Russia

Talking Tough

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The following is the first paragraph from this Telegraph UK op-ed.

“No apologies for posting consecutively on Barack Obama: the Looney Tunes President’s sell-out of US and Western interests is proceeding at such a speed that it is difficult to keep pace. Well said, Nile Gardiner, for asking if Barack Obama is the most naïve president in American history. The answer is undoubtedly yes – unless he has a secret agenda to cut America down to size.”

And then the author gets kind of harsh.

(Hat tip to The Cryptic Subterranean, and this essay is cross-posted over at Hell in a Handbasket.)

Another Day, Another Speech, Another History Trashed

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Claudia Rossett’s “The Bear Scare” analyzes Obama’s rather weak grasp of history on display in Moscow as it was in Cairo. But it is not just the confused focus, the generalizations at odds with history. It is also an attitude. She speaks of the real blood and treasure with which we have defended freedom; more importantly, “Americans kept brilliantly alive a philosophy of democratic government and free markets, which offered a beacon to oppressed people of the world, and exported both ideas and inventions that have vastly enriched mankind.” Were Russians surprised a U.S. President interpreted their history as he did?

In Obama’s version of history, Soviet communism (which he referred to not by name but as “old political and economic restrictions”) came to an end through some sort of brotherly mass movement: “The change did not come from any one nation,” he told an audience of Russian students. “The Cold War reached a conclusion because of the actions of many nations over many years, and because the people of Russia and Eastern Europe stood up and decided that its end would be peaceful.”

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The Quayle-O-Meter goes DingDingDingDingDingDing!!!

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Obama in Moscow:

Along the way, you gave us a pretty good deal on Alaska. Thank you.

D’OH!!!

The man is a Laff Riot!!!

That’s the way to “hit the Reset button”, Mr. President. Remind the Russians of perhaps the stupidest thing they ever did.

(Can you imagine the teeth-grinding rage of a person like Putin, a guy who has clawed his way to the top on sheer wit, cunning and brutality, having to deal with this lightweight and take him seriously? I almost feel sorry for Putin.)

Can you imagine if any Republican said this? How about if Sarah Palin said it? Geez.

Bottom line: The guy is a smooth-talking ignoramus: not all that smart, not well-read, with a wafer-thin resume.

Some people who are paying attention don’t call our President His Holiness Messiah Barack I or even just The One: We call him J. Danforth Obama!

Hold on to your hats, folks. We are in for at least 3.5 more years of comedic hijinks.

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE: David Brooks — traitor! — says that Obama has restored, get this, dignity to the presidency, sorta like George Washington! “Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity.” So, whatever his defects as, you know, president, we an at least admire his deportment! Duh, no, can’t agree with that one. George Washington would not have set off the Quayle-O-Meter nearly so often. This guy Obama is “dispassionate” until someone disagrees with him even a little, then he gets downright grumpy. I will agree that he is wise to be reticient when he does not have his teleprompter handy. I must say, Mr. Brooks is putting a pretty thin veil over what is turning out to be a big, steaming chunk of buyer’s remorse.

Brooks goes on: “The cultural effects of his presidency are not yet clear, but they may surpass his policy impact.” Gadzooks! That better not be right! If Obama’s cultural effects are as destructive as his policy impact, at the rate we are going, we are going to return to paleolithic conditions, and maybe even be reduced to communicating in a system of grunts and squeals like our primate cousins.

A significant cultural effect of Mr. Obama’s presidency has already been determined. We are now a culture where the rules applied to Governor Palin by the Democrats and their running dog lackeys in the media and the entertainment industry — destroy the enemy at any cost, by any means — will be and must be applied to everyone who wants to play the game of politics. That is cultural degradation, and it is irreversible. But if that is how the combat is now conducted, only a fool would play by chivalric rules. So be it. On to 2010 and 2012.

UPDATE II: Yow! Check out this picture. Medvedev shows a cringing, needful, almost-supine Obama, which one of them is the biggest and baddest guy in the room . Hint: It ain’t the skinny guy with the bicycle helmet.

UPDATE III: Obama being dignified.

UPDATE IV: To clarify: In my original post on this theme, I asked this question, “This is my proposed Quayle Test. Ask yourself: How each time Obama says something stoopid, would the press would have crucified Dan Quayle for it?” Obama fails this test pretty darn frequently. I am not trying to be mean to Dan Quayle. Gerald Ford got similarly unfair treatment. Barack gets the kid gloves treatment. He shouldn’t. The rules should be the same for all politicians. Ha. As if. We’ll never live to see the day.

UPDATE V: A commenter accused me and this blog racism. I spit on that accusation. But I mention it for an important point. Mr. Obama chose to run for president, and as he has told us: “I won”. Yes, he did. And as president, he is going to be subject to the exact same degree of criticism, fair and foul, reasoned or crazed, which every president gets. More, he is going to get the same mean-spirited treatment that his supporters dish out.

Mr. Obama’s race is not going to be a way to intimidate his critics into silence. No one is going to play that. This is a democracy, and the people will not behave with courtly decorum, even if David Brooks thinks they should. Mr. Obama is made of stern enough stuff to take the criticism. There. I said something almost fair and even nice about him.

And for what it’s worth, one of my great political regrets is that Colin Powell — who is every bit as Black as Mr. Obama — did not run for president in 1996. I would not only have voted for General Powell, I would have worked for his campaign. For one thing, President Powell would not have failed to kill Osama bin Laden in 1998, when Clinton could not pull the trigger. The world would be a different and better place.

I assume that Obama’s supporters will routinely accuse his opponents of racism without any basis, for the entirety of his term in office. That is how they play the game.

Fair warning: It won’t make anyone shut up.

A Delayed Feedback Loop from 1982

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Western Europe is currently a shining example of Normalization of Deviance.

Why?

This is why.

In his book Riding Rockets, Astronaut Mike Mullane explained that NASA ignored known risks with the Shuttle because the craft had flown without those risks manifesting themselves in an incident. It is a common feature of humanity. Someone tells you that riding motorcycles without a helmet is dangerous. But you do it once and get away with it. You do it twice. A thousand times. But on the thousand-and-first, someone cuts you off, and you spray your brains all over the landscape, realizing, in your last, painful instants on this Earth, exactly why doctors call people like you “rolling organ stockpiles”.

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Gossip, Rumors, History

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Dutton’s Arts & Letters links to The National’s “The Trial of Leonid K“, which chronicles the attempt by Khruschev’s grandchildren to resurrect the reputation of their father, a World War II hero maligned of late. It is a cry against thuggery – the Russian tradition of rewritten history. Gossip, rumors, suggest: “The point is to suggest; soon, the suggestions will evolve into a belief, which will evolve into an orthodoxy.” But if our libel suits are complicated and victories sometimes counterproductive, in Russia such attempts are even more likely to cross quicksand:

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