Speaking of rationalizations, in his Washington Post column, Richard Cohen complains about the president’s lack of ideas:
It’s not that Obama has lost his gift of eloquence. His problem is that he often has nothing to say. When he does, as after the mass murder in June at a Charleston, S.C., church, he can be moving and eloquent. It is on foreign policy particularly where he goes empty and cold. His policy, after all, is to avoid yet another Middle East quagmire. It entails the ringing call to do as little as possible.
Obama’s self-inflicted predicament was apparent in the statement he issued following the Paris terrorist attacks. Unlike many other mass killings, this one was broadcast in real time — unfolding on TV as it happened. It left the United States both shaken and horrified. Yet Obama spoke coldly, by rote — saying all the right things in the manner of a minister presiding at the funeral of a perfect stranger.
Fiddle dee dee. I see no signs that Barack Obama has had an idea since grad school. He wasn’t elected for ideas, anyway. He was elected through a combination of personal charisma, virtue signalling, racial politics, and the perception that he was a better choice than the other guy.
In fairness the balance of the column clearly represents that what counts for an idea in Mr. Cohen’s terms is a more aggressive stance in the Middle East. For such ideas he should have supported John McCain.
His policy, after all, is to avoid yet another Middle East quagmire. It entails the ringing call to do as little as possible.
Syria isn’t a quagmire? Admittedly we’ve committed little resources to it, but it is a giant clusterfuck of a quagmire, and Obama can’t seem to walk away. Nor can he seem to do anything other than strive to make the situation worse.
In fairness the balance of the column clearly represents that what counts for an idea in Mr. Cohen’s terms is a more aggressive stance in the Middle East. For such ideas he should have supported John McCain.
Funny how the mainstream thinking of the “progressives” and the “conservatives” in Washington ultimately ends up looking the same on just about everything of consequence.
“Fiddle dee dee. I see no signs that Barack Obama has had an idea since grad school. He wasn’t elected for ideas, anyway. He was elected through a combination of personal charisma, virtue signalling, racial politics, and the perception that he was a better choice than the other guy.”
You really call it as you see it, Dave! I couldn’t agree more. But, coming from you it’s takes on a more matter-of-fact observation than being motivated by partisanship, if stated by me.
Nonetheless, do people really want new or bold ideas anymore, especially ones implying a “smidgen” involvement in having personal gratification deferred or some self-sacrifice given for the sake of others? It seems to me that people dominating the public microphone these days “Want what they want, and they want it now!” That’s the rhetoric getting attention these days, and it’s the kind of self-serving, short-sighted petulance which is causing traditional, principled behavior to cave, in order to be viewed in the politically correct terms deemed necessary today.
Public demonstrations, social chaos, a knee-jerk extension of “rights” ballooning an unsustainable debt, a world caught in the rudderless void called “U.S. foreign policy,” are just a few of the growing by-products of a dem occupying the WH for the last 7 years. Of course, there are plenty of those wishing for more of the same, with a fairly good chance they will get it!
Fiddle dee dee. I see no signs that Barack Obama has had an idea since grad school. He wasn’t elected for ideas, anyway. He was elected through a combination of personal charisma, virtue signalling, racial politics, and the perception that he was a better choice than the other guy. Did u mean gay?