http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,664753,00.html
- - -
It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to
evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A
leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives -- their
job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the
case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.
Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That
was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture
the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where
campaigners -- particularly those with a talent for oration -- are
fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign
headquarters, in an enormous tent called "Hope."
In his speech on America's new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to
speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt
so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.
The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's
already got himself.
- - -
He never was, is not, and never will be presidential material.
His ghost-shadowed memoirs, curiously consistent choice of ideological
associations, thinly veiled narcissistic rhetoric, and now his
"results" and supposedly awesome, thoughtful "decisions" demonstrate
what always was plainly visible through the fog of mythos created
around his vaunted, but in the end bogus, brilliance.
President Hussein is a dangerous personality in whom to invest the
power of the presidency in these dark times. This will become even
clearer over time, now that he has for the first time since his
adolescence felt the pain of genuine rejection from friends and foes
alike.
I was thinking the same thing, mostly, as I watched his address. He
was angry, because he knew his audience was hostile and uncertain
whether he really has their interests at heart, and his assertions
were riddled with the kind of not-even-cleverly-concealed cognitive
dissonance, delivered with a conviction-less force only a deeply
dishonest person ("deeply" as in: even to the question of who he
really is) could maintain.
Europe got the man they wanted in our White House. Let Europe now
watch as he takes steps to dismantle all of Western civilization. He's
bankrupted the US with now no hope of a return to fiscal sanity for
generations, and with this strategy-less strategy in Afghanistan, and
the draconian economic punishment to be inflicted by the Copenhagen
treaty on the developed world, all based on thoroughly debunked
pseudo-science, he will do the same once and for all to the whole of
the democratic West.
Enjoy! We definitely live in "interesting times"....
- Publius
"It ought never to be forgotten, that a firm union of this country,
under an efficient government, will probably be an increasing object
of jealousy to more than one nation of Europe; and that enterprises to
subvert it will sometimes originate in the intrigues of foreign
powers, and will seldom fail to be patronized and abetted by some of
them. Its preservation, therefore ought in no case that can be
avoided, to be committed to the guardianship of any but those whose
situation will uniformly beget an immediate interest in the faithful
and vigilant performance of the trust." [Federalist Papers #59]
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