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The Obama Paradox
huffingtonpost.com ^ | August 11, 2014 | Robert Kuttner

Posted on 08/11/2014 12:44:51 PM PDT by Second Amendment First

He gives the kind of well-considered responses that suggest a president who carefully engages with truly difficult policy conundrums.

Yet at the end of the day, he often comes across as vacillating and indecisive -- an impression that can be fatal in his dealings with allies, adversaries, and of course electorates.

*

It is Obama's bad luck to be chief executive at a moment when the consequences of several bad policies of the past century are blowing up, on his watch. His answers to particular questions are thoughtful, prudent, and mindful of the limits of American power. But taken together, missteps like taking a little too long to move on Iraq, stumbling in his effort to define bright lines in Syria, and failing to dissuade the Israelis from brutal air strikes on civilian neighborhoods in Gaza, turn salutary prudence into the perception of weakness.

*

Thus the Obama paradox. He is one of the best-informed and most thoughtful foreign policy presidents we have had in a long time, but his very appreciation of complexity often comes across as indecision.

(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: obama
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It is indecision!

If he actually did something then you would know all that "thoughtfulness" was just some choom smoke.

They are having a hard time hanging on to the messiah anymore. Perhaps he could use some more Greek pillars.

1 posted on 08/11/2014 12:44:51 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First

Poor little Baby Bad Luck...


2 posted on 08/11/2014 12:46:01 PM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: Second Amendment First

Real Men of Genius!

We are so honored to have Baraq in the WH!


3 posted on 08/11/2014 12:46:05 PM PDT by nascarnation (Toxic Baraq Syndrome: hopefully infecting a Dem candidate near you)
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To: Mamzelle

Like no other president had to deal with foreign policy issues made by others.


4 posted on 08/11/2014 12:47:54 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First
He gives the kind of well-considered responses that suggest a president who carefully engages with truly difficult policy conundrums.

The first sentence deviates wildly from reality. Stopped reading there.

5 posted on 08/11/2014 12:48:57 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" means something different to 0bama.)
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To: Second Amendment First
Complex insight. Thoughtful consideration. Massive intelligence. Nuance.

Yeah. That's it, all right.

6 posted on 08/11/2014 12:49:04 PM PDT by Cincinatus (Omnia relinquit servare Rempublicam)
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To: Mamzelle

Just waiting for someone to put up the caricature of a crying Obama.

Poor guy. He has the misfortune to be president at a time of various world crises.

Is this writer in unconditional admiration mode for oObama or what.......


7 posted on 08/11/2014 12:50:09 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (s)
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To: Second Amendment First

What a crock!


8 posted on 08/11/2014 12:50:50 PM PDT by WashingtonSource
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To: TigersEye

Well thought out responses, written by political advisors, read off his teleprompter.


9 posted on 08/11/2014 12:50:55 PM PDT by MNDude
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To: Second Amendment First

Bad luck? His incompetence is what is causing past policies to collapse. If a real man was in the White House, few of these problems would exist.


10 posted on 08/11/2014 12:50:57 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob (They are called "Liberals" because the word "parasite" was already taken.)
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To: Second Amendment First

Reagan had really “bad luck”, promised his policies would change it, and 3 years later, done. The plan worked like a charm. Obama, six years in... recovery....recovery....recovery....waiting...waiting...


11 posted on 08/11/2014 12:51:18 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: Second Amendment First

We need a barf graphic badly here.


12 posted on 08/11/2014 12:51:50 PM PDT by Wicket (1 Peter 3:15 , Romans 5:5-8)
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To: Cincinatus

The Mighty OBAMA who will lead us to where we shall realize our brilliant future as he has described to us in such detail. Our guide to salvation!


13 posted on 08/11/2014 12:53:35 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First
Kuttner is a smug damn leftwing idiot!
14 posted on 08/11/2014 12:53:58 PM PDT by RAY (God Bless the USA!)
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To: Phillyred

I don’t recall Reagan and his allies constantly complaining at the difficulties inherited from Jimmy Carter. Instead they went about implementing their policies to deal with the difficulties we faced then.


15 posted on 08/11/2014 12:54:08 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (s)
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To: Second Amendment First
The fact of the matter is... the world is ALWAYS on the verge of falling apart or on the verge of being torn apart by madmen.

Every president for the past 100 years has had to deal with this. Most do an adequate job, a few Carter and Obama can't and things spin out of control fairly quickly.

This has nothing to do with “bad luck” or timing. It's ALWAYS tuff to be president and leader of the free world. But when you not up to the job (as is apparent when it comes to Obama) things get out of hand quickly.

Usually the people see this ineptitude and choose not to return such an obvious failure to office to continue to mess things up. Obama is the exception to this rule, because his skin color saved him from most of the effects of his bad policies.

16 posted on 08/11/2014 12:55:10 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: RAY
Robert Kuttner's latest book is Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility. He is co-editor of The American Prospect and a senior Fellow at Demos, and is a professor at Brandeis University's Heller School.
17 posted on 08/11/2014 12:57:10 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First
He gives the kind of well-considered responses that suggest a president who carefully engages with truly difficult policy conundrums..

More like: "He reads from a teleprompter in a manner that suggest a president who can read from a teleprompter."

18 posted on 08/11/2014 12:58:18 PM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: Second Amendment First

The sea levels haven’t fallen, either....................


19 posted on 08/11/2014 12:58:25 PM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Second Amendment First

They mistake teleprompter reading and proper diction for intelligence and thoughtfulness, and a street hustler’s glibness for “well-considered responses”. What idiots.


20 posted on 08/11/2014 12:59:10 PM PDT by Ray76 (True change requires true change - A Second Party ...or else it's more of the same...)
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