Thursday, February 19, 2009
Must read Krauthammer: Obama Flunks First Tests On Foreign Policy
The Biden prophecy has come to pass. Our wacky veep, momentarily inspired, had predicted last October that "it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama."
Biden probably had in mind an eve-of-the-apocalypse drama like the Cuban Missile Crisis. Instead, Obama's challenges have come in smaller bites. Some are deliberate threats to U.S. interests, others mere probes to ascertain whether the new president has any spine.
Preliminary X-rays aren't encouraging...
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Looks like Obama has dipped in to the cesspool of old State Department Arabists -- you know, those guys who spend time as Ambassador to some Gulf State, go native, then retire to places like the Washington Report on Middle... Read More
I could have sworn I heard President Obama on the news this evening, talking about the friendship between Canada and the United States "throughout history". Uh, does the man know against whom the United States fought in the War of 1812? (Who, in fact, gave us a good licking?)
All I could think, as the journalists broadcast it as straight news with nary a comment, was this: "They wouldn't have let President Bush get away with that. Nor John McCain. Nor Sarah Palin."
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Mr. "Smart" Power, Barack Obama, floats a couple of trial balloons whose names are Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Brian Baird (D-WA) after a trip to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza with John Kerry (D-MA). Excerpt:
"... the Congressman emphasized that fundamental changes and solutions are needed beyond the immediate challenges in Gaza."
Sounds like a statement and trial balloon made to order by Samantha Power herself. Stay tuned ...
Update: NIC head appointee is (reportedly) Chas Freeman, who is inline with sentiments as expressed by Samantha Power - reported at JTA and reported at American Thinker.
This leaves Hillary as the public face with Samantha Power, Chas Freeman, Susan Rice as key advisors, program directors and decision makers within their own purviews. That's in addition to those who are more peripheral, including Brzezinski and Robert Malley (am not clear as to how peripheral or otherwise people such as Brzezinski and Malley are to this administration, but they were advisors during the campaign and, minimally, their sentiments regarding Israel and the M.E. and elsewhere, are amply reflected in Power, Freeman and Susan Rice as well).
Whatever this reflects specifically, in terms of near-term and long-term future decisions by this administration, it most certainly reflects a "best and brightest" type of mindset and thus a groupthink - a core group that is not given to seeking contrasting and competing points of view, beyond a certain perimeter.
Iow, it would appear some basic decisions have already been made, with details yet to be ironed out.