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Comment by maxxxxx | Hacker News Reader

I think he did the right thing by offering a meeting with Kim Jon Un. And he was the only one able to do it. If Obama had done this the Republicans would have thrown a total fit.

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It's like that old Vulcan proverb "Only Nixon could go to China."

I like the original Klingon version: "Only Picard could go to Qo'noS."

As they have over the Iran deal.

Which he did, and they did.

>If Obama had done this the Republicans would have thrown a total fit.

Let's please not turn this thread into /r/politics

I think I stated an obvious fact.

That category of statement cannot be a fact; it's your opinion. It might be true, it might even be obviously true, but it's not a "fact".

What do you think would have happened if Obama had offered talks with North Korea?

That is not my point. My point is that statements that rely on judgement and include phrases like "I think..." or "you think..." have nothing to do with facts.

Consult a dictionary if confusion persists.

How about "based on my observation of politics over the last few years I believe that if Obama had offered talks with North Korea he would have faced strong opposition from Republican politician in Congress.". Better?

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/9/17100880/north-korea-republican...

Conservatives saying exactly what they did (condemn Obama) when he offered essentially the same thing as Trump has (with regard to talking with North Korea sans preconditions).

Fact, not opinion.

While I understand the sentiment behind your statement. I would have bet every penny I have that the republicans would have thrown a fit and I'd be retired at 36. It's about as safe a bet as the Sun rises in the east. But only because republicans pitched a fit about anything Obama had a hand in. It was predictability as constant as the Northern star.

Well naturally I agree with you. But words are important.

It's like if I state that The Beatles have, in total, more musical merit than Katy Perry. Well, that seems totally obvious too and one would be hard-pressed to find any sane adult who would disagree. Nonetheless it's not a "fact".

Maybe I'm being a pedant but these little things annoy me. Words have meanings, those meanings are important. Anyway, I made my point too many times over already so I'll leave it :P

Speculation is never fact

Ideally we should be able to discuss political issues reasonably, precisely because we are not /r/politics.

Well, I suppose the moral of the story is that if you want to be seen as the only actor able to address a specific issue, the most effective tack is ruthlessly depict the motives of the opposing actors as corrupt and thoroughly tribalize it until you have a faction that will distrust any effort others make regardless of its merits.

Then you're the only one that can make an effort to solve the problem. Neat.

Maybe someone else besides Nixon could totally have done what he did diplomatically?

> If Obama had done this the Republicans would have thrown a total fit.

It's an interesting exercise to consider what specific hypotheses for which the conditional didn't evaluate true.

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