newsobserver.com projects - Cunningham wins Army award - Comments

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:48:10 -0400

I'm shutting down comments. This post has gotten a little unnecessarily ugly.

— RTB

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

cdtew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:40:55 -0400

Well, circumstantially, Cunningham has presented no policy platform. All we know is his fine military service record, as well as his sparse GA record, and you insist he's worth electing. Q.E.D....

You don't like me because I actually call you out on legitimate weaknesses in your arguments.

Again, I repeat that I take offense at your use of concealed profanity.

RTB, surely there's a code of conduct for commenters here at ol' NandO.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

Gosh — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:34:36 -0400

We didn't attack him, we praised him. We attacked you for deciding that sole thing was qualification enough to be elected Senator.

Please show me where I said that. If you want in my head cdtew, you need a lot more degrees and much more life experience.

Again, FU. It's not meant to be cutesy. You show up and attack, attack, attack, only when the mouth breathers of your party that actually post daily fall short. Then claim victim status like clockwork.

F.U.

And the horse you rode in on.

You actually know better.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

cdtew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:17:26 -0400

We didn't attack him, we praised him. We attacked you for deciding that sole thing was qualification enough to be elected Senator.

You should be censured for use of profanity on this board. We all know what your cutesy acronym means. Add to my list of prerequisites for readers being forced to suffer through any more of your remarks that you "begin to learn how a gentleman engages in discourse in a public forum."

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

Gosh — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:07:17 -0400

I appreciate Gosh, that you really aren't willing to have a real or intellectual discussion about any of these issues...

The man won a damn military award, then GrayJ, then Kingixolib, then you attacked him for it.

FU.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

cdtew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:52:37 -0400

To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, I do not think "non-sequitur" means what you think it means. I'm not saying Cunningham wouldn't be a challenger. His record and biography are tough -- all I'm saying is that service in the military and the receipt of an award do not a good statesman make. In fact, many bad statesmen have been made out of similar backgrounds and molds.

I appreciate Gosh, that you really aren't willing to have a real or intellectual discussion about any of these issues, either on a Micro- or macrocosmic scale. But, maybe when you stop being a troll, read some Plutarch (or hell, even Wikipedia), and man up enough to come here with real non-childish arguments, you can go back to your day job and try to be productive; God knows you're not being productive here.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

Gosh — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:47:06 -0400

Reality sucks for your ilk. Burr will have a challenger cdtew. I just hope it's the one you praised in spite of your anti-military service non-sequiturs to the contrary.

Submitted by cdtew on June 11, 2009 - 1:59pm.

I appreciated Sen. Cunningham's service to this country; what he did helped make things a little better in Iraq, and for that we owe him.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

cdtew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:34:29 -0400

Bush and Cheney...and Barack and Bill...and Abraham and John (Adams). Yeah, that's the gist.

How'd Nixon and Lyndon Johnson work out?

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

Gosh — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:59:43 -0400

The Thing is an impressive automobile.

Yes, it is. At least as far as fascism goes.

So you were saying, don't like Cunningham because he was in the military and won awards and stuff? Is that the issue?

Seems like I heard that already from Bush and Cheney. How'd that work out?

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

cdtew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:52:18 -0400

Good way to focus on the issues, Gosh. The Thing is an impressive automobile.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

Gosh — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:45:21 -0400

Just saying, Burr drives a 1974 Volkswagen Thing.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

cdtew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:04:51 -0400

As an addendum, we should recall that the person who may have performed the most valuable wartime service in the 20th century was Herbert Hoover, who, at the outbreak of World War I oversaw the evacuation of more than 120,000 Americans from Europe, and who throughout the war, in humanitarian efforts in Belgium, London, Bolshevik Russia and post-war Germany brought food and medical supplies to Europe for the most part without any governmental assistance (from any government) whatsoever.

Surely you don't think that's worthy of more than passing praise.

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

cdtew — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:59:53 -0400

I appreciated Sen. Cunningham's service to this country; what he did helped make things a little better in Iraq, and for that we owe him.

But, Gosh, he's not even enunciated any clear policy. Nixon won two bronze stars, Lyndon Johnson was awarded a silver star, and George H.W. Bush won a Distinguished Flying Cross. I don't see your hagiography of any of those fellows, and I doubt you'd think their military service made them automatically good political candidates.

Meanwhile, your buddy Barack Obama, along with Abraham Lincoln (who was elected for a short time as officer of a militia, with no combat exposure), Bill Clinton and John Adams never saw military service. Yet, while I can agree on Lincoln and Adams' importance, I'm sure you think the world of Clinton and Obama.

Cunningham should be praised for what he's done, but military service should never entitle a person to an election. Military service is just as important as people who work in other jobs, such as community organizers, teachers, or yes, even lawnmower salesmen.

This is what separates us, as a modern democracy, from say, the Roman Republic, where leaders were elected based on military achievements; let's recall that the election of leaders on military prowess in that circumstance was an actual example of US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson's "suicide pact".

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

Kingixolib — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:48:18 -0400

He he...an award for being an attorney in the military overseeing 27 other attorneys.

I'll bet his tour was pure hell!

Re: Cunningham wins Army award

GrayJ — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:47:24 -0400

Congratulations to Cunningham for his award and thanks for his service.

But I was just proposing a question. I guess Cal is a strong supporter of school vouchers right? Or should only the wealthy who live in crappy school districts like himself be entitled to suitable education? Nice try at trying to compare private high schools to private colleges. That is like comparing apples and oranges.

Cunningham wins Army award

bkrueger — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:48:40 -0400

Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, a potential Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, has received a top U.S. Army award.

Cunningham was one of 28 officers to receive the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award from Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey.

Only two other attorneys have been selected for the award. Cunningham served in Iraq as the senior counsel in the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate from December 2007 until November 2008. He oversaw 27 attorneys.

A captain and paratrooper in the Army Reserves, Cunningham received a 15 pound bronze bust of McArthur at a ceremony last month in Washington.

Cunningham, 35, an attorney with Kilpatrick Stockton in Winston-Salem, has been moving around the state, trying to measure interest in his running against Republican Sen. Richard Burr next year.

Other Democrats either considering the race or being courted include Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and former state Treasurer Richard Moore.