# Has any conservative pundit ever said anything good about Obama? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 23, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808 "2009-10-23T01:42:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808/61 "2009-10-24T18:02:54Z")
I’m sorry to have had to be the one to have to tell you that missile shields don’t exist. Have you heard about Santa Clause? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808/62 "2009-10-24T19:05:23Z")
They developed a missile which can shoot down Santa? 😕 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808/63 "2009-10-24T23:41:14Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > [2001: Missile Defense Test a Success](http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-77049497.html) > > [2007: US carries out successful missile defense test](http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSWBT00766220070928) > [2008 - Patriot PAC-3 missile Defense Test Success](http://johnibii.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/missile-defense-pac-3-missile-test-success-with-key-ally/) > > [July 2009 - Israeli Missile Defense Test Success](http://www.israelsituation.com/2009/07/israeli-missile-defense-test-success/) > > [August 2009: U.S. Missile Defense Test Hailed as a Success](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1203370/Pictured-U-S-missile-defence-test-hailed-success-North-Korea-tensions-rise.html) > > 23 firings, 19 successes. This is the system that is being deployed in Eastern Europe, I believe. > > I could go on all day. There have been dozens of successful tests of various missile defense systems. I have no idea how you’ve avoided hearing about any of them. The recent test that shot down the satellite made all the papers. None of those “various missile defense systems” are capable of intercepting long range ballistic missiles. In fact, the Israeli system is for shooting down unguided artillery rockets. ICBMs carry countermeasures, and there is no system in place- or even a proposal- to defeat currently existing countermeasures. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808/64 "2009-10-24T23:44:47Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > This is the system that is being deployed in Eastern Europe, I believe. The US Navy is deploying destroyers on land in the middle of Europe now? > [@](#): > > I could go on all day. There have been dozens of successful tests of various missile defense systems. I have no idea how you’ve avoided hearing about any of them. The recent test that shot down the satellite made all the papers. Yes, you could. Remember that link to Nike Hercules I gave you? Hell, we’ve had a missile shield since 1960! > [@](#): > > The potential of the Improved Hercules was demonstrated on **June 3. 1960,** when a Nike Hercules missile scored a direct hit on a Corporal missile in the sky over White Sands. Beginning in June 1961, Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM) began phasing in Improved Hercules to selected batteries. The problem with considering this a successful missile defense test? It’s the same as the problem with all of the more recent 'successful ’ tests. From your own 2007 cite: > [@](#): > > U.S. critics say the missile defense tests prove little because they are highly scripted. An attacker would use decoys that would likely foil U.S. defenses, they say. > > **“Once again, there were no countermeasures or decoys used, making this test one of the simplest, easiest, flight intercept tests they’ve ever tried,”** Philip Coyle, the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester under former President Bill Clinton, said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters. Hitting one missile with another under ideal, scripted and contrived circumstances isn’t so impressive or remotely new, it was done 50 years ago. Now imagine that these tests were just as contrived but were live-fires: Russia -umm, I mean Iran, not Russia - announces 6 months in advance exactly where and exactly when it is going to fire missiles with nuclear warheads one at a time while making no effort at all to prevent them being intercepted. Shooting down 6 or 7 (depending on the counting) out of 10 ([your 2007 cite](http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSWBT00766220070928)) or 19 out of 23 ([your 2009 cite](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1203370/Pictured-U-S-missile-defence-test-hailed-success-North-Korea-tensions-rise.html)) suddenly doesn’t sound so much like a shield or a success. Only four out of ten cities went up in a mushroom cloud in latest successful test of Boeing’s missile shield! Even better news, the Navy’s system only missed 18% of the nuclear missiles! Now imagine what this missile shield will have to deal with in an actual war: thousands of Russian - um, I mean Iranian -MIRVed warheads arriving simultaneously without their flight plans being delivered 6 months in advance along with thousands of decoys and all the jamming and countermeasures the Russ- er, Iranians can conjure up. It’s been 25 years since Reagan dreamt of a shield to stop this attack, and with all of the money thrown at the problem, the best results have been 60-82% success in scripted tests. When each missile that leaks through the shield is a city being vaporized, even a 95% success rate when facing a full scale attack would be an unsuccessful missile shield, impossible engineering miracle though it would be. Sorry, but yes “when it comes to a straightforward engineering problem like missile defense, suddenly it’s flatly impossible, can never be solved, it’s a fool’s errand, progress will never be made, don’t even bother to try, it will never work.” ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808/65 "2009-10-25T13:24:20Z")
Well, when the liberal pundits say things like “when he spoke, a tingle ran up my leg” (Chris Matthews, during the presidential race - paraphrased, but close enough), the conservative pundits have a lot of tearing down to do. Seriously, a tingle running up your leg? Even if that’s true, please don’t admit it on the air… that is TMI, Chris! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808/66 "2009-10-25T16:54:10Z")
I think he was talking about an inspiring speaker, as opposed to Rich Lowry, who said starbursts went off when Palin winked at the audience. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-conservative-pundit-ever-said-anything-good-about-obama/514808.md?page=3)