Say what you will about George W. Bush's diplomacy, but he nurtured relationships with our most important allies -- like Britain -- and managed to put together a huge multinational coalition for his own foray against an Arab dictator suspected of having chemical weapons. Obama's diplomatic efforts -- championed by Hillary Clinton and, now, John Kerry -- are looking more and more inept by comparison: So far, our only ally in the proposed Syria venture is France, maybe.Let's give Hillary some credit for ducking out at the right moment.... hitting her own reset button... leaving Obama in the... shall we say?... lurch.
३ सप्टेंबर, २०१३
"Smooth, Europhile Democrats would win over the world, ushering in an era of peace and good feeling."
That was the promise back in 2008. It seems so stupid now. And speaking of stupid, remember how stupid Bush was?
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This is, easily, the worst Presidency in the last 100 years. Nothing even approaches it.
Hillary is forever stained by the sheer shit show that her job was. Foreign policy is a disaster on every possible front and that was HER area.
No, it seemed - and was - stupid then. It completely ignored history, and assigned qualities to one BHO that were entirely imaginary.
I would have selected this quote from the column:
"Our friends are avoiding us, our foes aren't afraid of us, and it's looking more and more like nobody in charge knows what they're doing. It's enough to make you look back fondly on the smooth, capable diplomacy of the Jimmy Carter era."
Regards,
WJR
France has a lot of business interests in Syria and Lebanon, and I expect that it was pandering to some of those that led Hollande to say what he did plus getting some brownie points in Washington, and he thought it was safe because surely Obama would not be pressing this any farther, so it would all just pass away in the night.
That was a miscalculation, and I bet M. Hollande now wishes he had kept his mouth shut.
It seemed stupid at the time too.
So you now say, "It seems so stupid now."
Imagine then, the feelings of those of us who recognized candidate Obama's BS for what it was in 2008 and have known Obama's rubes, i.e., his supporters, have been stupid for the past 5 years.
But she is a woman so she is not to be judged by her results, just her lady parts. Prepare the coronation for 2017! Forget about your country, vote for your gender.
The Administration was off on the wrong foot with the quick Nobel and speech to Egyptian STUDENTS. And they didn't even know it.
Much like Clinton when he pulled the U S Navy back from landing in Haiti.
damikesc: "Hillary is forever stained by the sheer shit show that her job was. Foreign policy is a disaster on every possible front and that was HER area."
In 3 years the media will have all of the last 5 years so blurred the low information voters will be convinced that Bush and Cheney were running things right up to 2016.
And besides: Sexist!
For all her many faults, she would still have been a better President than Barrack (low bar that it is).
So far, our only ally in the proposed Syria venture is France, maybe.
France is only in if we bring the cheese and the monkeys...just in case.
Give Hillary some credit?
Would she have bailed absent Benghazi, I don't think you could say with any certainty. So if not, then it would be she lurching around instead of Lurch.
I don't see even half credit. If she was pushed out because of Benghazi, then no credit. If she bailed, then she left the stage with the Benghazi horse collar around her neck, and no chance to redeem herself on the international stage before 2016.
If counting on the short memory of the electorate counts as credit, then maybe so, but if so then shame on us.
"It seems so stupid now."
Yes, yes it does. And it was all too predictable, even back then. A vote-present neophyte who'd failed his way upwards (with the help of the Chicago machine) and never held a real job. Not even close.
I understand your reasons for voting for him, Ann, but this was a train an awful lot of people saw coming in the run-up to 2007. Reynolds has been saying for years that a Carter-like situation would be a best-case scenario. We're far beyond that now.
So Ann you are telling me that Hillary is incompetent but makes up for it by knowing how to duck responsibility? What a ringing endorsement.
Britain decided not to participate in Syria because of the lies that were told to and by them to participate in the war in Iraq.
As for Bush's "huge multinational coalition for his own foray against an Arab dictator suspected of having chemical weapons", exactly three (Britain, Australia and Poland) countries participated in the initial invasion, and non-U.S. or British troops never constituted more than 5% of the troops post-invasion.
Just once, I'd like to see someone credible make a case for why Hillary is not only qualified to be President, but appears to be the MOST qualified to be President.
I'll admit I'm not a fan of Hillary, but seriously, what's on her resume that's so great? What has she really accomplished?
In other news, this weekend my brother-in-law was telling me that Obama is unable to do the "right thing" in Syria because Bush so botched Iraq. Is there anything that can't be blamed on W?
When the president himself suggests that when he's elected the water levels will cease to rise, you know you are dealing with a pretty huge level of self aggrandizement and myth making.
Hope and change is so vacuous a campaign promise I can't imagine people with even a modicum of intelligence not instantly saying "bullshit" upon hearing it.
An that was the extent of the dems message. Bush bad, dems good. And with a compliant media they can get away with saying bush lied people and people died and totally ignore the sound bites of the previous president and congress saying the exact same thing.
Or blaming repubs for deregulation completely ignoring that it was Clinton that deregulated the banks and the dems that pushed eased lending to people unable to afford loans, not to mention defending Fannie Mae long after it was determined to be hemoraging money.
Then after making these completely vacuous promises, Obama violates 2/3rds of them and gets elected again without a peep.
And then after no recovery for four years these dumb yokels vote for him AGAIN!
Hillary's due zero credit for disappearing instead of facing the music for her participation in the current Syrian debacle, on top of the Egyptian and Libyan ones.
She's got a stack of questions in her in-box, and her avoidance and evasions simply reinforce the perception that she feels entitled to front-runner for President without any acknowledgement nor reflection on her inept performance as Sec State.
An executive she aint.
But no matter how bad it is, by 2016 the media will have spun the Obama era as deft in its nuanced conduct of superb foreign policy. And the low information voters that put our black messiah in power will opt now for Hillary and whoever does not support her is a chauvinist.
Not to flog a long-dead horse, but all this was visible 'way back then. The only question is: have any of us learned a damned thing about our collective psychodynamics that gave rise to the horrific myopia that enabled this disaster?
It's enough to make you look back fondly on the smooth, capable diplomacy of the Jimmy Carter era.
“For too many years, we’ve been willing to adopt the flawed and erroneous principles and tactics of our adversaries, sometimes abandoning our own values for theirs. We’ve fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is sometimes best quenched with water..."
Jimmy Carter
Hillary is forever stained by the sheer shit show that her job was. Foreign policy is a disaster on every possible front and that was HER area.
That's true, but diplomacy doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's going to be decades before we know how much of this is Hillary and how much is Obama.
"Smooth, Europhile Democrats would win over the world, ushering in an era of peace and good feeling."
It should read "Smooth, Europhile And Stupid Democrats....."
"Lurch", if you are referring to Kerry, should be capitalized.
Careful now, she's the anointed one for 2016...her time you know...it could get worse....particularly with this elctorate and her handing out "presents" to the voters (with the money of the few left working).
It's not a "Reset" button no matter how much some people want to call it that.
Calling it a reset button no more makes it one than calling a dog a horse makes it a horse.
It is, legally, an "Emergency Stop" button.
Frankly that is a much better metaphor anyway. We don't need to reset anything. We need to come to an immediate screeching halt.
Then we can figure out what we might do, including a reset.
But first we need to throw out an anchor and stop, right now.
John Henry
JRoberts, that's like asking someone who insists Palin is stupid to explain exactly why they think so; you generally get lots of 'BECAUSE SHE IS!' shrieking and nothing more. When you do get a 'reason' it boils down to "She doesn't have the right politics, so she's stupid!"
Ask those same people to explain exactly why they think Hillary is such a genius...
"Britain decided not to participate in Syria because of the lies that were told to and by them to participate in the war in Iraq."
Yeah, we told them that they told us there were very likely WMD in Iraq and they believed us!
No no no. Seriously, it is Bush's fault and I am a racist.
When the president himself suggests that when he's elected the water levels will cease to rise, you know you are dealing with a pretty huge level of self aggrandizement and myth making.
I bet if one looks at the AGW record the after levels have stopped rising since he was elected.
Then again, were that so he would have accepted credit for it by now.
This is shaping up to be the coalition of the begrudgingly convinced vs. coalition of the willing.
A few months back, I suggested that Hillary would regret her flippant remark about the Benghazi affair. The good Professor gave me a good scolding. It was obvious that her comment was carefully conceived and delivered!
I think I'm sticking to my suggestion that it will haunt her in the near future.
"
For all her many faults, she would still have been a better President than Barrack (low bar that it is)."
I seriously doubt this. Hillary did her senior thesis on Alinsky. She was fired by the Democrat chair of the Watergate committee. He said his reasons were her lies and her actions that ignored the law, such as trying to bar Nixon from having defense counsel.
At the risk of offending our gracious hostess, I might gently point out that she voted for him. It would be major points for honesty and self-criticism if she would Fisk her own post where she explained why she was voting for Obama.
I'm quite willing to accept that the proposition that the idea that Obama would be "smarter" is stupid if this were discussed in global (rather than local) context.
Michael K. _"I seriously doubt this. Hillary did her senior thesis on Alinsky. She was fired by the Democrat chair of the Watergate committee. He said his reasons were her lies and her actions that ignored the law, such as trying to bar Nixon from having defense counsel."
======================
That and after she pretty well established herself as a loud and pushy know it all, she failed the DC Bar Exam.
The only question is: have any of us learned a damned thing about our collective psychodynamics that gave rise to the horrific myopia that enabled this disaster?
Yes. The 19th Amendment needs to be repealed as soon as possible.
Syria will fade from the forefront of thinking by the time of the 2016 election. What will be at the forefront?
Who knows but likely it will not be Syria.
There's a pretty good chance that Iran will have gotten ready to build and deploy nuclear weapons by 2016. If so, that will make Syria look like a sideshow. (Anyone remember the Agadir Crisis?)
Remember, underlying all of this is a nation about to go nuclear, which is committed at least rhetorically to destroying our only constant ally in the Middle East. What are the chances that the last few weeks are giving that ally confidence that any nation in the world will give assistance if Iran comes to the brink of nuclear weapons capacity? And what does that tell you about the course Israel is likely to follow?
Cedarford, wrong again. Hilary Clinton did not fail the D.C. bar exam. No no no.
Some woman named Hilary Rodham did, but not Mrs. Clinton.
I think I heard Juan Williams, or somebody, say something about a broad coalition backing President Obama's proposed actions with respect to Bashir Assad and Syria.
Has anyone heard who this coalition may consist of?
David,
I remember (reading about) Agadir - and the tensions it created led toward WW I. Forgotten but not gone.
Still, I think that Hilary, if Sec State, would not have attacked Syria. This is a John Kerry lurch into new policies.
And I am the only one who sees that 12 years after 9/11 we will be debating in Congress about allying ourselves to Al-Queda? Because degrading Syria's military but not putting in any troops of our own is allying with Al Quaeda. When the military is degraded the Al-Queada will race in. And we are going to debate this starting on 9/9 and some Democrats want to instantly give the Prezzy of the United Stezzy the power to help Al-Quaeda by bombing
On 9/11, 2013, we agree to help Al Quaeda????!!!! No. No. No.
Scott M said "France is only in if we bring the cheese and the monkeys...just in case."
And the flags ... don't forget the white flags.
Good luck on getting the 19th Amendment repealed, oh Gahrie of the He Male Woman Haters Club. How many times have you repeated that now? It still hasn't happened, don't hold your breath.
Hillary had to leave her post as Secretary of State due to her egregious error in Benghazi. The O administration did not announce it as that, but to me it is obvious. She screwed up royally and at least the O administration made the decision to kick her out, but allowed her to save face. Nevertheless she is incompetent.
Hillary was told to leave her post as Secretary of State due to her egregious malfeasance in Benghazi. The O administration did not announce it as that, but it is obvious. She screwed up royally and at least the O administration made the decision to kick her out, but allowed her to save face. Nevertheless she is incompetent.
Well that is about a big a crock or revisionist horseshit to hit the blogs in quite some time.
Well that is about a big a crock or revisionist horseshit to hit the blogs in quite some time.
Freder Frederson writes that "non-U.S. or British troops never constituted more than 5% of the troops post-invasion". A glance at Wikipedia's detailed listing of the sizes and dates of service of the various components of the Multi-National Force Iraq shows that this is simply false, and that they were at least 10% soon after the invasion. Twenty-one nations other than the U.S. had at least one soldier killed in Iraq, and six of them had death tolls in double or triple digits (UK 179, Italy 33, Poland 23, Ukraine 18, Bulgaria 13, Spain 11). Yes, it was a multinational effort. No, Obama will not be able to come up with anything like it.
Jim Geraghty doesn't share Ann's approval of Hillary:
You can pin this on Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, but most of all, the buck stops with the president. Those of us who scoffed a bit at a state senator ascending to the presidency within four years on a wave of media hype and adoration are not quite so shocked by this current mess. We never bought into this notion that getting greater cooperation from our allies, and less hostility from our enemies, was just a matter of giving this crew the wheel and letting them practice, as Hillary Clinton arrogantly declared it, “smart power.” (These people can’t even label a foreign-policy approach without reminding us of how highly they think of themselves.)
I'd like to think Syria will fade from people's minds in time for the 2016 race, that's a best case scenario. What if its an all out war with Iran, Hezzbolah and Syria launching a massive missile assault on Israel after our "attack"? We are fumbling around in the dark in search of a policy because out president has lost face. It's no more complicated than that.
The Brits have been waiting for this opportunity since the first day Our Savior was in office, and he rudely sent the White House bust of Winston Churchill back to England. That bust had been a gift and had enjoyed a place of honor in the Oval Office for years.
Something about British colonialism in Kenya......
Krumhorn
At the risk of offending our gracious hostess, I might gently point out that she voted for him. It would be major points for honesty and self-criticism if she would Fisk her own post where she explained why she was voting for Obama.
I'm no fan of Obama by any stretch, but let me just point out voting in the US isn't up or down for one candidate. You have two people to choose from. Well, technically more, but in reality two.
John McCain is a cranky old nut and I'm happy he's not anywhere near the white house. He never found a country that wasn't in need of a good bombing. The 2008 election was really a choice between bad and worse, and I'll be damned if I can figure out which candidate deserved which label.
It's 3am and Hillary turned off the phone and got out of Dodge. It's the smartest thing she's done in years.
This was the 2004 argument for Kerry, too. At least now people can see how things may have looked if he'd been elected instead of Bush for a second term.
America 2004 looks pretty smart, after all.
in the lurch? IN? No need to be crass.
Hillary did indeed hide from the controversy. That alone should disqualify her as a presidential candidate.
Good luck on getting the 19th Amendment repealed, oh Gahrie of the He Male Woman Haters Club. How many times have you repeated that now? It still hasn't happened, don't hold your breath.
But I don't hate women. Three out of my four bosses are women, and I respect and admire all of them. But that is just it. Those three women, and Althouse, all made comments along the lines of: "The only thing that matters is abortion and birth control" or "I vote my emotions, not my intellect and frankly I am proud of that".
I advocate for the repeal of the 19th Amendment with sadness, not glee.
Obama is the worse president in my lifetime. I remember every one starting with Truman--his sec. of state brought on the Korean war by stating that Korea was outside the area of US interests. Democrats are not good at international relations, but this one is the worst.
I think that Hillary! probably always intended on resigning after Obama's first term. I think that her eye has always been on the brass ring of the Presidency, and she took this job in order to burnish her resume. If she had stuck it out, she would be running for President in 2016 extremely tired, as she neared her 70th birthday. This way, she has 4 years to rest up and get ready. She can raise a lot of money this way that she couldn't have, if she had to spend her time jetting another million miles around the world. Besides, second terms are almost invariably rockier than first terms, and esp. when it comes to foreign relations.
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