“Barack Obama has been a failure in almost everything he’s done.”
Some of us are less shocked than others.
Also, appropriate smugness, at least when it comes to dealing with the real rubes. The question is, have they really learned, or will they fall for the con again next year?
[Update a few minutes later]
From community organizer to out-of-control cowboy: “I now call on Candidate Obama to protest President Obama.”
The danger of a president like this (and Hillary) was always that they’d feel compelled to demonstrate their national defense bona fides with some kind of ill-thought-out overseas action. But the up side is that it may at least get the Iranians to pay attention.
The downside of the upside is that the Iranians may pay attention…and conclude, “Those uncircumcised dogs couldn’t organize an effective no-fly zone with DDT”.
If I may offer one criticism of President Obama, it is that he talks too much. If I may offer one praise of President George W Bush it was that he was exceedingly careful regarding what official pronouncements he made, careful to the point that people thought he was aphasic, apraxic, and dislexic.
When one is on the outside looking in, when one is speaking truth to power as it were, talk and talk and more talk is the only thing you have going for you. When one has become the power, when one has become The Man, it is often best to not always say so much.
There is the storm of Right Blogosphere indignation regarding the vocal but otherwise ineffective protest against Scott Walker. The Right has been on the outside looking in for so long that when the Right has become The Power (at least in Wisconsin State Government right now), the Right doesn’t have the sense to just shut up and let the other side yammer.
I guess that the Right Blogosphere has gotten what it has wanted on Libya — that a Peace Prize winner President would finally smell the coffee and come to the realization the world is a dangerous place with dangerous people.
The President just cannot help himself, however, when in rallying the American people to this cause, taking yet another backhanded swipe at his predecessor, claiming the action would take not months but days, ruling out ground troops out-of-hand, and boasting of how America is following the consensus of others rather than leading it, “as it should be.”
The Right Blogosphere, on its part, cannot help itself either, engaging in increasingly snarky criticism when the President is as much as doing what had been recommended, advocated, and even agitated for.
“The question is, have they really learned, or will they fall for the con again next year?”
You already know the answer to that one, Rand.
(1) No and (2) of course. đ
No, they won’t fall for the same con next year. They’ll fall for a different con, with the same ultimate sad results, of course, whether it is Barack or some other glib liar.
As anyone used to dealing with ordinary consumer-level fraud can tell you, the only way to stop getting conned is to stop thinking you can get something for nothing. The only way to stop getting conned in politics is to stop thinking electing the right guy can fix all, or even most, or even the most important, of the problems of life.
Carl,
I’d like permission to have that second sentence tattooed on my forehead PLEASE! Or at least have it painted on the sides and tailgate of my truck.
I don’t know if anyone else caught this, but they are waiting until Monday to send in AF recon jets, to get bomb damage reports. There’s not ONE single UAV laying around among the 11 ships laying off Tripoli? Or is it that the current admin is so out of touch that they knew they’d need a flying vehicle to fly over, so they thought of the AIR Force first?
Either way, Rudy is Right!!! And he would be a good VP.
Let no one kid you, this is Hillary’s war, but with Obama running it, the worst of both worlds.
Anyone who saw the interview between wolf blitzer and her and the 180 degree turn by the white house the next day, was paying attention.
One of the problems with “days not weeks” is that it’s the kind of timetable that may preclude doing the important things right.
The best-case scenario in any military action is high success with low casualties. The worst-case looks a lot like vicey-versey.
When discussing Obama’s prospects for re-election, the most often mentioned point was he is no Bill Clinton.
Maybe not, but he’s now running plays from the Clinton playbook. Bomb someone to take the public’s mind off your domestic screw ups. Most importantly, don’t get into anything you can’t win in less than six months.
= improved poll results
K, that’s going to be a tall order unless it becomes more immediate to the average voter than the skyrocketing price of daily consumables.
Has anyone stopped to think that Obama might be getting into this with the intent of losing, and causing the fickle public to hate the military, as they did after Vietnam and during the Clinton regime?
Der Schtumpy, I would expect that they are flying Global Hawks around over Libya; there are several in theater in Afghanistan, plus the Navy even has at least one of their two GH’s in the Middle East. It’s an easy drive for those birds from Afghanistan to Libya. But I haven’t heard whether they’ve actually deployed them or not.
The danger of a president like this (and Hillary) was always that theyâd feel compelled to demonstrate their national defense bona fides with some kind of ill-thought-out overseas action.
Anyone remember SecState Albright’s comment to Colin Powell (re Kosovo): “”Whatâs the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can’t use it?”
If we win this one, will the President celebrate with a big “Mission Accomplished” banner?
I could almost believe Obama would lose on purpose — but expecting the public to blame it on the military would be Biden-grade stupidity.
The real worry is that the Iranians will pay attention. They’ll pay attention to Gaddafi giving up his WMD programs, and they’ll pay attention to how the west can now intervene against him in a Libyan civil war. If you were part of the Iranian leadership, what conclusion would you draw?
Oh, can I play the string together some incoherent motives game too? Maybe Obama is bombing Libya because one of the first things tinpot dictators of oil exporting countries do when their reign is coming to an end is burn the oil fields.. and Obama don’t like oil!
“If we win this one, will the President celebrate with a big âMission Accomplishedâ banner?”
You do understand the ship put that up, not the President.
Has anyone stopped to think that Obama might be getting into this with the intent of losing, and causing the fickle public to hate the military, as they did after Vietnam and during the Clinton regime?
If the Obama administration were that dumb, they wouldn’t have gotten as far as they have.
cthulhu,
you know that, and I know that, but the ‘official talking head spokesman’ on the news the other afternoon said, they’d have to wait…”.
My older son is out there on the Kearsarge. I know the jar heads have drones with them, that CAN fly off the flight deck. They could have flown post strike recon 10 seconds after the last cruise hit it’s target. I was making the point (badly I guess), that it scares the $h1t outta me, when civilians not associated with the military (any more) know more about the daily capabilities of the battle group, than the ‘official talking head spokesman’.
(actually the ‘official talking head spokesman’, was an ‘official talking head spokesbabe’ but it’s sexist to point that out) (and that leaves out, in the current WH I’m sure plenty of MALE ‘official talking head spokefolks’ know nothing about the military also)