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Dan
Calabrese
Read Dan's bio and previous columns here
August 31, 2009
Reeling Obama: I Know!
I’ll Pick Another Fight With Dick Cheney!
What’s a reeling president to do when his signature policy proposal is
at death’s door and the public is growing skeptical of his ability to
lead?
Pick another fight with Dick Cheney! Because that worked out really well
the last time, didn’t it?
President Obama, who continues to misunderstand the nation that elected
him (and why it did so), now owns the decision of Attorney General Eric
Holder to appoint special counsel to investigate the CIA’s torture of
terrorism suspects – who for some reason wouldn’t tell interrogators
what they knew when they were asked nicely.
Of
course, Obama insists he had nothing to do with Holder’s decision, since
it goes against his statement early on in his presidency that he didn’t
want to do any such thing. Then again, Holder knows well that Obama is
his boss. But hey, Obama had nothing to do with it, and it’s not
like
Obama would B.S. us.
Cheney, who has nothing to lose and nothing to fear, wasted no time
firing back. (Remember when this nation had leaders who took the same
approach to foreign enemies? Like, last year?) He told Fox News
Sunday that if the Obama Administration was serious about preventing
terrorism, it would be debriefing – rather than investigating – the CIA
interrogators who were part of a seven-year track record of preventing
any and all terrorist attacks post-9/11.
But they’re not serious, and they don’t think the public is serious
either.
This is the same reason Obama stopped using the term “war on terror,”
and even went so far as to have his appointees use silly terms like
“man-made disasters” as politically correct euphemisms for terrorist
attacks. It would appear Obama reads the New York Times and the
Associated Press and thinks the sentiments contained therein represent
those of ordinary Americans.
These sentiments would be summed up as follows:
-
We’re tired of all
the talk of “terrorism” by people who are just trying to scare us
into accepting their illegal war!
-
It’s time to end
the horrific tactics that have squandered the goodwill we enjoyed
across the globe after 9/11!
-
We’ve had enough of
our personal liberties being violated under the guise of national
security!
The public’s supposed embrace of such ideas, Obama surmises, must be why
the American people elected him – because they want a Jimmy Carter-type
egghead who is weak on national security and apologetic about all of
America’s arrogant sins.
No.
About 53 percent of the American electorate chose Obama because a little
more half the independents who voted for George W. Bush last time bought
the media narrative that Republicans had ruined everything by fighting
an unnecessary war and unleashing ruinous free-market economic policies
on the nation (if only), leading to worldwide economic collapse.
That, and they thought it would be cool to be able to say they helped
put an “articulate” black guy in the White House. That’s it. These same
independents, far from committed to any particular governing philosophy,
are the same people who are now losing faith in the president because
they didn’t want a massive federal spending explosion, they
didn’t want government-run health care and they didn’t want a
president who slaps skin with anti-American thugs abroad while trying to
turn our own national security personnel into criminals.
So
why didn’t they think about that before they voted? Ah, independents.
Such a whimsical bunch. It seemed like such a cool idea at the time!
As
for the rest of the nation, Obama vs. Cheney II is likely to yield the
same result as the last time Obama tried this gambit, when opposition to
the closing of Guantanamo Bay’s terrorist prison began its ascent toward
its now-lofty heights of more than 50 percent.
Cheney is unpopular until he actually speaks up in his own defense, and
people realize that when you’re serious about national security, you do
what you have to do. And as
the Washington Post reported last week, it gets results.
Having failed to learn his lesson the first time, Obama is now going to
try to criminalize the serious pursuit of American national security.
The America he pictures in his mind will love such a move. The real one
will find itself with one more reason to wonder why it elected such a
ridiculous president – and if it really had good reasons for so
disliking the last one.
© 2009 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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