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A No Vote on Syria may Cripple Obama's Domestic Agenda too
Townhall.com ^ | September 6, 2013 | Larry Kudlow

Posted on 09/07/2013 4:58:24 AM PDT by Kaslin

resident Obama, speaking at the G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg on Friday, reminded me of an investment banker trying to sell a deal he doesn't believe in. And the customer knows it.

Halting. Hesitant. Uncertain. Uncomfortable. That's what Obama's statement and body language had to say.

On the verge of a potentially huge defeat on the Syrian question in Congress, President Obama is in a box. He's looking for a way out, but he can't find one. He's losing supporters in the legislature at home, and he didn't gain any at the G-20 summit abroad.

When Obama speaks to the American people on Tuesday, maybe he'll pull a rabbit out of the hat. But House and Senate members and their staffers on both the left and right say the grassroots do not want a Syrian bombing mission. I can't speak for the left. But I know conservatives do not trust the president in his role as commander in chief. They want more than a shot across the bow, but they're not hearing clear strategies and intentions.

Worse, in recent days, the president has retreated back to terms such as "limited," "narrow," "tailored," and "negotiated." He is reminding everyone that he has no intention of a Bashar al-Assad regime change or of crippling the Syrian military.

Some news accounts imply a tougher mission that would take out the Syrian air force and airports and cripple command and control, along with any related chemical-weapons delivery systems. But this sounds more like Secretary of State John Kerry, who has done a good job outlining the military and strategic imperatives of a tough attack. It's not coming from President Obama.

At the G-20, it was Vladimir Putin who sounded tough as he pledged aid to Syria in the event of an American attack. And that brings up the question of retaliation by Iran and Hezbollah. In that event, what will Israel do? Counterattacks have not been addressed. There's no sense of what might happen next.

A congressional defeat on Syria might well be catastrophic for American credibility, as Sens. John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham suggest and as Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor echo in the House. Everybody seems to know this except the president.

It's a very bad situation in and of itself. But spillover effects into economic and fiscal affairs will make it worse.

For example, take Friday's jobs report. It came in well below expectations. In fact, it looks like the pace of job creation is slowing, meaning there will be no second-half economic upturn.

Only 152,000 private jobs were created in August, while June and July were revised down by 74,000 jobs. Measured over three-month periods, job creation has dropped from 236,000 last February to only 158,000 through August.

And while unemployment dropped slightly for August, down from 7.4 to 7.3 percent, the participation rate fell again as more discouraged workers left the labor force. Adjusted for inflation, wage earnings have completely flattened out.

People are buying cars, and the ISM reports are strong. But business investment in long-lived projects -- the most powerful job-creator of all -- is actually falling.

So it's still an anemic 2 percent economy. And when the president returns from overseas, he'll get no plaudits for a new employment boom. More important, should Obama lose the congressional vote on Syria, his entire domestic agenda might fall apart.

At least three key democratic senators on the banking committee are saying no to the possible nomination of Obama-favorite Larry Summers to the Federal Reserve. And when the Fed itself meets on Sept. 17 and 18, it will probably defer any widely advertised bond-purchase cutbacks until the Syrian crisis has passed.

Two weeks after that, unless a continuing resolution gets passed, the government shuts down. And two weeks after that, the nation's borrowing power expires, making a higher debt ceiling necessary to keep operations going.

And on top of all that, the military is screaming that they need more money, because the president is asking them to do more with less.

How can a president defeated on Syria hope to cope with all this? It's almost beyond imagining. Which begs perhaps the largest question of all: Will a Syrian defeat in Congress cripple the administration completely, with 40 months left in the executive's term?

None of this is as important as America's global credibility, when the U.S. must not stand back and let rogue dictators use weapons of mass destruction. That said, Obama's foreign-policy blunders may end his domestic policy, too.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Israel; Russia; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abortion; cheaterobama; cluelessobama; deathpanels; domnesticpolicy; failureobama; fakerobama; g20; incompetentobama; israel; liarobama; loserobama; narcissistobama; obama4alqaeda; obamacare; obamarecession; obamataxhike; obamataxhikes; obamavsamerica; obamavsamericans; perjurerobama; phoneyobama; resident0bama; russia; sociopathobama; syria; unitedkingdom; waronterror; weakobama; yellowobama; zerocare
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To: PrairieLady2
He needs to learn not to let his alligator mouth over tip his hummingbird @$$.

Typical doper.

Obama gets that old Cocaine Courage and changes from an outhouse rat into Mighty Mouse.


21 posted on 09/07/2013 5:42:02 AM PDT by Iron Munro ("You bring me the man, I'll find you the crime" - Lavrentiy Beria [and Eric Holder])
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To: newnhdad

ALL OF THIS WAS PREDICTED.
We had an election,the people were warned,the American people voted,now the American people must suffer.
The fun part is now watching all the tolerant,diversity loving,caring hippies all rush to defend the black moron,who we were told was the great Orator,was brilliant,all of his utterances should be inscribed on Mount Rushmore.
Well give him credit he is throwing all the bilge against the wall hoping something will work in getting the lemmings to believe he is not going to get more people slaughtered just to cover what came out from between his dumbo sized ears,was not what we thought we heard. Chances are he will get his way,after all we would not want to embarrass the ONE we have all been waiting for.


22 posted on 09/07/2013 5:45:11 AM PDT by ballplayer
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To: Kaslin

“But I know conservatives do not trust the president in his role as commander in chief. They want more than a shot across the bow...”

Larry Kudlow speaking for the NWO neo-cons.


23 posted on 09/07/2013 5:46:32 AM PDT by sergeantdave
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To: newnhdad
this guy is so weak, he’s dangerous.

He has been, and will increasingly become more dangerous through executive orders. Given that the Republican leadership are his lap dogs, there is no stopping him through political discourse. We can expect conservatives and Christians to remain Obama's targets though every federal agency imaginable.

24 posted on 09/07/2013 5:47:58 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Molon Labe - shall not be questioned)
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To: Kaslin

How in the heck can you “cripple” something that does not even exist? Obama and his Czars, his henchmen, puppets, functionaries, agencies and officials aren’t working on a ‘domestic agenda’. They have none. What they have is rampant borrowing and infusion of borrowed money into the stock market and into purchasing of Treasury notes. NOTHING ELSE.

They ban coal, new refineries, new drilling, old drilling, and then piss away billions and billions into crony “green” dreams like cheap solar, cheap wind and electric vehicles that cannot possibly replace the current systems. The tag each agency’s budget with “green” endeavors and then proceed to piss it away giving worthless contracts to Obama campaign donors.

They refuse to count unemployment in an honest way, and they lie, obfuscate and hype bad results like they are just a choir boy whose voice is “just changing.” LIARS! Liars, cheats and thieves who dream up absurd ways to monitor the economy. Imagine, the price of gas, a pound of hamburger or bacon, milk, eggs, butter, flour, sugar or coffee aren’t included in their “price index.”

And, to finish off all this fine management of the economy what’s needed? Well, they have to control the restless citizens that produce. How do you do that? You take away their f@cking guns! That’s how. Ban semi-auto rifles and pistols, ban or tax the hell out of ammo, Ban BB guns and air rifles. Buy land tanks for the DHS (Black MRAPs), Black Helicopters, “self defense” rifles (AR-15s) for this stormtroopers, etc. Maybe even a trillion rounds of ammo or so.

There is no “economy” to this imposter President. There are only his “people” and his “constituents”. The others out there among us are subjects and unruly greedy right wingers that have to be watched, feared, and controlled just like we used to do with Al Qaeda, only Obama is a Muslim and that’s a no-no now.


25 posted on 09/07/2013 5:49:18 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: All

The danger is not to him, but to the US and how will we be perceived in the future. It took 10 years for us to gain the respect we lost under Carter. It will take a generation to gain it back after Odumbo.


26 posted on 09/07/2013 5:52:39 AM PDT by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: edpc
I’m pretty sure a speech on Tuesday, September 11.....the same date and day of the 2001 attacks

A year ago on 9/11 Al Qaeda and The Obama Brotherhood were killing Americans in Benghazi.

This year Obama is arming the same terrorists with weapons paid for by American taxpayers.

We don't need to send B-52 bombers halfway around the world to find our enemies.

They are right here in Washington, DC and in the White House.


27 posted on 09/07/2013 5:55:44 AM PDT by Iron Munro ("You bring me the man, I'll find you the crime" - Lavrentiy Beria [and Eric Holder])
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To: Hojczyk

How many Israeli air strikes have they thwarted?


28 posted on 09/07/2013 5:58:51 AM PDT by edpc (Wilby 2016)
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To: Diogenesis

29 posted on 09/07/2013 6:04:34 AM PDT by Zakeet (Democrats haven't destroyed your freedoms ... you can still visit them at the Smithsonian)
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To: Iron Munro
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
30 posted on 09/07/2013 6:06:47 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Kaslin

He’s been in over his head since his days as a state senator. As president he’s Pee Wee Herman in the ring with Mike Tyson.

It doesn’t look good but this is the inescapable fate he’s been facing since he and a supposed majority of the voters decided to play “Let’s Pretend”


31 posted on 09/07/2013 6:27:50 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Don't fire until you see the blue of their helmets)
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To: Kaslin

PROVERBS 16:18

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.


32 posted on 09/07/2013 6:28:34 AM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.)
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To: sickoflibs; Grampa Dave; thouworm; GOPJ; Tennessee Nana; AuntB

Obombster’s incompetence is getting more and more embarrassing, not to mention the threat he is to ntl security.

The buzz is the military were given 50 separate orders (I guess Valerie couldn’t make up her mind).

Things got worse when China and Russia stared exchanging recipes w/ Assad for “Obamaburgers” ....... add a hint of soy sauce, serve with a side of sauerkraut, fried rice, and Beluga caviar.


33 posted on 09/07/2013 6:59:24 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Kaslin
"A No Vote on Syria may Cripple Obama's Domestic Agenda too"

One can hope.

vaudine

34 posted on 09/07/2013 7:05:43 AM PDT by vaudine
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To: Kaslin
Everyone, EVERYONE on this board, has been waiting for this incompetent jack wagon to finally get his comeuppance. I've said for years that he could shotgun murder a dozen praying nuns on the White House lawn in front of every TV camera in North America, high on tequila and cocaine, and get a pass from liberals and Democrats in Congress.

What he did here was incredibly stupid, even more so than his usual stupidity, which is to do something that separates him from his base by starting a war. This is his Jimmy Carter moment. Finally the American public will catch a glimpse (but only a glimpse) of the arrogant fool that we've all recognized from his first day in office.

Thank God Almighty, free at last.

35 posted on 09/07/2013 7:54:47 AM PDT by Hardastarboard (Buck Off, Bronco Bama)
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To: Iron Munro

I wish someone would say...Mr. President...Your commitment to retaliate is based on the killing of children. Yet you believe that killing babies, i.e., in the USA and around the world is some kind of right.


36 posted on 09/07/2013 8:09:34 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin

Sometimes our prayers are answered. In this case, the two work prayer: “lame duck”.


37 posted on 09/07/2013 8:25:21 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Kaslin
A No Vote on Syria may Cripple Obama's Domestic Agenda too

Since his domestic agenda is to destroy capitalism and replace it with his personal mix of progressivism/socialism/Marxism/fascism, crippling it would be a GOOD thing!

38 posted on 09/07/2013 9:14:31 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed &water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: edpc

Wedsnesday is Sept. 11. It’s possible he plans to give the speech on Tues, Sept. 10 to try and boost public support for bombing Syria, then launch the attack on Sept. 11, before Congress has a chance to vote on it.


39 posted on 09/07/2013 11:56:00 AM PDT by BillyBoy (Liz Cheney's family supports gay marriage. Do you?)
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To: Kaslin
A No Vote on Syria may Cripple Obama's Domestic Agenda too

Are they implying he'll stop trying to destroy our economy or not try as hard?

40 posted on 09/07/2013 4:48:58 PM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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