Obama goes to battle against straw men…
Headline: Greatest Orator Since Cicero Successfully Refutes That Which Was Never Contended
Variously seen on Twitter, spoofs of Obama’s foreign policy address to the commencement class at West Point:
Lachlan Markay: “”Some say we should nuke the entire Asian continent. Others want our capital to be Pyongyang. Unlike everyone else, I’m a rational centrist.
Ben Shapiro:”We need to do stuff. And the stuff we will do will not be stuff that a crazy person says we should do. It will be good stuff.”
In a shocker, Obama informed the captive audience at West Point that from now on, the US military will be using might in the service of right. A revolutionary thought!
More from Scott Johnson at Powerline on the address:
I find it difficult to imagine the mental nullity required to draft and revise this speech.
I have felt that way about all of Obama’s speeches. But hey, that’s just me.
It also strikes me as ironic that, unlike their fellow graduates at so many other universities, the West Point graduates were unable to protest their commencement speaker, who dearly deserved it.
Also love that bit about American exceptional ism “not flouting international norms and the rule of law.” as if anyone had argued that it had.
All of his speeches at West Point have been dreadful.
It’s sadistic to expose the Cadet Corps to a C-in-C who makes them rue the day they accepted an appointment to the Academy.
Would that the MSM finally analyze the speech and recognize that there’s no there, there. It is to weep!
J.J.:
I agree that it seems cruel.
But at least this class entered West Point when Obama was already president.
What I fear the most is that a lot of them are probably buying into this crap. It ain’t your daddy’s Army any more, I am sorry to say.
They’ll buy into the BS right up until they and the men they are tasked to lead are left to die on some nameless hillside , sort of like Task Force Smith .
Then, young Lieutenant, you’ll recall that daft old instructor’s warning .
After four years in the Army, 66-70 getting out and E-5 I must say that nothing is more amusing a shiny, brand new, second Lt. right out of the box.
Can these poor cadets get hazardous duty pay for this exposure to massive amounts of inane bilge?
I heard a few sound bites. I was not overly surprised at the rhetoric, but was startled by the poor delivery.
Did TOTUS malfunction; or did he just not bother to preview it at all?
Today was good for Cadets. They have been trained to endure, and today was their final exam before they have to put their lessons into practice in a rougher environment.
I feel for the upper echelons at the USMA. I am sure they are being raked over the coals by Jarrett or someone of that ilk for not having the audience properly prepared to express worship. Then again, maybe they don’t give a damn. I found out decades ago that a chewing out is really only painful if it comes from someone you respect.
The empty chair president can only battle straw men, before all others he is defenseless. Meanwhile the MSM gets tingles upon hearing his words of wisdom.
Someone linked a photo at Ace of Spades showing a cadet saluting Obama and Obama offering a handshake instead.
Another commenter said that there was no chance that Obama didn’t understand the protocol. Failure to return a salute is a deliberate insult.
I bet some young, inexperienced smarty pants like Tommy Vietor wrote that speech after a 5 min huddle with Obama in between watching ESPN and a trip to the links. “Dude, those wars are, like, over 10 years old – time to be a force of good in the world!”
And the not returning the salute…One of Obama’s worst traits: a refusal to learn/adapt based on error or past experience.
The straw man is the only opponent Obama can knock down.
I told Michelle . . . that . . .
my favored voice. . .
and measured cadence . . .
. . . was . . .
in the best . . . NLP style
. . . and was . . .
habit forming.
She, uh, said
Go f . . .
Reggie Love,
bitch.
He really doesn’t understand his position, does he? He fundamentally just doesn’t get it. He obviously doesn’t understand the distinction between being president and being commander-in-chief. There’s a time and a place for each role but he’s clueless.
Wouldn’t it be nice if some morning he was gone. He had slipped out of the white house and returned to his ‘choom’ gang.
Ahh, all you toothless little people (and I am one of you) who fuss and mutter about the Choomer as if that’s all you/we can do.
We keep taking what he dishes out. Talk about passivity and impotence.
Obama is a hardcore marxist-leninist. His goals are to destroy the economy, destroy our healthcare system, destroy our military, destroy our position in the world.
He is eagerly and diligently proceeding with all of the above. He isn’t lazy, he isn’t oblivious. He knows exactly what he is about.
“It also strikes me as ironic that, unlike their fellow graduates at so many other universities, the West Point graduates were unable to protest their commencement speaker, who dearly deserved it.”
Good point. But Obama knew they would be captive before he went there, treating them like props. He’s done that repeatedly on different subjects concerning the military. He treats them like house n*ggers.
Personally, I’m waiting for a bunch of house sitters to get off the fence. I’m not going to charge the trenches alone, while the cowards sit in the back and take the glory afterwards.
Neo: “But at least this class entered West Point when Obama was already president.”
Can’t help when you’re born. GEN Petraeus, for example, was born 1952, which means he entered USMA and was commissioned at a low point for the Army, social cultural treatment of the Army, and US foreign affairs.
The cadets, they know what’s going on. They’re a smart, informed, critical thinking bunch. All the West Point pageantry that dazzles the tourists? The cadets know the harsh machinery underneath. Plus, roughly 200 cadets of every class at West Point are prior service, which at this point means veterans of Iraq and/or Afghanistan.
It’s not a bad time to be a 2LT as far as entering an Army where your superior officers, your platoon sergeant, and some, maybe most, of your soldiers are war veterans. Plus, Obama is setting it up so by the time today’s LTs have big commands, there’s going to be some big crisis for the Army to solve.
A lot of the initial casualties in Iraq were due to falsified readiness reports, paper army syndrome, and various other peace generals doing things.
That was from the Carter and Clinton budget falls, that mysteriously fell on Democrat dotcoms and other businesses.
Well Ymarsakar, few WANT to be John Brown. Just like few WANTED to charge OMAHA beach. Most people prefer to survive to toast the fallen rather than be the fallen. It’s not cowardice, it’s rational prudence. If it happens, it will be like a dam breaking (“Apré¨s moi, le déluge”) and it will change the face of Arrakis.
I would remind you of what I wrote here after the 2012 election: November 20th 1989 Nicolae Ceaușescu was elected to a new 5-year term as head commie in Romania. December 25th 1989 Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed by his own Paratroops after a 2 hour trial.
Ymarsakar,
Yep. That’s a shortcoming of being activist for a side that doesn’t understand and appreciate activism. It’s a lot easier for left activists in that regard, though they’re dog-eat-dog.
One of the reasons I quit activism, despite my side winning, was the burn-out from dragging my colleagues who, while I enabled and facilitated the key functions they fulfilled, refused to respect the base (ugly) activism that was the vehicle allowing them to make a difference. Then, when we won, they begrudged the role of activism and, more importantly, refused to plan ahead for the first, always, and non-stop left activists who’ll fall back tactically but will never quit.
They acted like the victory was an inevitable result of some sort of fated historical confluence rather than earned through dirty competition in the arena. Maybe because I was the one getting dirty so they could stay clean.
Many folks who eagerly complain and whine about the Left and the state of things are unhelpful in the heavy lifting it takes to compete seriously with the Left. The best you can do is gather those who’ll do the heavy lifting and the dirty work and find useful roles for the others. And yeah, after you get dirty so they can stay clean, they’ll take the credit if you win. It’s tough being a true believer.
Having been both, I can say the social condition of being a soldier and an activist is similar.
Wretchard at Belmont Club does a spectacular mocking of Obama’s West Point speech here:
http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/05/28/brother-rat/#comments
It’s pure genius and hard-hitting. It’s what we need more of to expose the emptiness of his “vision.”
Here’s a video clip (3 minutes) by Evan Sayet, a man I have just become aware of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3dHkEKE-k
I think his take on what he calls Modern Liberals is spot on. “Modern Liberals have turned thinking into a hate crime.” Sayet has a book out that is reported to be an extension of the ideas of Bloom’s “Closing of the American Mind.” The title is: “The KinderGarden Of Eden: How The Modern Liberal Thinks And Why He’s Convinced That Ignorance Is Bliss.” Since, as Eric has observed, we have no stomach for activism, we need to get inside their heads and use that knowledge to mock them and turn the tables on them. A mental ju jitsu, if you will. Such as that demonstrated by Wretchard.
Since it’ll take people about 100 WACOs to wake up in America (if you can even have 100 WACOs before losing the war to the LEft), and it’ll be about 15 years until Civil War II, there’s plenty of time to prepare. By the time people wake up, the time should be about right for them to make a decision one way or another.
It’s not cowardice, it’s rational prudence.
I’m referring to the WWI politcians that sent people to die, and then wasted the sacrifice and victory. Along with the Husseins that intentionally get Americans killed, while he sits safe back at home.
Omaha wasn’t alone, neither the beach without the tanks nor the beach alone amongst the other beach heads.
If you mean Brown of Harper’s Ferry, he was doing his own thing, as usual.
A mental ju jitsu, if you will.
Most of the Left’s “changing the world” zombie idealists think little differently from the Santa Rog killer.
Personally I am excited about his promise to unleash the military on global warming. I can’t imagine what kind of weapons we will bring to bear on the enemy- but hand held fans, and possibly the planting of shade trees come to mind. Or perhaps we will send the cadets out to invade US coal mines, oil fields, and blow up our own pipe lines. All on horseback I mean.
The future is definitely a bright one for our best military students.
OldTexan, don’t be worried that the cadets won’t be able to see through Obama. My youngest graduated from a US military academy and had her commission handed to her by Obama. She and her fellow cadets had contempt for the man. Remember that in the military you learn quickly what real leadership is. Most with military experience see through the big Zero.
She and her fellow cadets had contempt for the man.
What matters is who is giving the orders and whether they will obey. Plenty of soldiers held contempt for their officers, without fragging them.
So I wonder if this speech was another deliberate and cleverly written soliloquy that went over our heads, or just his usual sophomoric world view on display? He regularly proves he’s more of a fool than we’re willing to give him credit for. Knave, fool, or just 60s hippie political views?
At some point, it will become apparent that Obama really believes the nonsense that he is advancing American interests and influence with his Jimmy Carter-on-steroids foreign policy.
When this administration is over, and the memoirs are written, I will bet the house that the depth of Obama’s naé¯veté will shock his most ardent supporters as well as his enemies. This guy has been winging it since day one.
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