Posted on 09/11/2013 4:35:33 PM PDT by rickmichaels
With his feeble performance over Syria, even former allies are starting to question Barack Obama’s leadership.
Not me. To borrow an insult from Calvin and Hobbes, before I can question it I have to locate it.
To begin with, in accepting a dubious Russian proposal with unseemly relief, he has violated early 20th-century Republican statesman Elihu Root’s rule that you don’t “shake your fist at a man and then shake your finger at him.” It signals unmistakable weakness.
At the very least he should have insisted on seeking congressional authorization to use force if Bashar al-Assad kept misbehaving. It should have been easier to get with the prospect of an actual strike apparently fading. Yet he couldn’t even get his own party to back him and stick Republicans with the blame if it didn’t pass.
Instead, he insulted legislators by wavering on whether he even needed their support. Basically they could share responsibility if whatever he did failed, but not get credit if it worked or have influence over what it was. When he consults Congress it’s perfunctory and patronizing.
He’s the same with the public, including pontificating from a podium Tuesday evening. Instead of chatting with Americans from his desk like valued friends, he lectured them briefly, like dim undergraduates in a remedial course. Granted, a two-term president must have some sort of connection with the public. At least compared to John McCain and Mitt Romney. But Obama’s ability to come second-last in a two-person popularity contest now seems a surprisingly distant, fading memory. Even if this deal “works out” in the sense that Syria hands over most of its chemical weapons promptly and avoids using the rest, instead of foundering quickly over details or dragging on for years with no verification, it’s no victory.
The “red line” Obama drew last August and disavowed last week was over significant use or movement of chemical weapons. The administration insists both happened. But all they’ve come up with is an unconvincing ‘Oh well then, better not do it again.’
Besides, as widely noted, Assad’s regime has killed something like 100,000 of its own people, almost all with conventional weapons. If it hands over the sarin to Russian President Vladimir Putin but keeps shelling civilians, what’s Obama’s Plan B? A grey line? A golf game? There’s just no there there.
I know some people consider him some sort of Manchurian candidate, as cunning as he is fanatically anti-American. I think he fits into Walter Russell Mead’s “Jeffersonian” school of American foreign policy, convinced America’s domestic institutions are fragile and easily corrupted by muscular foreign action.
And yes, this belief system is radical and dangerous; think what Jimmy Carter did and what George McGovern might have. But while sufficiently unsound beliefs will render almost anyone incompetent, I insist on giving Obama credit for bringing ineptitude as well as radicalism to the table.
It’s not even clear he’s leading within his administration. When John Kerry threw out a snide aside about Syria handing over its chemical weapons, Obama disowned the idea. Then, once Putin pounced on it, smugly claimed it as his own.
Will Rogers once joked that FDR was so popular if he burned down the Capitol people would cheer and say at least we got a fire started. Obama would shrug at the kindling pile and blame someone else for not bringing matches.
So yes, I’ll question his leadership … if a search party can find it first.
Help Kickstart World War III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=z-sdO6pwVHQ#t=70
......he wants the adulation without deserving it. NARCISSIST.
I agree completely. It’s like Obama’s credibility being harmed by his wishy washy Syria stand. What credibility?
Zero and his jesters have hit a brick wall called reality and they're taking it very hard. Notice the fumbling around for some direction, some coherence. No moral foundation, no weathering the storm.
(Hat tip to Tyrion Lannister.)
Obama void of qualities.
Let’s not over look his strengths: narcissism, circumlocution, and putting.
We knew that before he was elected the first time. Complete lack of any significant experience where he could have developed such skills. Oh don’t worry, he’ll be fine the libs said. Yeah, how’s that on the job training thing working out? Fast and furious, Benghazi, NK, Syria, Iran, NSA, EPA, IRS. He doesn’t lead, he reacts, badly.
rule that you don’t “shake your fist at a man and then shake your finger at him.” It signals unmistakable weakness.
Well you are talking about Barack Obama. Has there ever been a weaker President? One with less of a spine, less convictions, less honor?
Assad has killed 100,000 people or is it 100,000 people have died? Surely some on his side have been killed. The way they tell it every battle is a no hitter for Assad.
They said Palin wasn’t qualified to be president and this clown was. The truth is nobody who voted for him was qualified to think.
If you think about it, ALL of Obama’s efforts have ended in failure (Read my partial list).
Obama’care’ was Obama’s biggest failure, but it still gives him hope that Obama’care’ will “Fundamentally change the United States of America.”
This false hope in a failed government program is what all actions by Obama are focused on, well, except the game of Golf, of course.
grin
The entire government of Chicago is corrupt. Obama was elected with the blessings of Chicago Outfit boss John DiFronzo, who tells Rahm when he's permitted to pee.
These people can and do steal everything they can, and as long as they skim to DiFronzo, everything is cool. Obama knows this, profits from it, and is part of the pipeline.
The painful part is that EVERYONE in Chicago knows this, and figures, since I know it, and the press knows it, and the Attorney General knows it, then it can't matter...
Chumlee of Pawn Stars would make a better executive.
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