Obama gets it. Lets remember that the Bayh et al are a millstone around the Democrats necks.

Conservatives in Canada would be Centrists in America, if not Blue Dogs. The New Democratic Party would be progressives, and the Liberals would be between the Conservative centrists and the NDP progressives.

Basically Canada's politics all fit within the Left of American politics. And the Conservatives only win because they are the only party on the "right" whereas there is four parties that split up the "Left" vote - the Liberals, The NDP, the Greens and the Bloc Quebecois.

Don't let Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "moderate" statements on a TV interview fool you -- he is conservative, even a real right winger, in many profound ways. Canadians have learned that he adept at wrapping his views in acceptable words, his views softened by his gentle "turtleneck" and "sweater vest" style.

Harper is forced to moderate his statements/actions because of the realities of Canadian politics - his Conservative Party is in power with less than 40% of the vote only because the opposition is split between 3 parties on the left (the moderate Liberals, the social democratic New Democrats, and the Quebec based Bloc Quebecois - as well as the Greens, who are a factor in some parts of the country.) Because Harper's Conservatives do not have a majority in Parliament, he must get support from at least one of the other parties to avoid getting kicked out of office (or at least facing a new election).

If you want to get a real sense of Harper's politics, you need to look at his history. Harper was a founding member of the Alberta based "Reform Party" - at a time when the right wing populist party was at the right fringe of Canadian politics, and was elected as a Reform Party member of Parliament in 1993. Reform used western Canadian resentment of "eastern elites", anti-Quebec feeling, social conservatism and religious fundamentalism to become the dominate party in the Canadian prairie provinces and parts of British Columbia, but they were viewed as too extreme to win elections in eastern Canada and urban Canada.

He spent several years out of politics as head of the right wing National Citizen's Council think tank. He returned to Parliament in 2002 as leader of the "Canadian Alliance" party (a reinvented version of the Reform Party designed to have more national appeal). As Canadian Alliance leader, he engineered a takeover/merger with the more moderate "Progressive Conservative" party, consolidating the right/centre-right vote and opening the way to his eventual ouster of the scandal-plagued Liberal government in 2006.

To get a real sense of Harper's right wing views, here are a few "greatest hits" quotes from Harper:

- In 1997 he attacked the Canadian press as "monolithically liberal and feminist"

- Also in 1997 he gave a speech to an American conservative group in which he proclaimed: "Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term..."

- After former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's death in 2000, Harper wrote a controversial article attacking Trudeau, including accusing him of promoting "unabashed socialism" and "state corporatism." His assessment of Trudeau (truly a transitional politician in Canadian history) was that he "embraced the fashionable causes of his time, with variable enthusiasm and differing results", but "took a pass" on the issues that "truly defined his century"

- In 2000 he wrote that Canada "appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country [...] led by a second-world strongman appropriately suited for the task"

- Like American right wingers, he has argued for private school vouchers to attack public education and teachers, in 2001 that it would "save about $7,000 for each student who does not attend a union-run public school"

- In 2002 he described his political support as "similar to what George Bush tapped"

- After becoming leader of the opposition in 2002, he attacked the poverty-riddled Atlantic provinces desire for federal government monies as part of "a culture of defeat" and that much of Canada shared the same "can't-do" attitude.

- In 2003 he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling the Canadian government's decision not to participate Bush's Iraq invasion "a serious mistake" and presumed to apologize to Americans on behalf of Canadians for the actions of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Stephen Harper has also to use opposition to gay marriage as a divisive social issue to mobilize social conservatives when the Canadian provinces and courts were moving forward with it -- at one point arguing that the government should use extraordinary constitutional powers ("the notwithstanding clause") to override marriage as it was being legalized. (Once in office, he orchestrated a vote in Parliament on a proposal to abolish marriage equality - a vote he knew he would lose but would satisfy the right wing.)

Sorry to have gone on at such length, but it is important that Americans progressives not fall for the myth of Stephen Harper's alleged moderation. While the realities of Canadian politics prevent him from completely implementing his free-market, privatization, tax-cutting, social conservative viewpoints, he would be extremely comfortable in the Republican party of George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Eric Cantor and their ilk.

You are mixing two quotes. That's not fair to gates. The second quote was in response to whether we were going to shoot it down at launch. The first quote was if the missle was heading to hawaii that they would shoot it down. Also, he pointed out that that was the extent of the range of the missle, maybe. It might not even get close. His responses were rational and not warmongering by any means.

Also, I thought it was telling that he did not take the bait to claim that the "surge" was a success. He refused to say that and that was very, very telling, because the surge had nothing to do with the violence issue and he knows it. Everyone with a brain knows it. That's why the fools on the "right" keep wanting to push the stupid claim that it was a success, because it wasn't.

All these wars are obama's wars as of January 20. It's annoying when the stupid media tries to say that there is some point when it becomes his war. He is responsible as of January 20. End of story.

Actually now I know why you were mixing up the two quotes. TPM mixed them up improperly, not you. Those two quotes juxtaposed like that give a false impressing about what Gates was saying. That's not right.

This is the problem with petraeus:

In 2003, Petraeus, then a Major General, saw combat for the first time when he commanded the 101st Airborne Division during V Corps's drive to Baghdad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus

He is the darth vader/king of army generals. He's never been in the front lines in combat with his troops commanding a squad or company. His first taste of combat was as a general? Give me a break. He is more of a politician than a general. I hope obama cashiers him in short order or sends him to run West Point. He is more suited for that type of detail, than commanding troops in combat.