Posted on 10/22/2012 10:30:02 PM PDT by Qbert
(CNN) - Perhaps it only makes sense that a candidate who prepared for a presidential debate near Colonial Williamsburg would choose to slam Mitt Romney's plan for more Navy ships by using the phrase "horses and bayonets."
President Barack Obama's quip - meant to make the point that modern warfare doesn't require the type of equipment it did in the past - appeared part of a larger strategy of casting his opponent as stuck in a time warp on important issues. And Republicans, seeing an opening, are making sure shipbuilders just down the road from President Barack Obama's Virginia prep location are aware of the president's suggestion their industry is a thing of the past.
Obama made the jab Monday at his final debate with Mitt Romney.
"You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916," Obama said in a pointed jab at the GOP nominee. "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military's changed."
He continued, "We had these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. So the question is not a game of battleship where we're counting ships. It's 'What are our capabilities?'"
That was in response to an allegation from Romney that "our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917."
"The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission," the Republican candidate continued. "We're now at under 285. We're headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That's unacceptable to me."
[Snip]
Yet Republicans say Obama's lumping together of Navy ships with "horses and bayonets" could harm him in the key battleground of Virginia, where some of the Navy's largest shipbuilding...
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
No one knows what China is doing.
These people are unaware of China’s aggression.
If you said, “Look... China and Japan are having issues...” they would say, “huh?”
He is also the same fool who said “corpse-man”.
He is also the same fool who said “corpse-man”.
The maritime environment also permits freedom of action unfettered by international boundaries and agreements.
However, the stacked Iranian threats in our AOR of ballistic missiles, long range rockets, mines, small boats, cruise missiles and submarines demand stronger naval presence and capability to protect vital sea lines of communication.
I view with concern efforts to decrease our naval presence and capability when our volatile AOR and the threats of the future are increasingly maritime.
Demands on our naval forces will only grow in the future; I anticipate that we will need more maritime missile defense, anti-fast attack craft capabilities, amphibious ships and mine-countermeasure capability, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets.
Maintaining a credible naval force covered by sufficient aviation combat power is essential for demonstrating our enduring commitment to regional partners, building trust and relationships and rapid projection of power in a crisis.
We are working to address our near-term capabilities and I am grateful for the Committee’s strong support.
http://www.centcom.mil/en/about-centcom/posture-statement/
What a childish embarrassment.
That's what my husband and I said when we heard it.
Are the libs claiming Obama won the debate because of this stupid "zinger"??
They summarize the three debates with pictures of Big Bird, a binder, and a horseback soldier that looks like Pacho Villa holding a short sword (I guess they figure it’s bayonet-ish enough)
ROTFL!
Thanks.
These guys are smug and arrogant, no one is as smart as they are!
“Hey, you shipbuilders. You didn’t build that. And even if you did,
we don’t need 300 of ‘em. 200 is just fine, we got these modern gadgets that go ping, called submarines. Yeah. They’re full of brave corpse-men. “
Obama thinks he’s Napoleon. Or Louis XIV. He had a goofy line tonight,
“The nation. I. We...”
um: aren’t submarines called boats, not ships?
I think that most people on this forum would have prefered that Romney be more aggressive in his approach to this final debate. If he had zinged Obama in the lawyerly manner that Obama zinged him we’d all be standing and cheering this morning. But Romney’s brain trust thinks that the undecided voters don’t go for bare knuckle brawling so he pulled his punches. Either that or they think this election is already in the bag.
By buying more horses and bayonets to fight them when they get ashore here.
I don't think Obama understands why we have ships.
“We had these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”
That line really pizzed me off in its childish smugness and idiocy. Obama is such a military expert he doesn’t even know how to pronounce “corpsman”. Nasty little POS.
It should have disqualified Zero in the mind of anyone that has a mind - he has no grasp of the strategic and tactical value of a modern Navy in today's world. Unlike horses and bayonets, we don't have anything that can replace our Navy. I guess it's fitting that the Left thinks it was brilliant because I thought it was Zero's most stupid comment of the night.
Obama thinks that a naval destroyer is a hoola hoop with a nail in it.
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