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Sherman Frederick
Incompetence catches Obama
Make it official: Everything Barack Obama touches turns to mush. Not because he wants to screw up everything, but because he's simply in over his head as president of the United States.
He is the quintessential wrong guy at the wrong time, and the events of last week provided another exclamation point to that sentence.
Rolling Stone magazine published a story revealing the inner workings of Obama's hand-picked general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal. And those inner workings were not pretty. McChrystal and his HQ advisers were disrespectful in the extreme to just about everyone -- our allies (expletive-gay French), Obama (disengaged), Vice President Joe Biden (you mean Bite Me?), Sen. John McCain (not helpful).
Team McChrystal as portrayed in the article also exhibited a brand of immaturity that even the staunchest of McChrystal supporters could defend only as "locker-room talk." That's putting it mildly. Most would call the Rolling Stone account of those in charge of our war in Afghanistan as borderline scary -- one-third frat house, one-third personality cult worship and one-third "Apocalypse Now."
When the piece hit the stands, the president summoned McChrystal to the White House. The general resigned and was replaced. The president was right to do so. But don't mistake that for leadership in what otherwise remains a debacle that exposes once again the failure of this president to perform the big tasks the American people need him to do -- in this case, the prosecution of the war on terror.
Let's hit a few of the other low points.
The economy. We're all painfully aware of the president's performance here. He's made the deficit spending of the last few George W. Bush years look downright amateurish. He's added $2 trillion to the national debt, presided over a period of dreadful unemployment and a housing crisis of epic proportions with no end in sight.
When the nation needed a leader in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, President Obama failed to rise to the occasion. He said he cared deeply when the cameras were rolling, but almost immediately after jetting away from the misery in the Gulf, our president could be seen golfing, vacationing and entertaining at the White House, sending a decidedly mixed signal.
In a story on a Wall Street Journal poll that showed Americans are less confident in the president's leadership than at any point in his presidency, reporters interviewed James Ciarmataro, a 23-year-old stay-at-home dad from Macomb, Mich.
Ciarmataro put it just right: He said it was difficult to relate to Obama, because the president is "eating steak dinners at the White House and playing golf" while the country is suffering.
In other words, leadership can't be faked for long.
If the Gulf doesn't prove it for you, then consider the president's first official act as president -- the signing of an executive order to close the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay.
With the stroke of a pen, he looked the part of a leader, fulfilling a campaign promise. But now, some 17 months later, Gitmo remains open. Why? Because leadership is more than looking the part. It's hard work. It's resolve. It's sacrifice. It is making things happen.
As we now find, looking the part on economic recovery, Gulf oil spill relief or even something as relatively simple as closing one detention facility doesn't actually fix the economy, plug the hole or solve the sticky problem of indefinite detention of enemy combatants in the war on terror.
President Obama is long on talking about these things but short on the skills to get them done.
Now, last week, we find these same flaws are in play with the lives of our soldiers in the war in Afghanistan. The general he chose to execute his strategy required removal not because the president was engaged enough to see it coming, but because of a Rolling Stone article.
It's one thing to take decisive action when publicly humiliated. But it's quite another to effectively prosecute a war.
That takes leadership, which sadly remains a quality we've not seen from this president yet.
Me and my prostate
I did, indeed, part ways with my cancerous prostate earlier this month, and all of the cancer went with the prostate, not with me. I thank God for that excellent outcome and all of you who wished me well and offered encouragement during surgery and recovery. I am indebted to you for your kindness. Thank you.
Sherman Frederick (sfrederick@ reviewjournal.com) is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media.
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So, what you're saying is that President is in over his head trying to clean up the political, fiscal, and diplomatic messes that Bush left for him? Who wouldn't be in over their head after following that nose-dive of an administration? Republicans like you gave Bush 8 years to drive this country into the ground, and now complain that Obama hasn't been able to produce a magic wand to make it all go away in 2 years. If incompetence has "caught" President Obama, then what incompetence did to Bush was hunt him like an animal, pin him down and skin him alive.
Dirty Harry,
I see you failed to back up your assertions with even one legitimate accusation. This shows readers that you are not to be taken seriously.
As for firearms, we are all mortal...you just want to increase your chances of violent death by having firearms and I don't.
http://www.thecommunityguide.org/violence/viol-AJPM-evrev-firearms-law.pdf
Obamba is an idiot, but McChrystal had to go. What is not being reported is the level McChrystal was involved with the CIA and the real reason the troops are over there. It is all about the opium baby. The CIA needs that influx of undocumented cash to conitnue causing trouble around the world without having to beg the congress for funding. So the CIA causes trouble and eventually the military has to respond to the artificially CIA created threat. Than the CIA plants itself right in the middle of the hostilities to reap the rewards and the whole cycle starts again. Obamba caught on to this scheme and is attempting to end it. Just like JFK did. We all know what happened there. Just replace Oswald with some new guy from the Tea Party and you got a story boobus will buy. And the cycle all starts again.
MSchaffer --- Just as I thought. You can't defend Moe, Larry and Curly. By the way, enjoy your Second Amendment rights.
dirty harry,
Make ONE specific accusation against any ONE of the three and back it up with reliable source material. Then I can respond and debunk whatever nonsense you post. Until then continue spouting crap.
Miles Monroe,
You are, of course, wrong when you assert the 'same people' were predicting an ice age. The rest of your post is also completely fact free.
For the facts debunking Mr. Monroe see here:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/01/the-global-cooling-myth/
and here:
http://www.wmconnolley.org.uk/sci/iceage/
and here:
http://climateprogress.org/2008/11/10/killing-the-myth-of-the-1970s-global-cooling-scientific-consensus/
I await Mr. Monroe's retraction but it won't be forthcoming.
MSchaffer: --- You continue to support an incompetent President, and an unpopular Congress, and you call us stupid! Go ahead, try to defend your idols, Reid, Pelosi, and Obama. You can't. You would rather resort to silly name calling than defend these clowns running our country. Hurry up November.
You can bet that Hastings at Rolling Stone had apprised Obama or Rahm about what McCrystal and his staff were saying long before the article was published! They used it now because Obama is now seen as totally incompetent hoping for sympathy for him!
It gets so old reading and hearing about the so-called "War On Terror". Did Congress declare war in Iraq? Afghanistan? The deliberate disobedience to the U.S. Constitution by Congress and our Presidents is criminal! Will you or any journalist address it? Of course not! Because it doesn't fit into your FALSE Left/Right paradigm (google it!), where everything is the other sides fault! You have no qualms with the illegal unconstitutional Patriot Act that allows warrantless wiretaps and surveillance of millions of American citizens. You have no qualms with the illegal unconstitutional Military Commissions Act removing Habeus Corpus and allowing indefinite detention of American citizens without charges and/or legal counsel. Why? What have you got against our Constitution? Why would you give Congress and the President a free pass on these fundamental cornerstones of liberty? What kind of journalist are you? The Founding Fathers expected the free press to be the "4th" branch of our Republic, keeping the other three in check! When did you and your colleagues abdicate that responsibility and decide to be "lap-dogs" for the pillars of power? Man UP! Believe me when I say that my sentiments are shared by millions in this country! Complacency is NOT an option anymore!
Our military, law enforcement, and ELECTED OFFICIALS need to HONOR THEIR OATH TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION!!!
oathkeepers.org
Mark shelve it. In the 70's these same group of idiots were telling us we were going to have another ice age. We're not igonrant. We realize man has an effect on the environment. Just realize that if we want to reduce emissions to the level that cap and tax requires we'll be living without electricity, light, automobiles and anything plastic. So if you like living in a tee pee, not being able light a fire for warmth and not being able to kill an animal for food and clotbing by all means go ahead and pass crap and tax. Further, do you know what the propose to do with the carbon? Yeah, pump it underground into old oil wells at a monstrous expense. Noone has any idea what adverse effect that may create. I guess you want to regulate volcanos too since they are big carbon dioxide emitters? Mark, sell your stock in the Chicago Climate Exchange and stop being a shill.