A clear rule set for the comments

As I expect Obama to win and thus we'll be debating his choices and ideas for at least four years, let me be clear about what I consider acceptable comments regarding him.

Any links to smears or jackass comparisons to the rise of Adolph Hitler (a recent low point offered by a new commenter) won't be tolerated. I know there's a lot of people out there who consider all that stuff free speech.

I just don't want any of them in my virtual living room.

I realize there are a number of you out there who have only known me under a GOP president. If you sense the shift is going to be too much, better to leave now and avoid being asked to leave, which is always uncomfortable for the recipient (Sean and I got used to it a long time ago). Everybody's got their needs, but when the market shifts, sometimes you just have to seek out a new supplier.

As I have told some over-the-top readers in the past, there is crazy in your own house and then there's crazy on my front lawn.

I don't have to deal with the former.

I won't put up with the latter.

Comments

[J. Fulmer]

I nominate Dr. Barnett for SecDef.

[Lexington Green]

The hysteria will be peaking as we get closer to election day.

I stopped blogging until after the election because I realized I was becoming hysterical and adding no value to the discussion.

We need to ride out these quadrennial bouts of madness. As nutty as this one has been, elections across much of our history were much more about sectional and ethnic identity, and took on all kinds of extreme manifestations. It is good to remember that these blogospheric tempests in a teapot are nothing compared to the vicious personal slanders, torchlight parades, whisky barrel vote gathering and blatant electioneering and vote fraud of yesteryear. Democracy was a much more robust, outdoor sport than it is now, with more actual violence around the edges. As hard as it is to believe, we are a lot more civil now.

[Jon D'Angelo]

Let Gates keep his job. I nominate Dr. Barnett for National Security Adviser and interim Secretary of Everything Else.

[Shawn in Tokyo]

Although I don't support Senator Obama, I wholeheartedly agree with your approach to this matter.

[Andy]

Free Speech rights are only guaranteed against government infringement thereof. This blog would be considered private property, and as such, rule it as you see fit.

Keep Gates. He's doing a pretty decent job given the leadership on top of him, and I think he'd continue to do well. Barnett is not a person for a Cabinet position. Better off (for all of us, as I don't think Tom digs hells that come with being Secretary of X) with an office down the hallfrom that oval one with a sign that says Thinker About Things.

Or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Andy: exactly right. furthermore, there are millions of other weblogs to comment on, or people can get their own. go nuts. accusations of censorship or complaints about free speech in this regard fall on deaf ears.

[dan Hare]

I'm glad for the 'civil discourse' here.Glad for the Barnett Weblog "ruleset".

[Dirk]

I'm with Jon on this one. I'd go ... Dr Barnett, National Security Adviser; Samantha Power, Ambassador to the UN; & Susan Rice Secretary of State [gods help us if we have to live through another boomer NSC].

I have a feeling Wes Clark is going to wind up in the sec def spot, but I'm not sure he should?

[Dan]

I won't compare either candidate to Hitler, but I will note that some of the followers of both candidates are so over the top in their adoration of their candidate as to scare the hell out of me. Too much devotion to a candidate is never a good thing for democracy and unity and there has been far too much of that by both sides this year. Far too much. Bad news everyone, but neither is the messiah.

[farhad]

there are always theories(ideas) to the right and left of what is yours.I think the best way for you tto validate yours,is to test it with analaizing thiers,and let them do the same.unless you want huras and right on all the time.

[Jarrod Myrick]

It sounds like Gates will be willing to stay on for another year. I wonder where Fallon could be plugged in.

[Anonymous]

farhad: right in concept, but not that simple. there isn't time for infinite dialogue with outliers. plus, as Tom has often said he briefs in the real world all the time where people have a lot more skin in the game. his ideas are validated there, primarily, and not by the blogosphere.

JM: wonder if that could work, since Gates fired him/accepted his resignation. plus, i haven't been crazy about Fallon's spin after he left...

[Tom Barnett]

As I demonstrated soon after this post, we are all susceptible to nasty tones as the election draws near.

But just to make things clear: I'm not gearing up for a position in the Obama administration. People need to understand that that sort of quest takes a career (and a person) totally addicted to such a goal, meaning they organize their entire lives and careers around achieving that goal. I know exactly what that entails, and I've simply chosen another route.

In reality, I target the next administration in terms of having my career where i need it to be such that I can do time (at low pay) inside the government. I'll be 54 in 2016. That seems more appropriate than where I am now and what I can accomplish in my current path.

[Jarrod Myrick]

I was thinking more like doEE than under Gates--you're right, too weird there. On your second point, I can't imagine a more precarious situation to have to spin. All I know is Fallon gets it, most don't.

[Lexington Green]

"54 in 2016"

Good to hear. Better to make Enterra a raging success, plus promoting change within the military and government. Steady as she goes.

[Sean Meade]

Fallon gets it: very good point, JM

[david]

I never thought you were a Republican or a Democrat or any political party member. I read all your books and I just think you have reached the highest evolution of man: most logical mind I have ever encountered in my 70 years of living and traveling throughout the world many times. The final and the highest form of life is reasoning and you are one of few in this neurotic world.

[Tom Barnett]

David,

I am marginally a Democrat in the same way that I'm marginally an extrovert, meaning I can do it for short bursts and then need to retreat a bit and conserve.