 30 June from Mr Edward Snowden. That communication did contain a request for asylum. Following careful examination, we have concluded that we see no reason to accede to Snowden's request."  Alonso Soto, Todd Benson and Vicki Allen (Reuters) report that Brazil's Foreign Ministry also announced they were rejecting an asylum request.  Heather Saul (Independent) offers this summary, "Brazil, Finland, India and Poland have all outright rejected Mr Snowden's requests for asylum, and Austria, Spain and Norway have taken the same stance as Ecuador, rejecting asylum on the basis that he is not on their soil." BBC News reports:

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Snowden had withdrawn the application to Russia because Moscow had said he should give up "anti-American activity".
"After learning of Russia's position yesterday, voiced by President Putin... he abandoned his intention [of staying] and his request to be able to stay in Russia," said Mr Peskov.
President Putin had said that while Moscow "never hands over anybody anywhere", Mr Snowden could only stay on condition that he stopped damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks.

WikiLeaks Tweeted the following:



11h
The question is not which country will grant Mr. Snowden asylum. The question is which countries still have an independent executive.
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Barack Obama has become the cancer on the Democratic Party.

No one wants to admit that the foolish idiot has destroyed not only his own legacy but any likely chance for the party to hold onto the White House in the 2016 election.

He has contaminated everyone.  John Kerry didn't have presidential ambitions which is good because his failure to stick to State Dept business means he can't win in 2016.  He had a big trip on his schedule, that's what he should have focused on, not idiotic statements about Ed Snowden.

Joe Biden?  I know and like Joe but Joe was always iffy for 2016.  If you think the press ripped apart Al Gore in the 2000 campaign -- and they did -- Joe in 2016 was going to be about learning that the folksy mispeaking didn't pass muster with the press when he transitioned to presidential candidate.  The 2007 press attempt to smear him as a racist was just a hint at how the same crowd that chuckles currently at his malaproprisms planned to carve him up in 2016.  The only thing that stood to save him?  A reservoir of good will among the American people.  That's gone now.  Too many people will be pissed about Ed.

Hillary?  Her statements regarding Julian Assange and Bradley Manning will be seen as reflective upon Ed Snowden (and Benghazi's not going away).

So who does that leave?

You could look to the Congress but there you'll find near certain condemnation of Ed Snowden.

It's never a good idea in electoral politics to be seen as the party the created a martyr.  Openly tormenting someone who has become a folk hero doesn't rank up there with "a chicken in every pot" when it comes to turning out votes.

They've destroyed themselves, pulled back their own curtain to reveal how callow they truly are -- and what better poster child for callow than Barack Obama?


The Buenos Aires Herald reports:

 Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that Edward Snowden, the former US spy agency contractor, deserved the "world's protection" for divulging details of Washington's spy program.
Snowden, wanted by Washington on spying charges for revealing the secret US electronic surveillance program Prism, has applied for political asylum in more than a dozen countries, in his search for safety.


If they had any sense, the White House would be quietly encouraging Venezuela to take Ed Snowden and then allow Ed to fall off their radar.  Their argument against Ed has a built-in self-destruct that apparently no one's yet noticed.  When it implodes, they look even dumber.

In the meantime, a White House third term is always a hard sell for a political party.  You need the people on your side for a third term because the press is bored, they want to see some changes in the lead characters because the novel's gone stale.  With an itchy press, you really need the people.  And yet, over and over, administrations forget that and work to piss people off.

"Well," someone insists, "the Republicans are doing it as well so they're harmed also!"  Senator Rand Paul may run for president, I don't think he'll suffer the same problems as, for example, Joe Biden.  But it doesn't matter.  The way you win in modern elections, and every campaign knows this, isn't by bringing in voters, its by peeling the support your opponent has.  You work to ensure that people won't turn out for your opponent, that's why you take whatever their perceived strength is and work to make it a liability.  That's what you do.  You're even luckier if your gifted with your party rival being stupid enough to peel off their own support in advance of an election.


The actions of Barack and his idiotic minions have done real electoral harm to the Democratic Party.  That's why you let Barack speak on the matter and only him.  It allows others in the administration deniability should they attempt a run for office, "I didn't agree but it wasn't my place to contradict the president.  As president, I would focus on jobs and . . ."  Barack can't run in 2016 (for the presidency) so this should have been left to him and his spokespeople and Eric Holder who clearly couldn't win in 2016 and who, as Attorney General, is really the only other official that should have been directly involved.  (Eric can't win?  No, too many scandals, too many confrontations -- he's become such a divisive figure that he can't win a national election and he probably shouldn't be serving a second term as an appointed official. I'm writing in terms of political liability and not passing judgment on the scandals or the veracity of the various charges piling up against Eric in public.)


WikiLeaks released the following statement from Ed Snowden yesterday:

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.
This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
Edward Joseph Snowden
Monday 1st July 2013



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