9/18: Surrender, But Don't Give Yourself Away

Conservative bloggers are going ballistic (pun intended) over Pres. Obama's decision to "scrap former President George W. Bush's planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic and instead deploy a reconfigured system aimed more at intercepting short- and medium-range Iranian missiles." Righty bloggers are decrying the move as a "surrender to Russia" that will "embolden the most militaristic and dangerous elements of the Russian ruling class". They're also accusing Obama of being a "violence-averse community organizer" and comparing his foreign policy approach to that of ex-British PM (and favorite conservative boogeyman) Neville Chamberlain. Liberal bloggers, on the other hand, are praising Obama for "scrapp[ing] a useless initiative in favor of a sane, realistic one" and are calling his conservative critics "stupid and immoral."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (Bonin, Drum) are pleased that the MA House approved a bill allowing Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to appoint a temporary successor to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D). Meanwhile, Matthew Yglesias is the latest liberal blogger (joining Laura Clawson) to demand that AG Martha Coakley (D) state her positions on "issues of national significance."
• Conservative bloggers (Morrissey, Geraghty, Faughnan, Klein, Mirengoff) are promoting a video in which VA GOV candidate Creigh Deeds (D) offers a convoluted explanation of his position on taxes.
• Liberal bloggers (Sargent, Clawson, Cole, Serwer, Kurtz, Benen) are calling Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) a hypocrite for complaining about the DC Metro service during the 9/12 protest, considering that Brady previously voted against funding for the DC Metro. Meanwhile, conservative bloggers (streiff, Hinderaker, McCarthy) are criticizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for comparing the recent anti-Obama rhetoric to the anti-gay rhetoric of late-'70s San Francisco.
• The liberal blog Firedoglake is raising money in order to run an AR TV ad targeting Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) and Rep. Mike Ross (D-04) for opposing a public health insurance option. Meanwhile, lefty bloggers (Aravosis, McCarter, desmoinesdem) are pointing out that the CBO confirmed their critique of the "co-op" proposal in Sen. Max Baucus's (D-MT) health care plan -- namely, that co-ops "will neither cover many people nor put downward pressure on costs, the two supposed benefits of the public option."

Finally, please check back later today for our interview with RedState's Moe Lane!

OBAMA: Surrendering To Russia?

Conservative bloggers are blasting Obama's decision to reverse Bush's plan to create an antiballistic missile system in Eastern Europe:

• Commentary's Jennifer Rubin: "Just when you think the Obama administration's foreign policy cannot get more feckless or timid, the Obama team tops itself. [...] Obama is in the business of kowtowing to the world's bullies. Russia didn't like the missile shield, so no more missile shield. Do we think we 'got something' for this? I'd be shocked if we did, given the obvious willingness of the U.S. to prostrate itself before rivals."
• Townhall's Carol Platt Liebau: "[This] is all too reminiscent of the Hungarian spring, when the US stood by and let the USSR crush the Hungarian freedom movement. This appeasement will do nothing but embolden the most militaristic and dangerous elements of the Russian ruling class. Message: America has retreated. [...] If he knows about this, there is a tear in Ronald Reagan's eye this morning."
• Power Line's Scott Johnson: "What signal does this send to the mullahs in Iran? The impending cancellation tells them nothing they didn't already know, but it confirms their perception of Obama as a clueless doofus who has done much to merit their utmost contempt? What signal does this send to our ally Israel? You are on your own, buddy, and you'd better get cracking. To be charitable one might say that the Obama administration does not know how to help friends or to hurt enemies. Yet this seems to be the way they like it."
• Dan Riehl: "Obama will be thought worse than [Jimmy] Carter. [...] At this rate, the Democrats are going to get hammered worse in 2010 than anything we've ever seen. And the distinction of Obama's one term will be that it let Carter and perhaps even any notion of [George] McGovern off the hook."
• Right Wing News' John Hawkins: "You have to go all the way back to WWII to watch the way that Hitler led Chamberlain around by the nose with these sort of meaningless promises to see a politician who was so easily baffled. In a sense, Obama is worse than Chamberlain because he has had Chamberlain's example to learn from."
• The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb: "[M]issile defense would provide weak presidents like Obama an additional option in the case of a crisis with a nuclear-armed regime. Instead of being forced to take some kind of preemptive action, a Democratic president would be able to sit by and try diplomacy with at least some confidence that a nuclear attack could be disrupted. This isn't an offensive program that will provide some Bush-like warmonger with new methods for coercing rogue states, this is a defensive program that provides violence-averse community organizers with extra time to organize the international community before forcing a confrontation."

OBAMA II: Sanity Makes A Comeback

Liberal bloggers are praising Obama's decision to scrap Bush's plan:

• The Washington Post's Ezra Klein: "I'm glad to see the Obama administration abandoning the really dumb and provocative long-range missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic and replacing it with a short-range missile defense system that's sea-based with sites in (probably) Romania, Israel and Turkey. I might like to see them abandon the idea altogether, but them's the breaks. This way, you do less to anger Russia and you save a bit of money. You just can't say you're saving any money."
• Oliver Willis: "It's totally horrible that President Obama scrapped a useless initiative in favor of a sane, realistic one. Seriously I don't see any evidence that these types of devices work in any real world capacity, nor do I see the point of spending a whole lot of cash on them to make certain hawks feel better about it. President Obama is in his job largely due to his stated policies of not being George W. Bush on foreign policy and national security. Thank God."
• Firedoglake's Blue Texan: "Quick question. If our European allies are so worried about Iranian missiles, why doesn't the EU build their own missile shield?"
• Think Progress' Yglesias: "This is a good call. Bush's idea was hugely expensive, and massively illogical. For one thing, Poland and the Czech Republic aren't in any sense between Iran and Europe. Nor is Iran actually threatening Europe with any missiles. Which is why nobody in Europe particularly wanted this thing built. The exception was the Poles and Czechs themselves who liked the idea as a token of America's commitment to defend them against Russia. Which is how we wound up situation an anti-Iranian missile shield in a place that doesn't make sense as an anti-Iranian measure, but does piss off Russia."

Yglesias goes on to slam Obama's conservative critics: "Conservatives, because they're stupid and immoral, have decided that antagonizing the Russians is a feature rather than a bug of the program. Thus, Senator Jim DeMint [R-SC] thinks it shows 'weakness' to stop wasting money on a useless but annoying-to-Russia program. Michael Goldfarb deems it 'appeasement'. This is another example of inane spite-based thinking in foreign policy. Basically the idea is that if the Russians don't want us to do something, we have to do it because otherwise we're appeasing them and next thing you know [PM] Vladimir Putin will be marching on Paris. Common sense indicates the exact reverse. [...] When you take a program with a huge financial cost and no real security benefit, and then add the 'Russia will be mad' factor into the mix the policy looks worse not better as a result."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Baucus's Legitimacy Problem

Ezra Klein:

"Baucus now has a legitimacy problem. A dealmaker needs credibility and respect on both sides, and Baucus has lost it. The Democrats on his committee don't trust his instincts or his core commitments or his legislative skill. Nor do the Democrats outside his committee. They feel he gave away too much in return for not just too little, but nothing at all. That means the Republicans on his committee have further reason to distrust his ability to make a deal, because restive Democrats are going to want to change his bill. Meanwhile, House Democrats are enraged that he left them to suffer through August, and have little interest in passing a bipartisan compromise that doesn't come with any Republican votes.

[...T]hat leaves Baucus with little evident power at this juncture. Even within his committee, it's not obvious he can secure the votes of the liberals, and if he does, he almost certainly sacrifices [GOP Sen. Olympia] Snowe. That means the White House and the Senate leadership are going to play the primary role in both offering concessions and guaranteeing their preservation in the process. The bill remains in Max Baucus's committee, but at this point, it's largely out of his hands."

LEST WE FORGET: DHS Sets Security Alert Level To Green For 8 Seconds

From The Onion:

"WASHINGTON -- For a brief eight-second period Tuesday, Homeland Security officials lowered the national terror alert system to green, indicating the first occasion since September 11, 2001, that the United States of America was at absolutely no risk of a terrorist attack. 'During this time there was no anti-U.S. chatter on the Internet, no al-Qaeda operatives planning to behead an American soldier or journalist, and no suspicious individuals boarding any foreign or domestic flights,' Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said during a White House press briefing. 'It was a pretty wonderful eight seconds.' The terror alert level was then immediately raised to red after terrorists drove a truckful of explosives into the Seattle Space Needle."