Obama Libya Speech Scheduled To Accommodate 'Dancing With The Stars'

Imagine for a moment that you are the leader of the free world, the President of the United States of America. You lead the strongest country on earth and you have to make the case to your constituents that your path is just and correct. You have constitutional power steeped in tradition and hundreds of millions stop and listen to you when you speak.

Okay, are you imagining? Now let's say that Dancing with the Stars comes on at the time that you want to make your speech. Would you change course because of a reality TV show? Well, if you are President Barack Obama, the answer is "yes."

When the President announced that he would address the nation on Monday night, he was met with criticism. Not only from the American people, but higher-ups at ABC. They complained that, should the speech begin or cut into prime time, that they could lose viewership.

So what does a President who needs to address his nation do? Well, he agreed to change his timeslot to accommodate a reality TV dancing show.

After some friendly negotiations, all parties agreed to a mutually acceptable time: 7:30 Eastern, which meant the speech on the military situation in Libya could be delivered — and analyzed – in time for the fans of “Dancing,” as well as other scheduled network shows, to see the shows they expected to see at their regularly scheduled times.

Another Speech Obama gave in 2002:

That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.

Now let me be clear I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.

He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/warspeech.pdf

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