Obama’s a better general than his generals, a better…
…oh, a better everything than his everythings.
Does Obama listen to anyone except his political experts? Oh, he pretends to listen. He lets them talk—invites them to talk, even—and tilts his head and furrows his brow, and thanks them. And then they’re dismissed, while the real advisors and Obama confer:
…[I]nside the White House…the foreign policy machine has grown dramatically in power under Obama and cabinet members and their departments have felt marginalized.
The National Security Council staff, which coordinates U.S. defense, diplomatic and intelligence policy from inside the White House, has nearly doubled in size on his watch. It has gone from about 50 under George H.W. Bush to 100 under Bill Clinton, 200 under George W. Bush and about 370 under Obama.
Decisions small as well as large are made at the White House, often with scant influence from the Pentagon and State Department and their much larger teams of analysts and advisers. Senior Cabinet officials spend long hours in meetings debating tactics, not long-term strategy, the officials said.
One could understand this behavior in a president with some sort of previous foreign policy experience. But Obama has none. What he does have is boundless confidence/arrogance, and he likes to be advised by rank and sophomoric amateurs.
Presidents must ultimately take charge and make their own final decisions, of course. But that doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t or don’t listen to experts. Obama not only doesn’t listen to the experts (including those he’s appointed), he keeps his decisions a secret. Nobody knows, outside of a small circle of friends:
One former senior U.S. official said Obama’s 2011 decision to abandon difficult troop negotiations with Baghdad and remove the last U.S. soldiers from Iraq surprised the Pentagon and was known only by the president and a small circle of aides.
No one except those aides approved of it.
And the following much smaller decision was a huge mistake even in terms of politics (IMHO, responsible for even many liberals starting to doubt him—at least among some liberals I know):
While on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard in late August, he was widely criticized for golfing after making a condolence call to the family of murdered American journalist James Foley. Minutes after declaring Foley’s murderer – Islamic State – a “cancer” that had “no place in the 21st century,” Obama teed off with a campaign contributor, an old friend and a former NBA star.
Don’t worry, though, no-drama Obama isn’t going to do any soul-searching. Soul-searching is for the little people. Blaming is for Obama:
Obama later told aides the criticism was inevitable. No matter what I do, he said, my enemies will attack me.
Poor put-upon guy.
George W. Bush had his faults but at least he was willing to listen to other people.
Field Marshal Valerie Jarret and General Samantha Powers are awesome, are they not??
What this really means is that all of the horrible failures of the Obama Administration (e.g ACA, Iraq ) fall squarely on Barack’s and Val’s shoulders.
The man is not used to being held squarely to account for what he says and does. He’s used to not being questioned at all… except rarely, when his skills at deflecting criticism and changing the subject came in handy.
(Unfortunately, when he ran for reelection in 2012, he ran against someone too gentlemanly to look the sitting President of the United States in the eye and call him a liar. You had your shot, Mitt, and you flinched when it counted.)
Holding our President to account, for what he has promised and what he has done, would be absolutely devastating. It would also show what a pitifully small man he is.
Obama listens to those best able to discern what he wants to be told. Valerie Jarrett appears to be at the top of that list.
Obama does indeed have an inordinate amount of arrogance and narcissism but that is not an indication of confidence. Rather just the opposite, deep down he’s deeply insecure and covers it up by an outward show of political bravado. Politics being the only venue within which he’ll compete. But even in politics, he refuses to compete honestly, besides being a serial liar with no ethical compunctions, he has no hesitation in pulling the race card, so even when he loses, he’s the victim.
In the final analysis however, a President cannot truly take charge and make their own final decisions, when avoidance of responsibility is foremost in their mind. There’s never anything ‘final’ about Obama’s decisions, he’s never responsible for anything negative and a man who only claims responsibility for the positive, ultimately takes responsibility for nothing.
That plus his ‘confidence’ that he’s always the “smartest person in the room” and better at everything than anyone else leads to hubris and hubris is the foundation of boastful pride and pride ever goeth before a fall…
I have noticed on Facebook how all of my deeply liberal friends have stopped posting stickies about his wonderfulness… In fact – now, they never post anything political unless it it about Sarah Palin.
Credible reports that Val was concerned OBL raid would fail and our Seals waited for days or weeks until Obama finally gave the order.
Very well said GB!
This country survived the Civil War; two World Wars; the Great Depression; and a long and divisive Vietnam War. It is very much in doubt whether we can survive eight years of an Obama Presidency.
Bush II had an inner circle as well that some people thought was a barrier to information spread to the lower ranks. The inner circle had some competent people, but also some saboteur like individuals, which led to State vs DoD schizoid differences in policy for Iraq.
The CIA director was said to have given the go order on Osama, Obama was still golfing at the time.
He doesn’t have “critics” he has “enemies.” —
How Stalinist!
Barry simply sees enemies everywhere.
“I see enemy people.”
Paging Bruce Willis…
Snap out of it!
GB,
“. . . his ‘confidence’ that he’s always the ‘smartest person in the room’ . . . .”
We always denigrate this comment as untrue, but in the worst case scenario that we now experience it appears that it might actually be true.
1) Obama is smartest person in the room because he has, for the most part, filled the room with idiots;
2) that Obama’s blinkered intelligence might actually make him the smartest person in that room sends shivers up my spine.
The world sees the presidency as a high jump; Obama thinks it’s the limbo.
Actually Obama is using the Presidency as practice for something important. Our little minds just cannot fathom his purpose. We must learn to trust.
T: ” The world sees the presidency as a high jump; Obama thinks it’s the limbo.”
So few words; so much truth.
My Father often told me that the best way to proceed in a meeting is to presume that you are the dumbest person in the room and go from there. Sound advice. That way you can learn something.
Is Obama capable of learning? But he’s really “smart”.
Right.
blert
Barry simply sees enemies everywhere.
Within the borders of the US, true enough. Outside the US, not so much. Muslim brotherhood: Barry’s a friend. Putin: Barry’s a friend……ISIS- a friend, as long as they reserve their damage for after elections.
This is frightening when you consider that he also attends only about 40% of his National Security briefings. So what are his decisions based on – Domestic politics?
* * *
Regarding the Osama Bin Laden raid, per Richard Miniter’s book, Leading From Behind, “Obama canceled the “kill” mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time….Obama administration officials also said after the raid that the president had delayed giving the order to kill the arch-terrorist the day before the operation was carried out, in what turned out to be his fourth moment of indecision,” using non-existent bad weather as the excuse.
http://tinyurl.com/mthopx5
Lizzy:
So what are his decisions based on — Domestic politics?
Pretty much, it would appear. That tends to be a fairly common Democrat criteria for making foreign policy decisions. In the Senate vote on Gulf War I, all but 5 or so Democrat Senators voted against Bush. That led me to the conclusion that most of those Democrat Senators voted on the war on the traditional domestic criteria: Demo Good, Pub Bad.
After that, I decided that I would never again vote for a Democrat for President, as Democrats had shown in the Gulf War I vote that they put domestic politics over foreign policy.
I concluded that the best role for Democrats in the construction of foreign policy was to be in charge of ordering the food at ethnic restaurants. 🙂
On the other hand, by implying that Obama is a bad general we are assuming that he is not right now winning.
I doubt if he thinks things are going badly. On the contrary, whatever the indigenous peoples of the non-white, non-Western, non-American Imperialist world are doing is fine. A Caliphate would be fine for Obama. It would just be another proud nation that he could then negotiate with. He could really then be a hero to the Muslim world (as he always wanted to be), and to the Progressive Left – which is the only group he identifies with.
ISIS wins? Double win for Obama.
The man is mad and sociopathic, but he is not losing. Far from it.
Wow, what an unwieldy number. if they were all together for an 8 hour meeting they would average 1.5 minutes of floor time each provided Obama didn’t spend too much time talking. No wonder a few individuals dominate the decision making process.
It’s going to be a very long two years.
Mike:
The author of the WaPo piece is assuming Obama’s a “bad general” (i.e. fool). I don’t assume it, although it’s a possibility. The other possibility is as you say (i.e. knave). I think it’s some combination of the two, and have now for years. But the exact parameters of the fool/knave breakdown with Obama not clear; where does one begin and one end, exactly which parts are intended and which accidental?
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the Obama voter. 2008 or 2012, it makes little difference, but 2008 illustrates the point better. I’m no savant or clairvoyant, but I perceived this eventuality to an Obama presidency in 2007, which is why I didn’t vote for him. By “Obama voter,” I don’t mean the LIVs that don’t normally vote, but got off their duffs to vote for Obama. I’m talking about informed and educated people who drank the kool-aid. Peggy Noonan is a prototype. I’m not picking on her individually. I believe she is representative of a much larger group who were swept away by all that “charisma.” And I believe it was this group of white-hearted but empty-headed voters who carried Obama. Words don’t do justice to describe the incredible stupidity of these people. Especially now, when they know –or certainly should know– how dreadfully wrong they were. How many mea culpas have there been? Crickets.
Neo – In the famous words of Forest Gump’s Mother – A Knave is as a Knave does.
It is not a question for me.
In what sense is he a fool, for example? Can that sentence be completed, “Obama is a fool because…”
I think you would complete it by assuming that what you want is what he wants. But what if he wants something completely different.
“my enemies will attack me.”
And, of course, we all know that by “enemies” he means those killing Americans, right? RIGHT?
Mike:
For example:
“Obama is a fool because he failed to pretend to care more about James Foley’s death, and started to blow his cover even with the liberals who support him and other Democrats. This could easily backfire on him, and all he had to do was to pretend to care more by giving up golf for a day.”
That sort of thing.
Neo – Okay, so he is a fool for not being more clever or patient about his aims, which are fundamentally different from traditional Americans. If he were not a fool he would be better positioned to complete his knavery.
That I can agree with. Even evil geniuses have the fatal flaw.
I would say that if he is a fool, he is a fool because he thinks his way will work for the better for the people he sides with. I am reading a book by Hayek now and he says, more or less, that socialist policies will definitely lead to more poverty and more dead people.
Obama is a fool because he thinks redistribution of wealth will make people richer; that weakness will bring peace and harmony; that weakening America is good since America is evil.
He is a fool because he has his facts wrong. He is a knave because he is brutal in executing the plan he has based on facts that are not facts but errors.
Either way he is a threat to the country he is President of.
Hussein is better at evil and terrorism than Satan or AQ is at evil or terrorism.
Obama doesn’t deserve this song, but it reminds me a bit of his ‘tude:
“C’est Moi!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc5NPVWd1CI
(with the grand Robert Goulet)
A knight of the Table Round should be invincible,
Suceed where a less fantastic man would fail.
Climb a wall no one else can climb,
Cleave a dragon in record time,
Swim a moat in a coat of heavy iron mail.
No matter the pain, he ought to be unwinceable,
Impossible deeds should be his daily fare.
But where in the world
Is there in the world
A man so *extraordinaire*?
C’est moi! C’est moi, I’m forced to admit.
‘Tis I, I humbly reply.
That mortal who
These marvels can do,
C’est moi, c’est moi, ’tis I.
I’ve never lost
In battle or game;
I’m simply the best by far.
When swords are crossed
‘Tis always the same:
One blow and au revoir!
C’est moi! C’est moi! So adm’rably fit!
A French Prometheus unbound.
And here I stand, with valour untold,
Exeption’ly brave, amazingly bold,
To serve at the Table Round!
Obama is a better epidemiologist has his CDC epidemiologists.
How many mea culpas have there been? Crickets
Noonan issued her mea culpa. Of course, it’s all words. She won’t actually do anything except write and talk to correct the damage she’s done.
A person enters confession and confesses their sin of burning down orphanages.
Later, they burn down another one and go back to confession.
That’s Noonan or the prototypical Democrat slave.
One of the reasons Leftists hated Bush so much was because they thought we were like them, that Bush II was our messiah and if they could find some quotes of the conservative messiah commanding us to X, that would shut us up. They also hated the prophet and leader of a foreign god and religion.
Republicans, in general, and conservatives individually did not hate Democrats enough. They didn’t understand the meaning of Hate or why it was useful, or even why people hated America.
Hussein is a convenient prop and puppet, because it teaches people how to hate and what ought to be hated. But Hussein himself is only the tip of the Left’s iceberg.
The US Regime’s cabinet members and staff are morally equivalent to Nazis participating in ethnic cleansing. They were only following orders, they say. But they followed those orders for some time, didn’t they.
Soros is morally equivalent to Nazis, not because of his background but because he is morally equivalent to Nazis, no matter what his background was. It just so happens that coincidentally fate and character binds together on this matter.
Obama is a better politician than his generals. His objective is to keep Iraq from coming unglued until the election. After that, Obama is not concerned.
President Obama is a better speechwriter than his generals, and a better general than his speechwriters.
(Actually, maybe not even that, but you get the idea.)
“..and a better general than his speechwriters.”
You kind of hit on something there – the unrelated experience of Obama’s closest advisors, such as Valerie Jarrett (Chicago machine politics and slumlord), Ben Rhodes (MFA in creative writing), and Samantha Power (journalist, scholar).
Easy to play the smartest guy in the room when you surround yourself with people like that.
“Don’t worry, though, no-drama Obama isn’t going to do any soul-searching.”
Psychopaths don’t soul search.
My disenchantment began early in 2008 when I heard (at one remove) someone I dimly knew but rather trusted, a journalist who was on Obama’s campaign plane, say that the candidate was the most arrogant asshole amongst all the politicians he’d ever met. That was pretty strong, coming from this lifelong Democrat.
Then when it turned out no one could get access to Obama’s test-scores or grades in college (after all the fuss there’d been about this with Bush), then the “God damn America!” pastor whose church he’d been attending for years and supposedly was close to, then his friendship with Bill Ayers — well, all that plus my distaste for the rock star or religious-style worship we were seeing… I was repelled.
Yet all my friends were right there, focussed primarily, it seemed, on how cool it would be to elect a black president and how un-racist they’d all seem forever after. McCain was a weak candidate to oppose all this.
Most of them have been incurious ever since, immune to examination of anything he’s done. I’m just trying to wait it out, hoping the government doesn’t for some reason come knocking on my door.
Early Obvious Tells(for any who need them)in the first year of his first term were things like sending Queen Elizabeth and the UK Prime Minister swell DVDs of his speeches. Special, your Infantile Majesty. He returned Sir Winston’s bust on loan to GWB from Tony Blair after 9-11. My very favorite: The wonderful American Historical Paintings & Portraits which President Bush had on the West Wing walls in abudance were removed and replaced by dozens and dozens of pics of The Boy King doing stuff. Each moth they’ve reportedly been replaced by newer “candids” of the same.
Even the nauseating lefty pinhead Fast Eddie Schultz of MSNBC, an early ’09 visitor to the Oval Office commented about it on the air. The Very Telling Self-Absorbsion (my words, not Ed’s)of that visual seemed to confuse Mr. Schultz. Not me, nor anybody with a brain to think,’Yo.
Neo wrote about Honduras in the past. It was a great example of the American Empire stomping down on small nations, which is what the Left complained about American patriots doing. Turned out, it was mostly manufactured and done by the Left in the US.