It's Obama's world, we're all just living in it.
I know we are in the first week of 2010 and should be inclined to look forward rather than backward. Yet I think it's only fair to look back over the past year and revisit the six stupidest things President Obama did in 2009.
Now one must realize that the challenge here wasn't to come up with six stupid things Obama did. That was the easy part. The challenge was what to leave off the list. There was his joke about the Special Olympics. There was the time he told our troops they made a good photo-op. Who could forget when he told the nation we could have Obamacare without adding a dime to the deficit? How are those cabinet appointments for Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder working out? Snubbing fellow Nobel laureate The Dalai Lama was not one of Obama's brighter moments. Not to mention all that incessant apologizing and bowing. So here's the stupidest of the stupid.
6. Accusing Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Sergeant James Crowley of "Acting Stupidly"
When a politician is asked about an ongoing judicial matter it is customary for a politician to say that it is a matter before the court that he cannot comment upon.
But instead of responding in a circumspect manner, President Obama allowed his friendship with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to cloud his judgment. Although Obama admitted he didn't have all the facts before him he nonetheless concluded that Sergeant Crowley had "acted stupidly." To his credit, Sgt. Crowley stood his ground and called Obama's comments "way off base."1
Of course, the air would be cleared with a beer summit at the White House. But there would have never been a need for such a meeting had President Obama politely declined comment.
5. Declaring War on the Fox News Channel
What was the White House thinking when it decided to single out the Fox News Channel for derision? Sure it might have impressed some of Obama's most ardent followers but as a general rule it's not a good idea to insult the viewing public. After all, Obama won over a lot of FNC viewers when he appeared on The O'Reilly Factor in September 2008.
President Obama did himself no favors by dismissing FNC as "a talk radio format."2
Shortly after White House Chief of Staff David Axelrod stated FNC was not "a legitimate news organization" the White House attempted to exclude the network from a press pool interview with White House pay czar Ken Feinberg. The other networks, to their credit, refused to play ball and the Obama Administration relented.3
This was a fight the Obama Administration picked and lost badly.
4. Scrapping Missile Defense Programs in Poland & the Czech Republic
It's difficult to see how it is in the interests of the United States to scrap the construction of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. In fact, there are only two reasons for President Obama to have made this decision – to placate Russia and to take yet another swipe at President Bush.
Now Russia is supposed to help us rein in Iran. Yet scarcely a month after abandoning the missile defense program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, "We are convinced that threats, sanctions, and threats of pressure in the present situation are counter-productive." Lavrov made his remarks after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an official visit to him in Moscow.4 Gee, great work guys.
The Obama Administration hasn't exactly endeared itself to its Eastern European allies. Czech parliamentarian Jan Vidim remarked, "If the (Obama) Administration approaches us in the future with any request, I would be strongly against it."5
Talk about rewarding your enemies and punishing your friends.
3. We Will Not Meddle in Iran
So overwhelming has President Obama's desire been to engage Iran he was prepared to throw its democracy activists under the bus even when it became clear its "elections" were a fraud. "It is not productive, given the history of US-Iranian relations to be seen as meddling – the US President, meddling in Iranian elections," said President Obama last June.6 But that didn't stop Iran's regime from accusing Obama from meddling now did it?7
Of course, this is the same President Obama who was more than happy to meddle where it concerned Honduras, Israel and Sri Lanka.
2. Transferring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to U.S. Civilian Court
KSM and four co-defendants were quite prepared to plead guilty before a U.S. military tribunal last December.8 But last November, President Obama came to their rescue and transferred them into civilian court. So now KSM and his lawyers can compromise national security interests and put the Bush Administration's interrogation techniques on trial all in one fell swoop.
This decision was ostensibly Attorney General Holder's to make. Yet when appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder could not tell Senator Lindsey Graham if an enemy combatant seized on the battlefield had ever been tried in U.S. civilian court. As Graham told Holder, "We're making history here and we're making bad history."9 And if KSM gets acquitted then we're also making stupid history.
1. Closing Gitmo
President Obama's dumbest decision of 2009 took place his first day on the job.
It was a clear message that he does not take terrorism committed in the name of Islamic fundamentalism seriously. If he did then KSM would have his day in court before a military tribunal. Nor would Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the man who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, be in a position to ask for a lawyer, and maintain his right to be silent while telling us there are others like him.
We can only hope that President Obama will be a little less stupid in 2010.
Endnotes
1. http://wbztv.com/local/obama.comment.cambridge.2.1097782.html
3. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/white-house-attempts-bar-fox-press-pool
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8303517.stm
5. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574418563346840666.html
7. http://europenews.dk/en/node/24123
8. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7770856.stm
9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG7lm8Sfbo4
Well, I may not agree with the content of the top 6, however all listed are clearly contenders. Good article.
This is a frightening list!
Here he is, the President of most dynamic, powerful nation on Earth for an entire year. Leader of the free world, making military and economic decisions that reverberate though all of civilization.
And here’s a list of his 6 biggest mistakes!
The first one is a borderline-mildly-embarrassing verbal gaffe, and the second was when he dismissed a news network that viciously attacks him at every opportunity.
And then there’s the one about him FAILING TO MEDDLE in another country.
Yikes! Historic disaster of a Presidency! What’s next? Maybe he’ll double-dribble in one of his pick-up basketball games.
We need Bush back, I’d say. Now THAT guy knew how to make a mistake or two.
Oz
Ozzie, as usual you are off target. This article was a mild list of Obama’s failures. The more substantive ones wern’t listed. For example it is not a good thing to call our president a coward, however the evidence of his legislative history documents his cowardice…voting “present” is a clear sign of a coward unable to show any conviction because it might cost votes. His voting present has continued into the White House making all of us less safe, less secure, and much less proud of our leadership (or lack thereof).
We can expand his list of failures if your really want to turn this into a truthful review of our worst president.
Well Mickey, it’s not obvious that the writer was only cataloging ‘mild’ failures. Looks to me like the writer is having to struggle pretty hard to find much ‘stupid’, when the list contains two items that are just minor verbal gaffes (if even that). What’s the runner-up? A lame joke about the Special Olympics. Who knew you guys were so PC all of the sudden?
You hint at boatloads of more serious infractions, but the best you can do is to talk about his voting record before he became president?
Maybe it takes a right-winger like Bush to do some serious mistakin’. Obama’s just not trying, I agree.
Oz
Telling the nation that a police officer in a local matter “acted stupidly” when you are ignorant of the facts surrounding the incident strikes me as slightly more than a “verbal gaffe”. And even if it was, verbal gaffes made up the most substantive liberal criticism of GWB for nigh on 8 years. I guess what goes around comes around.
I would think you, Oz, of all people would be able to come up with a few Obama mistakes in the first year. After all, Obama has failed to end rendition and“torture”. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are ongoing. No troops have been brought home. A troop surge is set for Afghanistan this year. Guantanamo Bay prison is still open. If I recall correctly, weren’t you opposed to all of those things? I guess maybe Obama is a right-winger after all.
Patrick says:
<blockquote.
Telling the nation that a police officer in a local matter "acted stupidly" when you are ignorant of the facts surrounding the incident strikes me as slightly more than a "verbal gaffe".
Okay, you got me, your logic is unassailable.
I’d like to take this opportunity to concede that “slightly more than a verbal gaffe” is a more apt description of Obama’s statement. (Very slightly, but still).
Well put, Patrick, thanks for the correction.
Patrick’s recollection of the Bush years:
While we quail in the horror of our rogue president who regularly commits ‘slightly more than a verbal gaffe,’ I’d like to kinda question your contention that criticisms of GWB were based on his malapropisms.
Don’t get me wrong, the verbal gaffes were up there on the list, but they were a bit lower than, say, allowing the most significant terrorist attack ever on our soil, plunging the US into a hellish, unnecessary war, killing a hundred thousand Iraqis… and then that unpleasantness about Abu Ghraib, and torturing people. And let’s not forget presiding over the biggest financial crash in decades.
But yeah, the verbal gaffes were right up there, too.
Oz
Patrick says:
You recall poorly. Once again you guys tend to confuse me with the imaginary strawman lib’rls that evidently have you surrounded. I don’t disagree with much of anything on that list. I think he’s played all of them pretty well.
Don’t attribute far left ideas to me – I’m only mildly left of center. It only seems ‘far left’ from where some of you guys are perched: hanging on by your fingernails, about to fall off the right edge of the civilized world.
I agree with his Afghanistan ‘modest surge’ strategy, and I don’t think we should leave Iraq precipitously even though we shouldn’t have ever gone in.
He HAS declared torture off-limits. I think Gitmo WILL close, just a little later than he thought. I wasn’t that shook up about Gitmo anyway, just the torture and abuse that occurred there.
I thought he played the health care thing masterfully, too.
Weren’t you the fellow that accused me of hating General Petraeus, just because I’m to the left of Attila the Hun? Even though I think the guy is great and never, ever said otherwise?
When will you guys start arguing with the the people who actually exist here, instead of the straw men in your overheated imaginations?
By the way, even though you intended irony when you refer to Obama as a ‘right-winger’, I think you are closer to the truth than you realize. He’s really not all that liberal, as far as I can tell. Fine with me!
Oz
Oz,
Thanks for playing the stooge. Your timing is brilliant. When I said that verbal gaffes were the most substantive liberal criticisms leveled against Bush, I meant that wildly blaming the man for everything with no explanation or justification was not substantive. Like a terrorist attack that occurred at the beginning of his 9th month in office for which the planning began in 1996. Or a financial crisis that took place after he was made a lame duck in 2006 by overwhelming Democrat majorities in both houses of congress, largely caused by value losses in mortgage securities packaged and sold by two quasi-public entities that Bush began asking congress to regulate more strongly starting in 2003. Applying that logic to the current administration, I guess since George W. Bush left office with unemployment at 7.6% and it is now at a 2 months low of 10%, Obama caused a 2.5% rise in unemployment. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. QED.
You’ll have to excuse my ignorance of your position on torture, rendition and Guantanamo. From your torture blog linked to above, I got it into my head that maybe you opposed those things. I guess I got that wrong. Thanks for clearing it up. While we’re on the subject, I’m not the chap who accused you of hating General Petraeus. I did, however, say that people who hold your ideological positions on the military, the war, “torture” and rendition generally do. I guess we’re even then.
There was no irony intended in calling Obama a “right-winger” in the sense that you use the term. When you define “right-winger” as anyone slightly to the political right of Trotsky, Obama fits the description (though it’s a lot closer call than I’d like it to be). It would be far more accurate in reality to call George W. Bush a liberal and Obama a socialist. In a country with multiple, ideologically-oriented parties where “socialist” doesn’t carry any political stigma, that’s a lot closer to how they would be defined politically. Obama’s failure to pass legislation that reflects his ideology is not a good barometer of his political orientation.
Patrick re-writes history:
Comment 69, by Patrick, on Danner’s Fury
As I said then, and now, you attributed views to me that I don’t remotely hold. That’s the plain meaning of your words. You guys have a straw-man fetish around here.
Oz
I’m not sure why you confuse yourself about my views, Patrick. It’s simple: my views are the things that I express. When I don’t express a view about something, it is farcical for you guys to assume you know my views. You’re usually wrong.
BTW, I was characterizing the liberal critique of Bush, not expressing my own opinions (particularly about his culpability for 9/11 and sole responsibility for the financial crash – those are not my personal views). I say this because I don’t want more straw thrown in my face down the line.
Oz
#10 is in response to this: