The Devil Is Looking For a Parka

Obama did something right!


Though, if these are the toughest sanctions we've ever put on Iran, no wonder they're laughing....

The British Press respond to President Obama's gaffes

The Wonder Kid is overwhelmed. I thought that he was chosen over the Old One because of his youth and vigor, his ability to multi-task. His recent disastrous meeting with Gordon Brown has been critiqued by the Telegraph in the UK. They are SO polite over there. The knife slips in soooo quietly.......

Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been "overwhelmed" by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.

The American source said: "Obama is overwhelmed. There is a zero sum tension between his ability to attend to the economic issues and his ability to be a proactive sculptor of the national security agenda.

President Bush is 15 years his senior and has been running a war. Heck, FDR was old, crippled, and had the Great Depression along with WWI. THIS is overwheming Obama?

Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.
"I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." Nuff' said on that.

A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama's inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to "even fake an interest in foreign policy".

Where's the outcry about Bush's, I mean, Obama's lack of interest in foreign policy? Wasn't this the President that was going to engage the world?

The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.

The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment." The apparent lack of attention to detail by the Obama administration is indicative of what many believe to be Mr Obama's determination to do too much too quickly.

Oh. My. God. And this is from the "smart diplomacy" crowd.....

We're doomed.

Having destroyed our Domestic policy,

Obama's administration is dead set on destroying our Foreign policy.

Rapidly Collapsing US Foreign Policy

Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons.
Russia is supporting Iran with military and technical assistance.
The US is now asking Russia to "help" control Iran's nuclear proliferation.

Russia is demanding that we drop our missile defense projects in Eastern Europe.
Russia has put on hold, for now, sale of high tech anti-air/anti-cruise missile defense systems for Iran, pending "developments." Russia states that Israel should do the same with sales to the country of Georgia. Of course, Russia has no interest in Georgia....

Hezbollah has launched new rocket attacks against Israel. Hmm, Iran sponsors Hezbollah. And Syria supports them too. Didn't Obama just "make nice" with Syria?

Russian influence is closing Kyrgyzstan as a supply base for Afghanistan. Russia is offering to "help" us with logistics. Wonder how that plays out next time we support Ukraine, Georgia, or any other previously occupied ex-Soviet country?

Obama states that he will bomb Pakistan during the campaign. Within one week, a Democrat sabotages a secret deal with Pakistan. Then, Obama supports a Taliban/Pakistan Sharia territory deal. Is he TRYING to make it harder to fight in Afghanistan?

Obama praises the "election" of Chavez, the new Castro. Chavez, at last notice, was a self proclaimed enemy of freedom and capitalism. And Chavez was last seen supporting terrorism and drug trafficking in Columbia. Democrats don't want to support the President of Columbia. You know, the one FIGHTING the drug war....

Secretary of State Clinton just promised to work closely with another enemy of freedom, China; "Don't worry about any fuss over dissidents with this administration." Buying our debt so that we can blow it all on political favors is SO MUCH more important.

And this is only in the FIRST month. It's been just ONE month since the coronation.....um, inauguration.

And we thought that Jimmy Carter was bad.

We are so screwed.

Foreign Policy Experience?

GPOUSA Dr. Thomas Sowell

Now that the Democrats have recovered from the shock of Governor Sarah Palin's nomination as the Republican's candidate for vice president, they have suddenly discovered that her lack of experience in general-- and foreign policy experience in particular-- is a terrible danger in someone just a heartbeat away from being President of the United States.

For those who are satisfied with talking points, there is no need to go any further. But, for those who still consider substance relevant, this is an incredible argument coming from those whose presidential candidate has even less experience in public office than Sarah Palin, and none in foreign policy.

Moreover, if Senator Barack Obama is elected, he will not be a heartbeat away from the presidency, his would be the heartbeat of the president-- and he would be the one making foreign policy.

But the big talking point is that the Democrats' vice-presidential nominee, Senator Joe Biden, has years of foreign policy experience as a member, and now chairman, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

That all depends on what the definition of "experience" is.

The fact that Senator Joe Biden has for years listened to all sorts of people testify on all sorts of foreign policy issues tells us nothing about how well he understood the issues.

Out of the four presidential and vice-presidential candidates this year, only Governor Palin has had to make executive decisions and live with the consequences.

As for Senator Obama, his various pronouncements on foreign policy have been as immature as they have been presumptuous.

He talked publicly about taking military action against Pakistan, one of our few Islamic allies and a nation with nuclear weapons.

Barack Obama's first response to the Russian invasion of Georgia was to urge "all sides" to negotiate a cease-fire and take their issues to the United Nations. That is standard liberal talk, which even Obama had second thoughts about, after Senator John McCain gave a more grown-up response.

We should all have second thoughts about what is, and is not, foreign policy "experience."

Foreign Policy Experience?

Depends on what you tried to accomplish.

From Family Security Matters:

....Sarah Palin's views on some key national issues remains a mystery. For example, there is the issue of illegal immigration. I spent hours searching without success for any writings or statements about illegal immigration. As best as I can tell, none exist. Should we therefore assume that her position on the issue is identical to that of McCain - who has generally been a strong supporter of open borders? People who follow this issue very closely have no idea about Palin's views on the issue, and given McCain's past collaboration with Teddy Kennedy in support of mass amnesty, the mystery is troubling.

But by far the biggest issue about Palin will be foreign policy. Get ready for an onslaught of news reports on the major networks and articles in the Washington Post and New York Times comparing her unflatteringly with Biden - articles that will tout at great length his foreign-policy experience. The point of the pieces will be: "Sure, Obama is an ingenue who got Iraq completely wrong. And yes, he has only been paying attention to the stuff for a few years, but he has a lot of smart advisors around him. And even though he has a lot less experience than John McCain when it comes to foreign policy, Obama's inexperience is compensated for by the fact that Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has 35 years of foreign policy experience, while Palin has none."

This could gain traction for the Democrats unless Palin in the coming weeks begins to give interviews explaining her own worldview (think about a very compressed version of what former California Gov. Ronald Reagan did between 1975 and 1979) and contrasts it with Obama- Biden.

......on so many of the foreign policy issues he has addressed during his Senate career, Joe Biden has simply been on the wrong side of history.

In 1972, for example, he was elected to the Senate at age 29, running as an anti-war candidate, as John McCain's time in the Hanoi Hilton was about to end. Biden should be asked about his opposition to the war and what happened after the United States was defeated in the spring of 1975 - including the horrific sagas of the "Boat People" and Cambodian genocide.

Perhaps Mr. Biden could talk about his advocacy of President Carter's SALT II Treaty and his opposition to the Reagan defense buildup of the 1980s that helped win the Cold War: Mr. Biden was tireless in working against it, and he also opposed President Reagan's efforts to fight communism in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Biden also fought tooth and nail against the 1991 Gulf War that drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. Although he voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq in 2002, Biden has spent much of the past five years or so mobilizing opposition to what the United States has been doing in Iraq, including the very successful surge.

He has been a strong advocate of dialogue with Iran. And he has opposed efforts to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to ensure that the United States can eavesdrop on foreign terrorists operating outside the United States without obtaining warrants beforehand.

The bottom line is that much of Biden's experience consists of pursuing policies that have undermined U.S. strength in the world. If McCain and Palin are unable or unwilling to make this case, Biden will continue to have a free pass when it comes to foreign policy. And he will try to use it to pound Sarah Palin (and McCain's hopes of winning the election) right into the ground.