The Moderate Voice - Latest Comments in Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

GeorgeSorwell — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:47:25 -0000

Wow!!

Thanks!!!!

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Jazz — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:19:35 -0000

For those still following this chat festival, I've gotten hold of the head honcho at Republicans for Obama and scheduled an interview. Look for that later this week so we can compare the two!

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

kritt11 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:50:41 -0000

Uh- If he's switching parties it has nothing to do with the Democratic candidate's stand on the issues. Except for the vote for the war (OBAMA was not in the Senate back then) his voting record is almost identical to Hillary's. His economic plan and his healthcare plan resemble Clinton's as well, and they both agreed that we have to withdraw much more carefully from Iraq than we went in. Most Clinton voters are angry because Clinton was treated badly in the media and by the party--while Obama was seen as our savior.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

DLS — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:16:48 -0000

"How so"

It's alien as well as antithetical to most Americans, who are not "progressive" to radical in their beliefs (characterizing anything right of Brookings as "far right," for example; we even hear members of Congress at the Dem convention talking about the "far right" that does not exist in Congress and has almost no presence, much less power, in Washington).

It turns most people off, badly. The 1994 elections should have instructed you accordingly.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

pacatrue — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:23:51 -0000

First, Jazz, thanks for the interview.

Second, I cracked up when the first reason he gave for the Dems leaving him was over license plate fees in Colorado. There's nothing you can do if that's his primary voting issue.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Jazz — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:27:57 -0000

Steve, I would be "selecting comments" if I was, in fact, trying to make a point. I find the entire "hillary voters for McCain" thing interesting (as you'll see from my second column today on Cults of Personality... I can't wait to see how you explain that one) I left in the things that applied to the topic. He spent several minutes telling me about the messed up weather in the days running up to the convention, including a tornado. Was I "hiding" something from the readers or being a partisan by not including that as well?

Next up for your magic bag of tricks, please inform us who exactly I am a partisan for. Please.... seriously. Pick a party or a person or an ideology, a set of issues... free reign for you to identify me as a "partisan" with an "agenda" in my writing here. Not only are you bound to be dead wrong (from my own personal perspective), we'll invest the time to go over some of my posting history to see if perhaps you are correct and can teach me something about myself.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

SteveK — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:23:45 -0000

Double Oops! Both George and Kathryn beat me to Republicans for Obama! Guess I should refresh before posting in the future.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

SteveK — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:21:18 -0000

Jazz,

When cutting and pasting EVERYONE (you / me / they) select comments that go along with the argument we're making.

Your "END INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT" implies a 'just the facts ma'am' Joe Friday article when it is nothing of the kind.

The problem I have with your article(s) is your subtle implication of 'fair and balanced' when all I've seen from you is partisan spin.

There's nothing wrong with partisan... I'm a partisan, too. But I don't try to disguise partisan under "reporting a transcribed interview" and when I manipulate someone's words to validate my opinion I present it as OPINION.

An article by you about "Republicans for Obama" would be an interesting indeed. ;-)

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Jazz — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:11:28 -0000

I'll get with Tony today, thanks! I never heard him mention RFO before.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

RememberNovember — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:06:07 -0000

"I was once asked here what I thought about supreme court justices being nominated and my response was "I think they are ALL good men and women and that no matter who is selected they will do their best to do what is right for their country." I believe that and will go to my grave believing it."

Then you go to your grave misinformed,sadly and while I can appreciate your faith in government to do the right thing, that is predicated on the notion that the Chief Executive does not seek to expand his powers beyond the checks and balances system. - In my few decades on this planet I have not seen a more slanted SCOTUS. A judge that won't recuse himself (Scalia), and instead goes on a duck hunt with a named party on a case that he is judging? Public proslytizing from the bench on hot button issues? Save it for the actual cases, and not the sound bytes, I say. Maybe there are more incidences of pandering and partisanship, but off the top of my head I have not seen a President try to Politicise all branches of the government in his attempt to become a "Unitary Executive" ( read:parliamentary dictatorship).

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

GeorgeSorwell — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:03:03 -0000

Oops! Kathryn beat me to it about Tony Campbell. The RFO website says he's a former officer. It also metnions that he's a contributor to something called TheModerateVoice.com. Check it out!

PS--I've gotten a 500 Server Error while trying to post comments. I hope there's nothing wrong going on.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

GeorgeSorwell — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:58:09 -0000

Hey--

One of those people at Republicans for Obama is from Colorado. I mention this in case Colorado is convenient for you. His name is Kenneth Wehking:

A lifelong Republican, Ken feels that many politicians have forgotten about the people they were elected to represent. In the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt, America needs a statesman that can set a new course and change this culture of division to one of cooperation and solutions to our most pressing problems. Including, budget deficits, healthcare reform, energy independence, social security/medicaid reform and protecting our natural resources, among a few.

I also just noticed at the bottom of their page that Tony Campbell, a TMV co-blogger, used to work there. Maybe he can get you on the inside track?

Good luck!

Also, as far as the complaints here go, I had the sense that you were just letting the guy say his peace--not being too confrontational.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

ChrisWWW — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:55:28 -0000

The "progressive left wing" of the Dems is too far left for most Americans

How so?

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

DLS — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:49:59 -0000

Clinton voters who defect to McCain are much more powerful spoilers for the Democratic Party than Nader was, and is. Don't forget that when deciding what you want to do.

The "progressive left wing" of the Dems is too far left for most Americans and the party leadership will put the brakes on those kids -- unless the party leadership itself gets stupidly overconfident. Note that Obama chose a conventional member of the establishment (among the majority that voted for war in Iraq like nearly everybody else, not an anti-war-from-before-the-beginning kook, and someone who helps allay concerns about an Obama foreign policy).

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Kathryn — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:49:05 -0000

Jazz, isn't fellow TMV blogger the head of Republicans for Obama? Have you spoken to him?

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Jazz — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:34:05 -0000

How exactly do you see the two as mutually exclusive, Steve? I'm a pretty fast typist (I can break 120 wpm with excessive errors) and always have my own questions typed up in advance, but as you go through the interview process, you inevitably end up tossing out follow-up questions you didn't plan on and having some idle chatter going on to keep things friendly and relaxed with the subject. I wasn't given permission to tape the call, so I had to go with what I could get. There was quite a bit of material (most of which I typed out in barely legible fashion) which wandered around and didn't add anything to the subject, so I left all of that out.

For the area in question, there were a number of back and forth things about previous flip-flops which, again, didn't really add to the whole "why I'm voting for McCain subject" and after he mentioned media reports of a number of them (you have to admit there are tons of stories out there on it) I *did* ask him if there wasn't a perception of Obama like that today. That led to his response, which would have looked out of place if I didn't include *something* in front of it.

The fact remains, though, that it's exactly what he said and reflected his running them of his opinion that Obama was not ready to lead, that Biden *was* ready to lead, and that (no doubt jokingly) he thought the two should switch positions on the ticket. If you want to read that as being getting MY point across, you're off base but welcome to your opinion. I didn't even think Biden was a good pick for Obama. As to "cut and paste" there isn't much of that until a lot of cleanup work gets done right after the call.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

SteveK — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:22:06 -0000

Jazz said: I was transcribing like mad while doing the interview and wound up shortening a lot of it for space considerations and good flow.

AND

Jazz said: As to the rest of his comments, please note that I'm neither defending them nor attacking them. Just reporting what he had to say.

Jazz,

Which is it? Did you: A) cut and paste to get YOUR point across or B) "just report what he had to say"? It doesn't seem like it can be both.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Jazz — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:03:26 -0000

Two points: First, the transcription of the "flip flop" question was horrible, and I apologize. That part of the interview, as with much of it, was much longer with quite a bit of extraneous chatter. I was transcribing like mad while doing the interview and wound up shortening a lot of it for space considerations and good flow. Salazar actually brought up the "flip flop" thing and there was some back and forth between us before he got to the "Obama should flip flop the ticket" quote.

As to the rest of his comments, please note that I'm neither defending them nor attacking them. Just reporting what he had to say.

I will definitely send in a request to the RFO site to see if I can get an interview with one of them. Good suggestion.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

GeorgeSorwell — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:25:38 -0000

It's not unusual for members of one party to support the candidate of another party.

For example: Republicans for Obama.

I look forward to the parallel interview.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Ricorun — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:23:33 -0000

ChrisWWW's latest comment jogged my memory about a couple of other things...
1. What does Silverio think about McCain's desire to renegotiate the Colorado River water rights pact? His cousin Ken isn't too keen on it. I believe his response to McCain was, "over my dead body".
2. How does he feel about oil shale development? Again, his cousin Ken is very skeptical about that, too.

Now, I do know that Ken Salazar is considered an expert on these matters. What bonafides does Silverio have? As far as I can tell, he's a precinct captain. Or was.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Ricorun — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:04:03 -0000

I respect Hillary, but I think her husband is a huge liability for her -- even assuming no new scandals surfaced.

Also, there seems to be a big disconnect between Hillary's platform during the primaries and things Mr. Salazar claims to like about McCain. On all of them -- taxes, off shore drilling, abortion, immigration, and even energy, Clinton's positions were much closer to Obama's and far away from McCain's. Given that, what exactly DID he like about Hillary to make him think she was a better choice than McCain? What good are better qualifications, knowledge and readiness to lead if the person he preferred is likely to lead in directions he apparently doesn't like? That seems a bit odd to me.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

ChrisWWW — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:39:55 -0000

When it comes to energy policy, Obama will say anything to get elected, so you don’t know what he thinks about oil drilling and domestic energy production from day to day.

This statement pretty much defies all logic. Salazar must be living in some fantasy world where McCain always supported drilling.

From WaPo:
"During his last run for the presidency, in 1999, McCain supported the drilling moratorium, and he scolded the “special interests in Washington” that sought offshore drilling leases."

Boo ya.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Kathryn — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:28:42 -0000

I am curious about a point ,in the new McCain ad-Hillary was denied the VP slot because "she spoke the truth." Yet they run footage of Biden saying negative things about Obama. The point I am taking home is it is fine to have said some negative things during the primary, Obama doesn't surround himself with "Yes People" and it must be some other reason Hillary wasn't picked. Her impeached husband's refusal to see beyond himself perhaps?

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

DLS — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:23:36 -0000

The disenchanted Clinton voters are something McCain can (try to) exploit and get to defect to him, and as recently as this morning I heard a Republican on the radio say he felt Clinton would have been Obama's and the ticket's strongest choice by far, but I believe Obama did well to choose Biden and this issue is settled now.

Re: Interview with Silverio Salazar: Making the Jump From Hillary to McCain

Jim_Satterfield — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:23:08 -0000

And is this really a question?

JS: Obama has gained a reputation as something of a flip-flopper, hasn’t he?

Given that if the media was doing its job instead of playing softball with the McCain campaign McCain would have a reputation as a liar what is the point of that question other than repeating once again a favorite GOP talking point? Seriously.