Posted on 06/19/2010 3:57:24 AM PDT by Wpin
President Obama came into office as the heir to a great foreign policy legacy enjoyed by every recent U.S. president. Why? Because the United States stands on top of the power ladder, not necessarily as the dominant power, but certainly as the leading one. As such we are the sole nation capable of exercising global leadership on a whole range of international issues from security, trade, and climate to counterterrorism. We also benefit from the fact that most countries distrust the United States far less than they distrust one another, so we uniquely have the power to build coalitions. As a result, most of the world still looks to Washington for help in their region and protection against potential regional threats. Click here to find out more!
Yet, the Iraq war lingers; Afghanistan continues to be immersed in an endless cycle of tribalism, corruption, and Islamist resurgence; Guantánamo remains open; Iran sees how North Korea toys with Obama and continues its programs to develop nuclear weapons and missiles; Cuba spurns America's offers of a greater opening; and the Palestinians and Israelis find that it is U.S. policy positions that defer serious negotiations, the direct opposite of what the Obama administration hoped for.
The reviews of Obama's performance have been disappointing. He has seemed uncomfortable in the role of leading other nations, and often seems to suggest there is nothing special about America's role in the world. The global community was puzzled over the pictures of Obama bowing to some of the world's leaders and surprised by his gratuitous criticisms of and apologies for America's foreign policy under the previous administration of George W. Bush.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Gelb contradicts himself here.
He says Obama is clearly smart...just not smart enough to know that strategic decisions require knowledge and experience.
That doesn't seem smart to me.
What Gelb is saying is that Obama is certainly smart for an idiot!
More affirmative action at work!!!
Zuckerman has come to the right conclusion, I only wish that he had done so earlier when the threat to America had already become obvious.
Wpin, you and I are in fundamental agreement about the narcissism of Obama and the danger that such a personality is not a Jimmy Carter milquetoast but quite capable of irrational violence to protect his own persona.
Hi nathanbedford! I think this article and others bring up another question the so called professional journalists need to ask themselves. That is, would the nation and indeed the world benefited from journalists doing their duty and vetting Obama prior to the election? I think this issue must be addressed and brought to bear on these journalists. I wonder if they will ever consider their own culpability to the horrible suffering that is resulting from having this man in such a powerful position?
“Oprah says he’s trying his best “
I believe Oprah is exactly right: what we’re seeing is Obama’s best. Which is really scary given how incompetently he has governed.
As Rush said this week, the only one benefiting from the Obama administration is Jimmy Carter, who now can sleep at night knowing he no longer will be regarded as the nation’s worst president.
Dont forget the Zuckerman Propagandists have too cover their worthless butts because they sold this Fraud to the Public,so they write these articles to make excuses that everyone else is coming to these conclusions that he could not see when a large portion of the electorate could see but of course they were just RACISTS and BIGOTS,Couldnt they see this man was Post Racial,Post Partisan,a Great Orator and was the ONE Whom We were waitng for.
Now he is seen as weak,Naive,Incompetent,welcome to the Club Zuckerman,you fool and Fraud
This is an amazing article by someone who voted for Obama. I, personally, know people who still like Obama.
Agreed, it is an amazing article...considering the source. I also know people who still defend and admire Obama. They seem so ignorant don’t they? I think that most are just being loyal without regard to issues.
My local newspaper endorsed Obama and never printed the truth about the health care bill. They never print the truth about his policies. They do allow letters to the editor, and that is the only way readers find out that there is a controversy about Obama’s policies. I don’t subscribe, so now we check their website for local news.
One woman I know who still likes Obama actually watches Olbermann. My husband said she called tea party people ‘tea baggers.” I wish I had been there when she said that because she probably doesn’t even know what it means.
I think it’s significant that Zuckerman now admits the bloom is off the rose.
Zuckerman is just doing a little CYA. You will also see Peggy Noonan, and a host of 2008 sellouts go this route soon.
Most of the people who now use the term “tea bagger” know they are using a very derisive term, much like the “N” word to describe a group of individuals. I have found in my 55 years that the vast majority of bigots come from the left. I enjoy explaining to those who use the tea bagger term that that term does not apply to tea party patriots, but to sexual perverts...generally democrats... to describe a homosexual activity. Shuts them up usually.
There was nothing, no fact no matter how are outrageous or disqualifying of the candidate Obama, that would disturb that paradigm.
There is another institution which failed us in the vetting process of Obama. That is the Democrat party. A political scientist would tell us that one of the roles played by a political party in the sweep of American history is to identify talent and advance it on behalf of the nation. The corollary to that, of course, is that the party should root out the mountebanks and the crazies as well as the corrupt and the morally cowardly. They obviously failed to do that in the case of Barack Obama but they failed as well in the case of Bill Clinton. His peccadilloes were well-known enough to have disqualified him but the Democrat party is ever on the make for a new personality, a new Messiah, who by his magical personality and extreme charisma will sweep the world into a new parents. Hence, the party is utterly vulnerable to anyone who can make a speech. We have seen that with Mario Cuomo, Bill Clinton, and Barak Obama in recent history.
The Democrat party, so long as it exalts form over substance because it's fundamental precepts are false, is programmed only to present the nation with a series of dangerous candidates
The case of Dick Nixon is an interesting one. It can be said that Nixon was an evil and nefarious character whose true character was exposed by Watergate. Or it might be said, on the other hand, that Watergate was the product of a perverse press that drove Nixon to paranoia, or at least inflated his paranoia, so that he committed acts he otherwise would not have done. In any event, the party that puts him in power bears the responsibility for doing so.
I have long felt the Democrat party has abdicated its responsibilities in this regard and that no patriotic American should ever again vote for a candidate from an unreformed Democrat Party.
I used to like Noonan and actually went to see her speak years ago.
I can't wait for the opportunity to do that myself.
Gave me an idea. Someone should organize a “peel day.” A day where any remaining obama ... Er... Supporters are invited to a rally where they can publicly peel their bumper stickers off. Sort of like doing a little public pennance and humility for their misguided support of that {expletive}.
Another MSM lib. jumping off the Bam RAT bandwagon. Prediction.....in time they’ll be jumping off in droves....why?....because their pockets aren’t as full as they used to be.
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