If I may be allowed a Political Observation about Snowdenmania and Obama...

[cthulu2016]

If a guy with a bogus resume walked in off the street and two months later had a bunch of classified NSA intel, and split the country and nobody would help us get him back, and I wanted the current administration to suffer the minimum of disapproval from the whole affair...

I WOULD NOT TALK 24/7 ABOUT HOW THIS WAS THE MOST DAMAGING EVENT IN US HISTORY AND WILL GET US ALL KILLED.

See... in a thing called politics there is actually not an upside to, "We are really slip-shod in how we handle intel, and as a result everyone will die."

It is rather a DUMB approach. (Kind of like saying a non-scandal of some IRS people generally trying to do their jobs, but taking a dubious short cut, is heinous and deplorable and worse than flying monster heads and has no place in America.)


There is some unpopularity attached to revelations of NSA domestic surveillance. True.

But how will saying the leaker is Fu Manchu cause anyone, anywhere, who is upset about the NSA (whether properly upset or not) to stop being upset about the NSA because Snowden is a very bad terrible no-good guy???

"Turns out this Snowden guy is a shitty boyfriend. I conclude from that datum that the NSA does not listen to my phone-calls."

Nobody. Thinks. Like. That.

The people are dumb, but they are not that dumb. There's no line of argument that goes from "Snowden is a traitor" to "the NSA doesn't listen to your calls."

That's like people concluding that the Rosenbergs were so evil that the atomic bomb probably doesn't work.

The reason people believe that the NSA has a camera in their shower is because we have acted like whatever it was Snowden found out about, it is the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD, and thus the whole government must go ape-shit over the incredible damage done.

Judging from the reaction, the average Joe could readily conclude that Snowden got onto something too ginormous to contemplate. (Something much larger than he did get onto.)

Seriously... how does it protect the President to claim Snowden was a Chinese spy (as some claim without basis) who we hired to handle our biggest secrets??? What is the political upside in that?

Geezus! Never has a PR campaign been more counter-productive.

The line should be, "Snowden must be prosecuted because we take secrets seriously, but everything he exposed was already widely known. An unfortunate story, of course, but not so big a deal."

Again, no political upside to lurid tales of how endangered we are. And no greater public acceptence of NSA activities based on how evil Snowden is.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. "Chinese spy"? Based upon exactly which facts? Opinions will be rejected; facts only please.

[cthulu2016]

3. You may have mistaken the thrust of the OP

As I said, the Chinese spy thing (as a for instance) is both a fantasy AND not in the least bit politically helpful even if it was true. And it is typically offered by someone who thinks they are rallying to the president's defense.

It is a senseless approach.

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. B'oh. Sorry and thanks. n/t

[kenny blankenship]

6. Whattaya talkin bout? He's as Chinese as Fu Manchu!

[Downwinder]

2. Throw a lot of mud and some might stick.

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. The administration is being exposed on many fronts.

I wish they were smarter. I can't think of one way in which they are looking competent in this whole mess.

[Narkos]

7. I tend to agree, but the dude underestimated the situation

[dtom67]

8. seems to me ....

That these are tactics to counter-act the claim that Snowdon is a hero. If he is a spy, then he is guilty of treason. If he is a whistleblower, then he is not. They seek to imply damage to national security, to make the "traitor" label stick.
And, while the public may not be TOTALLY stupid, repetition in the MSM does tend to heavily influence public opinion.

[grasswire]

9. absolutely right

There apparently isn't a political strategist in the WH these days.

Tweety was wondering the other day why it took the WH to disseminate the info that the IRS had also searched applications for "progressive" and other lefty terms. He's very frustrated by the apparent lack of strategy for dealing with this kind of stuff.

If TPTB had been dismissive of Snowden instead of giving him power by attacking him, their cause would have been aided significantly.