Comments on: Obama picks Blair as intel chief

By: squidly

squidly — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:37:35 +0000

Cool! My first CO – USS Cochrane DDG 21. I was there when he tried to water ski. It was a great time. That ship did about 22 knots max and probably put out a 10 ft rooster tail along with a 5 to 6 ft curling wake. He started in the Captain’s Gig then tried to transfer to rope behind the destroyer. Reagan’s Navy – Ah…good times!

He is a good man, very smart, fluent in Russian. Now I know we will have a good eye on all Russian activity.

Congrats Adm Blair!

By: Subsunk

Subsunk — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:26:24 +0000

At least the ADM has a good sense of humor. I’m sure the crew got almost as big a thrill out of the waterskiing as the crew and Captain of a certain submarine did when they allowed Cat Futch (a stripper) to do a few wiggles on the fairwater planes as they returned from deployment. I’m sure the Navy would hate me bringing that subject up, but the skipper was a fine leader and turned out to be an excellent Commander of Nuclear Power School later in life. (We called him Darth Vader because his spoken word carried so much power. He was a funny guy and an impressive individual anyway.)

I’m sure there is little to complain about with ADM Blair as a nominee for this job. You can find sailors and military types who will disagree with any choice. This is as good as any we can expect.

Subsunk

By: SeniorD

SeniorD — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:06:12 +0000

ADM Blair may be qualified, but what is his Intel specialty? How is he going to advise a President who focuses upon creating the Socialist Nirvana here in the US and is clueless about international geopolitics?

Will the Left howl? You betchum Red Rider! ADM Blair represents ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ so the Pink Triangle Posse will be out in force.

By: rcl

rcl — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:37:33 +0000

Blair certainly seems well qualified. The conflict of interest report shouldn't be much of a problem. I have a friend who's been working on DOD projects in Sunnyvale (Lockheed Martin) for a couple decades. Boeing, Lockheed and Northrup all maintain symbiotic relationships with important military officers. They walk a very fine line between ethical and improper relationships. There's quite a difference though between the Boeing scandals regarding leases and contracts that brought down officers and Blair confirming the proven quality of the Lockheed Raptor (video). He probably stepped over that line but his position was correct and honorable. His penance of passing all the cash to the Yellow Ribbon Fund was certainly a good move. No harm, no foul.

By: American_Jihadist

American_Jihadist — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:49:21 +0000

Before you make complete judgements, know that the final test performances of the YF-22 (Lockheed as lead design) and the YF-23 (Northrop as lead design) were evaluated by the AIR FORCE and were strongly in favor of the YF-22 which became the F-22 Raptor. If the Admiral had favored the YF-23 instead, I’m quite sure the Air Force would have told him to piss off based on performance evaluations alone.

This Admiral really did not decide the outcome of the trials. The Raptor is truly the first NEW air superiority fighter for the US in the last 30 years. Hell, the YF-23 would have been a quantam leap for the US over the F-15, but the -22 was better. See History Channel’s “Heavy Metal” show on the Raptor for some brief insight.

Where this Admiral crossed the line was being on the board of directors of a potential government subcontractor while he was STILL IN UNIFORM. Ethics violation, marginally yes. Enough to get him canned, no. He’s an Admiral. They enjoy certain protections.

My question is…WHY was he on the BOARD of a corporation that was a DOD subcontractor (or had potential to be) while he was STILL IN UNIFORM? They make enough frickin money as Admirals! Paid for by YOU!

I’m not ready to hang him Quite yet, but damn…running a GOVERNMENT think tank that selects the coroporation to build the best fighter America has EVER developed (oh, and being on the BOARD of one of the subcontractors)…it really smells of foul play.

I very much doubt he will serve any penance for it, though. “His” (and Lockheed’s) product (the YF-22) was found superior to Northrop’s design in pretty much every category as evaluated by the Air Force observers and Air Force Pilots.

This man will get whitewashed and then be heralded as the champion of the American air superiority fighter of the next generation. That’s really sad, because a seemingly corrupt individual was remotely invloved with the building of the airplane I love the best. The Raptor. Try to beat her!

By: Hot Air » Blog Archive » Obama picks Blair as intel chief | Sip Form - My Friendly Blog

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:16:10 +0000

[...] picks Blair as intel chief. .. Go here to see the original: Hot Air » Blog Archive » Obama picks Blair as intel chief [...]

By: Breaking: PEBO picks Blair for Top Intel Post… « Moderate in the Middle

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:04:59 +0000

[...] HotAir has the breakdown of ret. Admiral Dennis Blair’s purported conflict of interest on the F-22 raptor while he sat on the board of a subcontractor involved in the project and the think tank that recommended it to DoD..(those comments suggest the raptor pretty kick axx ) [...]

By: HotAirJosef

HotAirJosef — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:29:48 +0000

At first, I thought he picked the wrong Blair and should have hired Tony.
Now that I know this guy has the same fighting spirit, good pick.
Way-to-go-Obamccain!

By: MB4

MB4 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:14:49 +0000

Hence that a politician is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
- Sun Tzu

By: ex-Democrat

ex-Democrat — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:16:30 +0000

Most left-wing president in history? I certainly don’t see it.

hicsuget on December 18, 2008 at 5:52 PM

Either that or a liar. Take your pick.

I’d say both.

Let’s roll.

By: Obama names Director of National Intelligence « Weaponized Culture

Obama names Director of National Intelligence « Weaponized Culture — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:42:47 +0000

[...] item on the US Naval Institute Blog, which links to commentary on the pick at The Huffington Post, Hot Air, and The New York Times. The New York Times has my favorite tidbit by far: Is otherwise known for: [...]

By: Texas Gal

Texas Gal — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:18:52 +0000

Krauthammer may have hit it on the head; Obama doesn’t give a whit about foreign policy beyond the need to keep the world from blowing up on his watch. His interest is in making America a Socialist nation and the rest hold little if any interest for him.

johnsteele on December 18, 2008 at 6:12 PM

Exactly correct. It’s demonstrated by his choices. And I do think that it was the national security briefings that Obama became privy to that caused this direction. I could hear the “oh Sh!t!” all the way down here.

By: Kaptain Amerika

Kaptain Amerika — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:16:39 +0000

more of the same...

By: ButAsForMe! » Obama picks Blair as intel chief

ButAsForMe! » Obama picks Blair as intel chief — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:32 +0000

[...] Obama picks Blair as intel chief Quick Read: [...]

By: rob verdi

rob verdi — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:52:17 +0000

angryed
the goal of the left is domestic power, foreign affairs often gets in the way.

By: angryed

angryed — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:45:06 +0000

Krauthammer may have hit it on the head; Obama doesn’t give a whit about foreign policy beyond the need to keep the world from blowing up on his watch. His interest is in making America a Socialist nation and the rest hold little if any interest for him.

johnsteele on December 18, 2008 at 6:12 PM

Couldn’t agree more. It is annoying to see so many conservatives blind to what Obama truly means. I expect this kind of center-right garbage from Katie Couric, not from conservative bloggers.

By: Tony737

Tony737 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:44:26 +0000

He wrote a recommendation for the Pentagon to pursue the F-22 Raptor program.

This is good news, I saw something on CNN where they were saying the F-22 might find itself on the chopping block. some people think we don’t need it anymore ’cause the Taliban doesn’t have an air force. But CHINA does. RUSSIA does. We can’t fight the last war, we have to be ready for the next one.

By: christene

christene — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:41:57 +0000

Oh to be a fly on the wall at Code Pink-o headquarters!…: o )

By: Tony737

Tony737 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:41:10 +0000

he also tried to water ski behind a Navy destroyer

Ha! I like this guy already!

By: 44Magnum

44Magnum — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:38:41 +0000

As I’ve said before, BHO is running for his second term. That’s when things change radically.
Twitter: #AmendmentX

Amendment X on December 18, 2008 at 6:07 PM

Exactly. Dead on, gnats ass accurate.

By: nickj116

nickj116 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:27:31 +0000

Holy crap. Another good defense/homeland pick from Obama.

By: Bishop

Bishop — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:18:36 +0000

Wesley Clark wasn’t available?

By: innominatus

innominatus — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:15:00 +0000

AYNBLAND on December 18, 2008 at 6:02 PM

Yesssss! More Raptors, please!

We just may get lucky and end up with Bush’s Third Term.

By: Johan Klaus

Johan Klaus — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:12:49 +0000

I have got no dog in this hunt, but to my understanding even though the YF-23 was deemed to be a better pick than the F-22, the F-22 was picked because of Lockheed’s ability to deliver On budget.

By: johnsteele

johnsteele — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:12:34 +0000

Krauthammer may have hit it on the head; Obama doesn’t give a whit about foreign policy beyond the need to keep the world from blowing up on his watch. His interest is in making America a Socialist nation and the rest hold little if any interest for him.