Lefty positions have always been exercises in logical contortion, but Obama has raised such reason defying politics to an art form. In an interview with the perky little Katie Couric, the president defended his war on terror decision making, explaining that he was merely continuing Bush administration practices.
"I think that the most important thing for the public to understand," he told Ms. Couric, "is we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11." Mr. Obama went on to add that "190 folks"—folks presumably just like the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks—had been tried and convicted in civilian court during Mr. Bush's tenure.
Leave aside, for just a moment, the substance. Far more arresting is that Mr. Obama now defends himself by invoking a man he has spent the past year blaming for al Qaeda's growth. You know—all those Niebuhrian speeches about how America had gone "off course," "shown arrogance and been dismissive," and "made decisions based on fear rather than foresight," thus handing al Qaeda a valuable recruiting tool.
Others have happily piled on. John Brennan, a career CIA holdover, used his first public appearance last August as Mr. Obama's counterterrorism chief to declare a new dawn. No longer would America's policies serve as "a recruitment bonanza for terrorists." No longer would we be "defining and indeed distorting our entire national security apparatus" because of terrorism. Henceforth, Mr. Obama would abandon the "global war" mindset, and take care not to "validate al Qaeda's twisted worldview."
Isn't it sad that our "watch dog" press went to such great lengths to cast doubt on Sarah Palin's readiness for the vice presidency, while at the same time promoting Barack Obama's experience on the presidential campaign trail as proof of his fitness to be Commander-in-Chief in a time of war. Our mainstream media have been utterly pathetic, borderline incompetent, and dishonest to boot. They're trying so hard to disguise the fact the we have an OJT president, and unfortunately, as Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said, he's a slow learner.
Absolutely great commentary. This article points to sentiments I have always thought. How is it our elustrious "main stream" media could promote a 1.5 year term Senator with a trasparently thin voting record and no real resume or performance record, while villifying Palin as a dim wit while not reporting on her accomplishments as Govenor of Alaska? Both of them when lined up are more or less rookies but at least Palin "ran" government. Last but not least.....Palin was running for VICE president, but was covered (negatively) as if she was the Presdential candidate. I hope everyone learns something from this....and NO.....No Palin in 2012 either!!! Lets be a little smarter than this, this time around.
Posted by: Common Sense | February 19, 2010 at 12:30 PM