Empty suit

Does anyone share my reaction to this?

Obama likes to execute long-range strategies but suffers from cognitive dissonance when new facts render them inappropriate.  His 2008 campaign was a largely flawless execution of a smart strategy, but he was flummoxed momentarily when the Russians invaded Georgia and when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate...

His long-range strategy of propitiating America’s enemies has been undercut by North Korea’s missile launches and demonstrations in Iran against the mullah regime’s apparent election fraud...  He limits himself to expressing “deep concern” about the election... while he misses his chance to encourage the one result — regime change — that could protect us and our allies from Iranian attack. - Michael Barone

Sounds like a man who so distrusts his own knowledge, ability, and instinct that any nontrivial change in circumstances sends him running to check with his handlers.  Or like some badly-programmed CNC system that, faced with an unusual input, locks up until its operators can rescue it.

Intelligence, principle, and guts should be enough to stand any president in good stead, even when the going gets weird and the advisers are out-of-reach.  And political instinct can make getting by possible, even when I, P, or G might be lacking.  Yet time and again, when events move beyond some pre-defined boundary, we have seen Obama freeze up, change the subject, or react inappropriately.

It’s almost like we’re being “led” by an empty suit, the sockpuppet of some ruling committee, incapable of moving beyond its instructions until the next meeting.

Scary when you think about those 3am phone calls.  (HT: Ace)


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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:31:10 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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