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This has been a recurring theme on FR since Teh One took office. It is simply the case that no candidate can possess a spread of expertise sufficient to cover all of the United States' needs both foreign and domestic, which is why executive ability, i.e. the ability to form, maintain, discipline, and utilize a staff, is such a vital skill set to a Presidential hopeful.

Our Community Organizer possesses precisely nothing in the way of that skill set, and worse, has not demonstrated the ability to attain one, to "grow in the job" that I had hoped he'd manage for the good of the country. In fact, 0bama never had any intention of being a President for the entire country, just the bits he likes. It's showing.

An experienced White House staff might have eased the problem, but Obama was surrounded by fellow amateurs and egomaniacs putting the progressive agenda ahead of pragmatic diplomacy.

We do, of course, have the State Department, staffed in theory by professionals who work with if not always for the political appointees. Part of the Long March Through The Institutions has placed egomaniacal progressives in positions of power within State as well, and worse, the very institutional nature of the job leads to an assumption that its ostensibly non-partisan employees know more about foreign relations than anyone because gosh darn it, they're paid to. That and an advanced degree from an Ivy League school tends to put on an impenetrable blindfold of unfounded confidence in unowned expertise.

We see the worst of this in the incredible mess the sitting administration has made of Middle East policy. Hillary was (and is) a corrupt, self-absorbed, cynical incompetent. Kerry has managed to add naivete to that mix. Which of the two is worse is difficult to decide, Kerry most likely because as Machiavelli pointed out, it is better to be feared. Unfortunately no one is that much afraid of Hillary, especially when her ferocious mien turns into a cracked, wrinkled grin at the scent of money like a character in a cheap horror movie. Kerry wears spandex to diplomatic meetings, Hillary wears a change machine. One has to forgive our enemies for their laughter.

What is common between this pair of despicable wretches is a conviction that their country was in the wrong in Vietnam and ever since, and that it is their lofty mission to scold, subvert, undermine, and betray that country in the interest of Higher Purposes, one of which at least is to lead a lifestyle paid for by others that would be the envy of a medieval Sultan. Neither one of these bloated leeches has earned an honest dime in an entire disreputable life. In that, at least, they resemble their boss.