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8:51

Spencer - So I decided not to watch the Palin speech and instead just watch the tweets unravel. What did I miss?

8:53

Megan - Apparently, she doesn't like Tara Reid. Or something. Also, everyone in Alaska is fucking high as hell and God likes it that way.

8:55

Spencer - “Some still are choosing not to hear why I’m charting a new course to advance this state,” she said, adding that “it should be so obvious to you.”

So the woman quits her job out of nowhere but you're the stupid one?

8:56

Spencer - And if I can quote my boss, Laura McGann:

Palin ran through a laundry list of her accomplishments in office, including an ethics reform package (which, ironically, she now names as one reason for leaving office early, as “frivolous” complaints dog her)...

8:57

Megan - See, the part about Alaska being baked brings it all into stark relief for me: I don't understand because I'm not high. I feel like if I call some stoner friends and recite the speech, they'll all nod their heads and be like, "Yeah, man, totally. Obvious."

8:57

Spencer - This is admittedly an awesome slogan: “We eat, therefore we hunt.”

8:57

Spencer -

8:59

Spencer - Anyway, fuck this entire charade. I feel insulted by the idea that I have to take such a transparent maneuver concocted by a Coen Brothers' third-tier character as an actual political event. What else should we talk about.

9:00

Megan - Wow, that is actually some of the most prescient Palin analysis I've read to date. That's another way that it all makes sense: she's living a Coen Brothers movie.

9:01

Spencer - G'wan. So what should I know about health care reform this morning?

9:03

Megan - Hmm, it's still fucked? Reid isn't gonna touch it until after August, Pelosi might not get it to pass and conservative Dems seem perfectly happy to play into Republican hands.

But I know you were watching Clinton on Meet the Press while I was flirting back at the oil change guy because he was cute and funny and I was 1,000 miles overdue, so how about you tell me what I missed?

9:06

Spencer - I think I've seen that porno, but about Clinton: I still can't really figure out whether her description of the objectives of the Afghanistan war and the relationship between goals and administration strategy was candid or evasive, and the difference there probably indicates a continuing inability on the part of policymakers to think clearly and without euphemism or political fear about what Afghanistan policy ought to be.

9:09

Spencer - Iran was much clearer. She's the mailed fist in the Obama administration when it comes to Iran, and said that Iran shouldn't even think about going nuclear because the U.S.'s defense "umbrella" in the region will make the whole thing futile.
The Iranian Government, which is facing its own challenges of legitimacy from its people, has to know that its pursuit of nuclear weapons, something that our country along with our allies stand strongly against – we believe as a matter of policy it is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons, the G-8 came out with a very strong statement to that effect coming from Italy – so we are united in our continuing commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

9:09

Megan - It involves a lube job later, right?

I think the problem with policymakers' limited vision of Afghanistan policy has something to do with the fact that they all want to get the fuck out but remain concerned about setting up another Somalia, albeit with heroin dealers instead of pirates.

9:10

Megan - I do appreciate that Clinton, at least, has not forgotten about the Iranian elections.

9:10

Spencer - Now, you can IR-theory that to death. If you reason that Iran wants to go nuclear because it fears that constellation of forces lined against it, then nothing Clinton said will make Iran think twice. Instead, Iran would be rational to think that it's encircled, and the only way to defend itself from invasion or alternative means of destabilization would be to raise the stakes through nuclear weapons.

9:11

Spencer - But!

9:12

Megan - To me, actually, you've just described what I always thought was the exact problem with operating in a realist policy environment: it's self-perpetuating. If everyone operates as though the realist perspective is accurate, game theory correctly predicts we'll all be holed up pointing our weapons at fucking everyone.

9:13

Spencer - If you reason that Iran is internally divided, and that at least some of those divisions have to do with the ways in which externally-focused bellicosity have made Iran into a pariah nation, then Clinton's remarks might play a useful role in bolstering the (relative) dovish contention. I'm not saying it would play a decisive role, but most likely a constructive one, in addition to other steps the Obama admin is taking

9:14

Spencer - Precient objection! Why presume a monolithic Iran, especially when we've seen for nearly two months the starkest possible evidence of massive internal fissures?

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