Posted on 09/25/2010 8:19:00 PM PDT by Schnucki
Bob Woodward's searing critique of the Democrats' war strategy comes as key advisers are leaving and voters lose patience with Barack Obama's promise to deliver 'hope and change'. Alex Spillius reports on an increasingly isolated President.
When Barack Obama took office 20 months ago – and what a long 20 months it seems – there was a lot of talk about the great "Team of Rivals" he was appointing around him. Parallels were drawn with the cabinet of substantial talents and big personalities assembled by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the nation after the civil war.
Now, in a new book, Obama's Wars, the veteran reporter Bob Woodward has confirmed in intricate detail what has been known in Washington for some time: that some of the team could barely stomach working with each other. General David Petraeus, then the military overseer of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, avoided contact with David Axelrod, the President's chief strategist, whom he regarded as a "complete spin doctor". No one had a good word for General James Jones, the national security adviser and former Nato commander, while his number two, Thomas Donilon, was regarded as a "disaster" by the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates.
Most withering of all was Vice President Joe Biden's description of Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan, as "the most egotistical bastard I've ever met". Biden has nearly 40 years' experience in Washington, so that is saying something.
Much of this would be unimportant if there weren't a war involved – no one expects to be given a smooth ride in the White House and some of what Woodward describes could even be called healthy debate – but the aura of dysfunction portrayed by Woodward as Obama and his "team" debated strategy in Afghanistan is truly alarming.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I suspect that the future contains two nations where America had one.
My #17 echoes yours.
Read the comments....
They are excoriating.
My fondest wish and what I live for: to see Palin get sworn in on January 20, 2013 with Obama sitting there.
Yes, I can see it too.
People actually learned what it was, that’s what.
nightmares from my father, now you get em’
That's not where "I" hope he'll be sitting..... :)
The Barack Obama dream has turned into America's Nightmare!!!
No amount of Marxist meddling can change human nature. People will act in their own self interest. We are not looking for a government that will dictate how we live. Any government that tries to force people to act in the interest of some Utopian dream will always fail.
>>> Lincoln did indeed assemble a cabinet “to rebuild
>>> the nation after the civil war.”
NO, HE DID NOT.
He built his cabinet at the START of the civil war.
Yup, I missed that. You are correct.
The world is mocking us.....this is so humiliating! Anyone who voted for this man ought to hide their faces in shame!!
Which probably explains why he is held in contempt by the administration...
States rights vs the Gov is back. The Gov better play this well.
I'd like to see her getting sworn in with President Biden sitting there.
The understatement of the century.
Interesting, isn't it? The idiots who voted for the Kenyan Usurper did so because they thought it would "make us look better to the rest of the world." There has always been this element in America - dating all the way back to the Colonies - that is way too concerned with the European view of us as uncouth, backwoods hayseeds. Personally, I couldn't give a crap what they think.
“His last two years will be very unpleasant.”
I agree, we all thought Carter was a very bitter, small cretin - Obama is probably going to make Carter look like a benevolent giant.
Maybe “The Little O” will make his mark building broken down tenements.
The same outcome of every socialist idea put into effect.
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