Charlie Rose

JohnGelles  11/01/2010 06:44 PM Report

Gary Wills is conservative on the wars to develop the Middle East and prevent perpetual terrorism. He sees them as failing. They are failing.

But failure may not be an option. Iran may make it imperative that America win these wars in the way our commanders on the ground want it ended -- possibly in a way as unique as our decisions for the Korean peninsula.

In all other respects, Gary Wills rules -- his is the intellect we must respect and consult on difficult issues.

doodah  11/01/2010 06:05 AM Report

robd,

I'll rip their guts out (the Lobbyists). ;(

robdverity  10/31/2010 04:02 PM Report

charlize - You're touching on the demise of our system. The corruption of the venal whores in congress and the banking system (that capsized the ec. world-wide - with impunity), is doubtless the way the Roman Empire collapsed - or an over extension militarily, which we are also doing. Adults are scarce in D.C.

Aside to doodah: the use of 'fuck' has a DE-emphasing affect rather than its intended opposite. You're firing blanks thereafter.

doodah  10/30/2010 07:46 PM Report

charles, no, it is not a doodah parade. But after this Tuesday, it will officially become a 'burp baby Boehner' parade. Enjoy. :)

charlizecourriers  10/30/2010 04:38 PM Report

How did it happen that the President of the United States can take this country to war but NOT even ask Congress for a tax specifically designed to pay for that war? How did it happen that the Congress can assent to an undeclared war and NOT create a tax to pay for that war. The rottenness in Washington,D.C. will soon be expunged. Academic pedants like GW don't even see it coming. I won't bother to describe CPR's collusive blindness...Post Script: This is Not a doodah parade and the previous comments are totally inappropriate.

doodah  10/30/2010 07:31 AM Report

charlizecourier Per-Fume', What is so fuckin god-dam foreign about a 'public-option'?. I'll tell you what, because it keeps the money from the 'LobbyistBloodSuckerPigs' and their chums, the 'InsuranceSnakeOilGoons' and their chums, 'Boehner-Brain and his band of derelicts'!! and keeps the money in the hands of the real conservative hard working people (at least give them a fighting chance). Fortunately for, 'Boehner-brain', those same hard working conservative people got snookered by that SOCIALIST BULLSHIT TALK! .. and now they'll be getting even more poorer with crap in return. While the rich and upper-upplys (which consists of majority of 'InsuranceSnakeOilGoons') will maintain their state of the art healthcare at lower costs (to them) at the expense of the struggling middle-class (which will be sinking further down). Boehner-brain thinks it's ok to shit on Americans as long as they're not rich AND share it with him. How the fuck did THAT turn in to being 'conservative'?!

JohnGelles  10/30/2010 04:45 AM Report

charlizecouriers opines ~

"... he [the President] is a poorly educated lawyer, or to put it another way, by wasting three years in law school, he insured he would be poorly educated. Now [we] all have our regrets."

John Gelles (me) offers the end of the interview to test why some viewers may have regrets. Gelles admires the President's education and his performance so far as Commander-in-chief. My regret is the President did not forcefully present the Congress and the voters with a plan for immediate recovery based on tax-free and debt-free spending, money from the Federal Reserve provides:

===== begin Rose and Wills =====

CHARLIE ROSE: But you met with him, you had dinner with him, you were among the historians who met with him.

GARRY WILLS: Only once, he said it was going to be a continuing thing, but he never did it again.

CHARLIE ROSE: Did you walk away from it impressed?

GARRY WILLS: I was not sure. He had nine historians who’ve written about presidents. And he asked us for advice. And some of us said "Don’t go back to Afghanistan. It will be your Vietnam." And he said "oh, I’m not naive, I know the difficulties, I’ll take care of that." But he didn’t. And now it is going to be his Vietnam. We’re never getting out of there. The NATO people are now saying 2014. He put in Petraeus who’s going

to be un-replaceable. And it is not going to stop he got snookered by the military as he did by the Wall Street people."

CHARLIE ROSE: He seems to me someone who is both ambitious, practical, intellectually arrogant about what he knows. He knows he knows your argument about Afghanistan --

GARRY WILLS: That’s well put. That’s exactly what his reaction was. -- "I know all the objections."

===== end Rose and Wills =====

Well there you have it. I say the President was not snookered. He is facing up to the wars, albeit without the mobilization of our economy they demand. My regret is the unemployment he has tolerated that the severity of our situation gave him the power to prevent. At least that is my opinion based on comparing today to Pearl Harbor--which I do and many other Americans do not.

After Pearl Harbor America rose to its finest hours. After the current challenge to our economy will we rise to our maximum stature and efforts or decline -- as Asia becomes the arsenal of its own capitalist variations for production of manufactured goods?

The President has warned that weak production nations do not long lead other nations on the path to future progress in science or the humanities. He warned us. But did he take his own warning and measure up to Washington and Lincoln?

charlizecourriers  10/29/2010 03:25 PM Report

The health care was written in Greek-which is why it's a failure. But even Gary can't translate it. In my experience teaching lower class blacks and whites, the blacks when asked a question they don't know the answer to, ALWAYS pretended to know the answer and made up answers. The Whites always played possum and pretended to have No idea what the answer might be. Obama fits the mold. In addition, he is a poorly educated lawyer, or to put it another way, by wasting three years in law school, he insured he would be poorly educated. Now all have our regrets.

3242901

JohnGelles  10/28/2010 05:25 PM Report

OK CR. Over time you might want to make your archive of wisdom on the issues the product of professionals in many fields -- with smaller and smaller input from fresh and innocent eyes.

You could do this IF REVENUE flowed from the project or to it.

Either way, these discussions are lousy compared to what your archive could stimulate. Wake up before your dead.

Murrow, Cronkite, the moguls who owned CBS, NBC, CNN and managed CSPAN will leave heaps of stuff worth mining -- maybe.

Contemporary popular wisdom is not anyone's plate more than it is on yours.

JohnGelles  10/28/2010 05:13 PM Report

I still say the CR archives can be made a more effective treasure if volunteers attempt a mini Wikipedia confined to the subjects within the archive. Because of the times we are experiencing, these subjects cover almost all popular issues worth studying. If such volunteers were organized and edited by one brain or a tiny staff, they might even serve to make sure CR show covers even more critical issues than ever.

There's more than current income Charlie. There's you legacy to consider. Jimmy Wales is leaving a legacy more better every day. CR could do too. By focusing on the issues, CR could make a difference, Wales will never make. Although Wikipedia gets better it also gets too big. And it avoids current needs by offering fact ahead of policy. CR might not be alone, if he chose to be the best source of relevant wisdom on the planet. But he might be more than he is. I do not know a better place to grow an issues Wiki. Charlie-- DO YOU ?

JohnGelles  10/28/2010 04:53 PM Report

The one-two combination of Wills and Chernow made for the best evening with Charlie Rose anyone was ever offered in 30 years of TV talk.

Wills is a winner on every score. He has a brain, heart and soul where every leader needs one. He may not be a political leader, but he is the intellectual leader of this nation and its allies who has no peer with greater expressed talent on sale in every book store and for free in every library.

His personal anecdotes last night offered enough meat for any listener to become a better person and make this a better world. Specifically, we need his respect for practical improvement in health services and practical appreciation of Richard Nixon to spread among our fellow Americans NOW. I'm not sure just how easy and affordable are his many books at the moment. But one day I would like to listen to them -- as I am a little to old to read as much as I should. When I read Nixon Agonistes I was in the same heaven I entered while reading Barbara Tuchman, C P Snow, Nikos Kazantzakis, Isaac Singer, and many others. In a lifetime of reading less than 1 percent of what I should have read, Wills was still a God Send, to whom I will forever be in debt.

Ron Chernow was the most effective TV speaker I believe I have ever heard. He had every right word on the tip of his tongue. I hope I read or listen to his Washington before too long. I own his biographies published over many years but have not read all I own. They were beautifully written and I have Hamilton on a set of CD's. But too often my head is filled with money-crankism and my time is spent inside it.

I need a pill to force me to read more of Wills and Chernow. Until then I embrace CR for an hour of pure wisdom -- heard twice now from TV and its recorder.

doodah  10/28/2010 11:30 AM Report

I agree COMPLETELY with his historical assessment of the recent 'healthcare-debate'. . Impressive. Especially since it was another smoke-screen game played by the $$LobbyistPigBloodSuckers$$ (both repugnantcants AND demogogcrats). In the spirit of "doing something" (thank you nancy pelosi okie-dokie), accomplished absolutely NOTHING. EXCEPT, for MORE confusion to rob the people blind (thank you whatever boehner-brain). The next Speaker?. Oh WONDER-FOOL!!! .. the answer to all my prayers

..What's the good professor's thoughts on burning down the Capitol?.

REMant  10/28/2010 11:01 AM Report

As I've written here before, and leaving the president out of it, there's nearly nothing I agree with Wills on except reading the Greeks and Romans, and other "primary" sources. He insists on sentimentalizing and Catholicizing everything. I don't think of him as much of an outsider, either.