Posted on 11/02/2012 6:57:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Edited on 11/02/2012 8:58:00 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
In political terms, Hurricane Sandy and the Benghazi-consulate debacle exemplify at home and abroad the fundamental unseriousness of the United States in the Obama era. In the days after Sandy hit, Barack Obama was generally agreed to have performed well. He had himself photographed in the White House Situation Room nodding thoughtfully to bureaucrats (“John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; David Agnew, Director for Intergovernmental Affairs”) and tweeted it to his 3.2 million followers. He appeared in New Jersey wearing a bomber jacket rather than a suit to demonstrate that when the going gets tough the tough get out a monogrammed Air Force One bomber jacket. He announced that he’d instructed his officials to answer all calls within 15 minutes because in America “we leave nobody behind.” By doing all this, the president “shows” he “cares” — which is true in the sense that in Benghazi he was willing to leave the entire consulate staff behind, and nobody had their calls answered within seven hours, because presumably he didn’t care. So John Brennan, the Counterterrorism guy, and Tony Blinken, the National Security honcho, briefed the president on the stiff breeze, but on September 11, 2012, when a little counterterrorism was called for, nobody bothered calling the Counterterrorism Security Group, the senior U.S. counterterrorism bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, FEMA rumbles on, the “emergency-management agency” that manages emergencies, very expensively, rather than preventing them. Late on the night Sandy made landfall, I heard on the local news that my state’s governor had asked the president to declare a federal emergency in every New Hampshire county so that federal funds could be “unlocked.” A quarter-million people in the Granite State were out of power. It was reported that, beyond our borders, 8 million people in a dozen states were out of power. [snip]
Let’s roll. Time to step up to the plate. I’m ready.
“What is the point of outspending Russia, Britain, France, China, Germany, and every middle-rank military power combined if, when it matters, America cannot urge into the air one plane with a couple of dozen commandos? In Iraq, al-Qaeda is running training camps in the western desert. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are all but certain to return most of the country to its pre-9/11 glories. But in Washington the head of the world’s biggest “counterterrorism” bureaucracy briefs the president on flood damage and downed trees.”
Steyn, you magnificent bastard.
“So you can have Big Government bigger (or, anyway, more expensive) than any government’s ever been, and the lights still go out in 17 states — because your president spent 6 trillion bucks and all the country got was a lousy Air Force One bomber jacket for him to wear while posing for a Twitpic answering the phone with his concerned expression.”
Nobody writes better than Steyn. Nobody.
Welcome to Houston another antiquated mothball.
brilliant!
This article is a one-liners PARADISE!! Absolutely classic!!
tagline
I like this one for 0bama....
“He’s all jacket and no bombers”
Mark, you article reminds me of he old salesman axiom; Sell the sizzle not the steak. In todays world, we not only buy the sizzle but, we don’t even get any steak with it.
And, Obama is all sizzle when it comes right down to it. He gives grand speeches, reels off profane one-liners as part of his campaign, and then escapes to the golf course when it’s time to make the ‘steak.’
I have no idea why this sort of person attracks so many voters. He reminds me of a swimming pool full of shaving cream: signifcant at first glance but, deadly should you choose to dive into what he’s selling.
I’m worried about this election. Not because of what Obama is selling. I’m worried because of what today’s Americans are willing to buy.
Mark Steyn is a treasure.
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