Saturday, May 21, 2011

Barack Obama Is Not Jimmy Carter

I like to read Red State from time to time to see how the far right think. I don't have space enough to write about all of the crazy things being written at Red State (to see today's daily dose of crazy, go here, here, and here). But I want to point out one way in which the Tea Party base is going to destroy our message in 2012. This, from contributor Melissa Clouthier.

Which brings us back to President Obama being like Jimmy Carter. The economy stagnating, high gas prices, and a world in turmoil. The Muslim world shifts and President Obama wants to make something good of it. The reality is that the one thing these regimes can agree upon is that Israel is evil.

With President Obama not wanting to come home to Israel, he creates more instability than ever. A better looking President doesn’t dress up his moral equivalence, weakness, and tyranny-apologist Carteresque words and actions.
I have a news flash for Melissa. She can scream and yell at the top of her lungs that Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter, but she is going to have a difficult time explaining to the general electorate that the guy who got Osama bin Laden is weak. The reality is that Barack Obama has been more militaristic than his predecessor. He increased the amount of troops in Afghanistan, he supported the renewal of the Patriot Act, he called for the assassination of an American tied to terrorism, he dropped more bombs on Pakistan in the first 9 months of his administration than George W. Bush dropped in his two terms, he has stood by and watched as Gitmo stays open, and he started that little skirmish going on in Libya. Oh, and did I mentioned that he got Bin Laden?

That last one alone is enough to drop the Jimmy Carter analogies. Obama received a great deal of criticism from the media and from John McCain before the election when he stated that he would order Special Forces into Pakistan to kill Al Qaeda members. It turns out that is how Osama was killed. The President deserves credit for his leadership in that area.

No, instead, the Republicans should thank the President for continuing and sharpening the Bush national security policies. If they really want to inflict political damage on Obama, they should bring out Dick Cheney and let him lavish praise on the President. Republicans will find little success if they try to portray Obama as weak. They will find more success by truthfully speaking of the Bush-like policies of Barack Obama. This, alone, will cause some of his base to sit the next election out.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's the ECONOMY stupid!

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I just realized that without Huck in the race, we won't be hearing from Convicts for Huck anymore. Darn!

-Martha

(PS. Bosman, he was brilliant, BTW.)

pam said...

except it wasn't him ,it was the intelligence and the military that told Obama they were going in ,he didn't want to do it

OhioJOE said...

Well said Pam!

Pablo said...

Pam,

That is a ridiculous statement. Do you not remember the debates where Obama said he would send special forces into Pakistan? McCain said he would not. Only a rabid partisan would deny that Obama gets a win. If the operation would have gone sour, the Obama would have got the blame.

What you think is beside the point anyway. The overwhelming majority of Americans are going to think that the guy who got Bin Laden is not really Jimmy Carter. That was my point. The comparison is not going to work.

Anonymous said...

Obama and the 1967 borders with Israel is not going to be a win for Obama. At least not with many Americans and probably quite a number of the Jews who are usually part of his base. I don't claim to be an expert, but I think this is ultimately going to hurt him.

I disagree with your claim that "Obama has been tougher" than Bush, although he has done some things Jimmy Carter would not have done. Remember that Jimmy Carter sent the rescue mission which failed. Obama's first helicopter went down, as well. Fortunately, the armed forces executing the mission did a better job. Obama could have looked as ridiculous as Carter did.

AZ