We are now beginning to see the fantasy foreign policy of President Obama. In fact, his performance at the recent annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly and his chairing of a ridiculous Security Council session on non-proliferation was particularly un-nerving. Do you really think that the permanent members of the Security Council, U.S., China, Russia, really want to get rid of nuclear weapons while North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan are busy building their stockpiles?
The fact that President Obama knew of Iran’s other previously undisclosed nuclear site and did not confront them at the UN session, was a clear error in judgment and a major disappointment to our allies. President Sarkosy of France and Gordon Brown of the U.K. were mortified that Obama waited until the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh to give a rather tempered rebuke of Iran while Messrs. Sarkosy and Brown made very strong statements and looked like the real leaders of the free world.
It seems that President Sarkosy has been frustrated for months about Obama’s reluctance to confront Iran, but was told by the Administration that it didn’t want to “spoil the image of success” for Obama’s debut at the UN and his formal speech calling for his “dream” of total world disarmament. In fact, Sarkosy’s speech to the Security Council included a section about Iran’s latest deception, but was scrubbed at the last minute.
Sarkosy’s remarks, after Obama’s rather muted scolding of Iran at the G-20, were telling and seemed to be directed at Obama and not Iran. “We are right to talk about the future, but the present comes before the future, and the present includes two major nuclear crises (Iran and North Korea). We live in the real world, not in a virtual one”. Wow, is this France talking? “I support America’s extended hand but what has this produced for the international community? It has resulted in a statement by Iranian leaders calling for wiping off the map a member of the United Nations. What conclusions are we to draw?” Looks like Israel now has a more reliable friend.
On TV last night a credible reporter for a major Pittsburgh newspaper, said that aides of Sarkosy said to him that Sarkosy considers Obama naïve about foreign relations and is so egotistical that he doesn’t listen to those with more experience and just will do what he wants. This is shocking stuff coming from people at that level.
If you remember Obama’s opening line of his UN speech, he said “I know you have great expectations about me”. I guess he now thinks he is President of the whole world. A naïve President with a major ego is a dangerous combination. I never thought I’d see the day France would lead in confronting the bad guys for the free world while our President hides in his virtual world of disarmament.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Obama: Commander-in-Chump
The events of the past few weeks must put a scare into the public as recent terror plots of Al Qaeda cells in the U.S. were nipped in the bud while an urgent proposal by our Commander in Afghanistan goes unheeded. These terror plots remind us that we are at war with an enemy that will stop at nothing to kill Americans here or abroad. Meanwhile, our Commander-in-Chief acts as though a war doesn’t even exist. In fact, his Commanding General in Afghanistan admitted last night on television’s 60 Minutes that he has spoken to the President only once in the last 70 days! Does this sound like a President engaged in a war?
What Are the Priorities?
General Stanley McChrystal’s memo urging a troop build-up of an additional 30-40,000 was sent to the White House in late August. Here we are a month later and the President has enough time to make the rounds of every network (except FOX News and the Food Network channels) to push his healthcare reform package (a package he doesn’t even know exists at this point), talk about the White Sox’s chances to make the playoffs on the David Letterman Show, and today announced that he and his wife are flying to Copenhagen on Friday to plea for holding the 2016 Summer Olympics in Chicago instead of Rio. This must be pay-back for his Windy City cronies so they can make big bucks, particularly his real estate friends. Frankly, I think Rio is a much better site for such an event and there are other more deserving cities in the U.S. that can use the economic lift from an Olympic event.
What Really is the Strategy?
In the meantime, our military is in harm’s way while Mr.Obama decides if he now wants to change the strategy in Afghanistan from the one he just set in March. That strategy was one in which he said was “a stronger, smarter, more comprehensive strategy” which would build schools, hospitals, roads, and enterprise zones, and address issues of energy and trade. We have thus far seen none of this! Where are the agricultural specialists, educators, engineers and lawyers? He said he was directing Secretary of State Clinton to develop a diplomatic plan to run in tandem with McChrystal’s military plan. Have you seen that plan? In fact, our Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, made a plea to the White House for funding this civilian support last month only to be told it was “premature”. Does this sound familiar?
Governing By Proclamation
The President makes these proclamations implying that he now has the answers, but there are no plans to implement them or know whether they even can be implemented. Remember, let’s get out of Gitmo? Well, we are still there with no plan to get out. He recently proclaimed that the school year should now run through the summer. Apparently, we can’t get all the work done in the conventional school year because in the 21st century we now have more things to do. Boy, we have computers for kids, i-phones, Twitter, texting and still can’t get all the work done. Maybe he ought to first ask the teacher’s union why. Perhaps our teachers aren’t as efficient as they used to be.
Mr. Obama, I hope you can be more efficient, stop making proclamations, just stay at your desk for awhile and make a decision on this war, because saving the lives of our soldiers is more important than lowering yourself to run a UN Security Council meeting or run off to Denmark to make the case for a Chicago Olympics. You lose your sense of priorities when you don’t have a plan. That’s a cardinal rule in the business world and you’re obviously no businessman.
What Are the Priorities?
General Stanley McChrystal’s memo urging a troop build-up of an additional 30-40,000 was sent to the White House in late August. Here we are a month later and the President has enough time to make the rounds of every network (except FOX News and the Food Network channels) to push his healthcare reform package (a package he doesn’t even know exists at this point), talk about the White Sox’s chances to make the playoffs on the David Letterman Show, and today announced that he and his wife are flying to Copenhagen on Friday to plea for holding the 2016 Summer Olympics in Chicago instead of Rio. This must be pay-back for his Windy City cronies so they can make big bucks, particularly his real estate friends. Frankly, I think Rio is a much better site for such an event and there are other more deserving cities in the U.S. that can use the economic lift from an Olympic event.
What Really is the Strategy?
In the meantime, our military is in harm’s way while Mr.Obama decides if he now wants to change the strategy in Afghanistan from the one he just set in March. That strategy was one in which he said was “a stronger, smarter, more comprehensive strategy” which would build schools, hospitals, roads, and enterprise zones, and address issues of energy and trade. We have thus far seen none of this! Where are the agricultural specialists, educators, engineers and lawyers? He said he was directing Secretary of State Clinton to develop a diplomatic plan to run in tandem with McChrystal’s military plan. Have you seen that plan? In fact, our Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, made a plea to the White House for funding this civilian support last month only to be told it was “premature”. Does this sound familiar?
Governing By Proclamation
The President makes these proclamations implying that he now has the answers, but there are no plans to implement them or know whether they even can be implemented. Remember, let’s get out of Gitmo? Well, we are still there with no plan to get out. He recently proclaimed that the school year should now run through the summer. Apparently, we can’t get all the work done in the conventional school year because in the 21st century we now have more things to do. Boy, we have computers for kids, i-phones, Twitter, texting and still can’t get all the work done. Maybe he ought to first ask the teacher’s union why. Perhaps our teachers aren’t as efficient as they used to be.
Mr. Obama, I hope you can be more efficient, stop making proclamations, just stay at your desk for awhile and make a decision on this war, because saving the lives of our soldiers is more important than lowering yourself to run a UN Security Council meeting or run off to Denmark to make the case for a Chicago Olympics. You lose your sense of priorities when you don’t have a plan. That’s a cardinal rule in the business world and you’re obviously no businessman.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Obama's Endless Summer
August has been a horrible month for the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress. Not only have the poll ratings and public support deteriorated significantly, but town hall meetings and the President’s bungling of the healthcare message has capped a summer that exposed many things about this President that most of us feared; he can make a great speech but when it comes to running things and developing political strategy, he is what most of us thought…..a novice.
From Bungled Events
From the Louis Gates affair, where he actually illustrated racial bias (a trait that would get a white President impeached), to the resignation of his Green jobs Czar, Van Jones, a professed communist, anarchistic, white hater, and supporter of a cop killer, he has made the wrong move at every turn. All this while his foreign policy continues to languish and our Secretary of State is virtually absent. In fact, her husband pulls off the best stunt of the summer by going to North Korea at the request of the captors, in order to escort two irresponsible and reckless female employees of Al Gore back to the U.S. That must have really made us look great in the eyes of the world, particularly the Iranians.
To The Healthcare Fiasco
This President has already made 32 more speeches than his total number days in office, held more press conferences than his predecessor did in his whole first term, and we still don’t know where he stands on healthcare, except that he wants the “government (public) option” and will cut Medicare by about $500 Billion to help pay for it. Meanwhile, the people of this country want reform but not a drastic overhaul of the entire system. It’s time for the President to stop blaming Republicans or Fox News for the healthcare debacle and start looking at the left wing of his party which is scaring the moderate and conservative Democrats. Many of whom are up for election in 2010 and believe they will lose their jobs if the Congress passes legislation that most of us don’t want. It is clear from the polls that the American public does not want universal healthcare, in fact, the elderly are overwhelming against it, except in the black community, but then again anything this President does is ok with them.
And Now Another Speech
And now we wait for another inspirational speech that is going to set things straight. In my many years of following politics I have never heard any speech by any great orator change public opinion in one night. The mere fact that Obama needs another speech, after all the previous speeches, TV specials, and advertising that his giant political machine has given this topic, tells us that the speech is now a political necessity. It is clear that the healthcare reform he will eventually get will be far less expensive and more incremental than he wants. It is the economy that concerns us right now, not healthcare.
I know that most of you expect this kind of commentary from me since you know I’m not a fan of this presidency, however, I have never witnessed such a shortened honeymoon for a newly elected President, particularly coming off the mountaintop from which he ascended after the election. The ironic thing is that you would never know it, if the mainstream media was your only source of information.
From Bungled Events
From the Louis Gates affair, where he actually illustrated racial bias (a trait that would get a white President impeached), to the resignation of his Green jobs Czar, Van Jones, a professed communist, anarchistic, white hater, and supporter of a cop killer, he has made the wrong move at every turn. All this while his foreign policy continues to languish and our Secretary of State is virtually absent. In fact, her husband pulls off the best stunt of the summer by going to North Korea at the request of the captors, in order to escort two irresponsible and reckless female employees of Al Gore back to the U.S. That must have really made us look great in the eyes of the world, particularly the Iranians.
To The Healthcare Fiasco
This President has already made 32 more speeches than his total number days in office, held more press conferences than his predecessor did in his whole first term, and we still don’t know where he stands on healthcare, except that he wants the “government (public) option” and will cut Medicare by about $500 Billion to help pay for it. Meanwhile, the people of this country want reform but not a drastic overhaul of the entire system. It’s time for the President to stop blaming Republicans or Fox News for the healthcare debacle and start looking at the left wing of his party which is scaring the moderate and conservative Democrats. Many of whom are up for election in 2010 and believe they will lose their jobs if the Congress passes legislation that most of us don’t want. It is clear from the polls that the American public does not want universal healthcare, in fact, the elderly are overwhelming against it, except in the black community, but then again anything this President does is ok with them.
And Now Another Speech
And now we wait for another inspirational speech that is going to set things straight. In my many years of following politics I have never heard any speech by any great orator change public opinion in one night. The mere fact that Obama needs another speech, after all the previous speeches, TV specials, and advertising that his giant political machine has given this topic, tells us that the speech is now a political necessity. It is clear that the healthcare reform he will eventually get will be far less expensive and more incremental than he wants. It is the economy that concerns us right now, not healthcare.
I know that most of you expect this kind of commentary from me since you know I’m not a fan of this presidency, however, I have never witnessed such a shortened honeymoon for a newly elected President, particularly coming off the mountaintop from which he ascended after the election. The ironic thing is that you would never know it, if the mainstream media was your only source of information.
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