Posted on 01/04/2010 9:15:30 AM PST by jazusamo
President Obama's freshman-year foreign policy was the worst in living memory. At the dawn of 2010, the United States finds itself noticeably weaker in international affairs than it was when Mr. Obama took office, and there are no signs of improvement in the year ahead.
Mr. Obama was elected with almost no national security experience, but he counted on two principle sources of leverage on the world stage: his personal charisma and the fact that he was not George W. Bush. The year began with much swagger and self-assurance, but the result was a foreign policy with the naive enthusiasm of someone who once may have taken a graduate seminar in international relations.
Mr. Obama's first-week pledge to close the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay within a year set the tone for 2009. It was a victory of symbolism over substance that proved to be more difficult to implement than he expected, and Mr. Obama soon found that it was easier to make lofty promises than to deliver prudent policies.
Other failures followed. Efforts to regionalize a peace process in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India foundered on the rocks of entrenched national interests. The president announced a "stronger and smarter" strategy for Afghanistan in March, and another in November that contained a deadline which is not quite a deadline, for a pullout that is not really a pullout.
Mr. Obama's unprecedented, fawning outreach to the Muslim world has produced no tangible results, no dramatic shifts in public opinion regarding U.S. policies, and certainly no reduction of the terror threat. This was brought home by the attempted Christmas Day bombing that literally almost ended the year with a bang. Al Qaeda views Mr. Obama with outright contempt, offensively declaring him to be a "house Negro" in contrast to purportedly "honorable black Americans"...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Excellent editorial ping!
Sorry! But the Obuma’s first year in office was, in reality George Bush’s 9th year. The only thing that worked during Obuma’s first years was the stimulus program (that I am against) that saved the banking industry and was put into effect by, you guessed it, GW. Everything that failed, and there was many failures, were programs and policies that were put into place by GW and grossly mis-managed by Obuma and company. With each failure, they blamed GW. Well, I guess they were able to blame GW because they had not done anything different, change any policy, changed any procedure. so it was no different than if GW had still been in office, except that it would have been better managed.
The one bold initiative that Obuma tried was the circumvention of Constitutional law in Honduras; and guess what? Obuma got his ass handed to him by that really tiny country.
So again, Sorry but 2009 was George W. Bush’s 9th year as POTUS.
LBJ’s main problem was fear. He was too afraid to do the things necessary to win a war in spite of all the war protestors. As the war protests grew so too did LBJ’s fear. That fear was palpable and that fear was evident in the complete political assassination of Goldwater’s character. But that fear resolved itself when LBJ refused to run for a second term which led to Richard Nixon’s election. Nixon, while having a multitude of personal problems, has far less fear than LBJ.
And this only covers foreign policy. Think of the nightmare Obama’s domestic agenda has become.
Probably FAILED his Freshman Year at Occidental College, too.
He probably wants someone to bail him out and move him up to, say, Secretary General of the United Nations.
Wanna bet that he lasts as US President for as long as he lasted in Occidental College? [2 years] Bails so that he can be Secretary General of the UN before anyone REALLY understands all the damage he’s doing the the USofA. And when he’s in control of the UN, he’ll suddenly locate that missing Kenyan/Canadian/non-American birth certificate.
The small silver lining in your statement is that by and large these oBoz0 supporters have the attention span of gnats. In 2010 most of them won't realize there's a congressional election, much less show up for it. With that being said, the stupid party better get its Shiite together and not depend on anti Zer0 sentiment carrying them through. If they want the help of the Tea Party movement, then they need to step up and start naming names and calling specific policies and individuals out.
Yeah, LBJ did some bad things, but no one ever claimed that he was ineffectual as president. His agenda might have been bad, but he "got it done". Carter and Obama are worse because they were/are both ineffectual bumbling boobs.
He does not have the intellect and character to be President. The American people rejected Bush and during the process of rejection were deceived by glibness and cunning into voting for “The Divine One.” As an aside, the political malpractice by the idiot that ran as a Republican materially assisted his opponents election. America may have lost its political acumen and from now on we will be presented with nothing but imbeciles as candidates-providing “The Divine One” is not elevated to President for life.
Cheer up! Obamao has three more years to continue fixing things.
No wonder Carter has that stupid grin on his face.
Carter ushered in Reagan, but I don’t really see anyone Reagonesque other than Palin. I’m listening to her audio biography. I cringe every time she talks about the Mccain people, and what they did to her, and about her home life. I assume however, that she will get this off her chest, and then move on to the more important issues.
In three years anything can happen. If she can help other candidates win election, she will be a formidable opponent.
I look, for another hostage crisis. Obama, has no backbone, and no clue how to deal with a hostage crisis. The smartest thing for the Muslims to do right now, would be to hold a dozen or so Americans hostage world wide, and ask for huge ransoms. Obama would have no alternative but to pay.
I can’t see how his poll numbers are going to improve unless there’s some kind of man made crisis.
His lowest strongly approved was 23, and highest strongly disapprove 46. So he could easily hit a -23.
THAT is one funny cartoon! Thanks for sharing.
LBJ was a consummate politician; he used his contacts on the Hill to ram through a legislative agenda which is still giving us ulcers 45 years later. His "magic" didn't survive 1967, but while he had it, he did a lot of damage.
Carter was bad because of his complete ineptitude, a quality LBJ did not have. He also radiated a smug self-righteousness, whereas the Johnson administration was all realpolitik.
Thanks for the ping!
Umm, I called him Carter Redux. Born in ‘81, sir!
That definitely Nailed the Rascal!
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