Passing Thoughts on the Random Scene
by Doug Patton (10/12/09)
(With sincere apologies to Thomas Sowell) - When the President of the United States is someone as worthy of regular comment as is Barack Obama, a staggering amount of information presents itself over a two or three week period. So rather than skip an abundance of great material after my recent hiatus, I thought I would succinctly throw my two cents worth in on a plethora of issues.
The most tempting morsel of ludicrous news - so silly even he seemed to think it was inappropriate - was President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. We’ll get back to that one later, after we’ve had a chance to contemplate what he has or has not done to earn it.
The president spoke at the United Nations, along with other such “leaders” as Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Gaddafi, thereby giving credibility to some of the worst dictators on the planet. Of course, not wanting to throw cold water on the worshipful reception he received from the world’s despots - especially those of the Islamic persuasion - he failed to mention that U.S. intelligence had caught the Iranian regime working on yet another nuclear project.
Obama then went to the G-20 confab in Pittsburgh, where he struck such a moderate tone about the issue that Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy sounded downright hawkish by contrast. Tell the truth. Did you ever think you would hear a French President and a British Labour Party Prime Minister sound tougher than a U.S. President?
Then there was the fiasco in Copenhagen. I’m sure you join me in admitting that you were positive that the 2016 Olympic Games were in the bag for Chicago when the POTUS got on his big carbon footprint airplane and flew to Denmark. But no, as it turns out, this man simply has such a massive ego that he honestly believed he could sway the Olympic Committee by the sheer force of his dynamic personality.
Of course, the First Lady (with Oprah in tow) made her own embarrassing appearance before the Committee, telling them all what a “sacrifice” it was for her, and regaling them with memories of “sitting on daddy’s lap, watching Nadia and Carl Lewis compete.” As the ever-vigilant columnist/author Michelle Malkin pointed out, Carl Lewis first competed in the Olympics 25 years ago, in 1984. Mrs. Obama is 45 years old now. I don’t know about you, but that whole “sitting on daddy’s lap” thing left me with a rather creepy feeling when I did the math on that one.
Of course, while in Europe, the president did get some work done on the tarmac aboard Air Force One when he summoned General Stanley McChrystal, his hand-picked commander in the Afghan theater, to a 25-minute meeting to discuss the overseas contingency action - or whatever ridiculous, politically correct name we’re giving the war against Islamic extremism these days. This was the first time Obama had bothered to talk to McChrystal since the general sent his commander-in- chief an urgent request for enough troops to complete his mission. That was in August.
Finally, there is the news item reporting that President Obama is inclined to send only enough troops to Afghanistan to “hold al-Qaida at bay.” He also says he will accept “a certain level of Taliban involvement in the Afghan government.” Excuse me? Who does this man represent? Because it certainly is not the United States of America. Wouldn’t you just love to see one of these fed-up generals - Petraeus, McChrystal, somebody - take off the uniform and run against this man-child next time around?
Which brings us back around to the “Thank you for not being George W. Bush” award, given to the president by the Nobel Committee. Even knowing that this award has gone to such dubious past recipients as Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat, words fail to adequately describe the nature of this farcical announcement.
This is a man who wrote two memoirs before he had done anything. Why should anyone - least of all the Nobel Committee - doubt the quality of the emperor’s new clothes?
© Copyright 2009 by Doug Patton
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