Showing posts with label Incompetent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Incompetent. Show all posts

Friday, April 13, 2012

President Trainwreck

Andrew Malcolm of Investors Business Daily nails it.

Mr. "Hopey- Changey" is really President Trainwreck. His administration is the proverbial "Three Stooges" of politics when you add in Geitner, Napolitano, Biden, etc.

Yeah, Romney is not the guy who thrills people but right now we need Competent & Steady Leadership, not this Chicago Village Idiot who has been in over his head for the entire time he has been in office. He was elected by those who had no clue as to what he would do and his term in office has been nothing but more misery for Americans.

" This 2012 Obama is strident and mean, even deceitful, divisive, telling half-truths after half-truths. He's using Air Force One as his personal Brinks truck with wings to collect cash all over the country, disguising the trips as official."

Yup. No doubt about it - Obama has got to go. November can't come soon enough.

Who is this guy pretending to be president?
By ANDREW MALCOLM - Investors Business Daily

Has anyone seen Barack Obama recently?

You know, the optimistic hopeful fellow with the charming smile who promised so many positive things four and five years ago, how he was going to change the harsh, partisan tone of our nation's capital and bring the country together as its first African American president.

Even allowing for political hyperbole, his empty resume and the invisible witnesses from the past, Obama was such a Real Good Talker that even some who didn't vote for him still had hope that he could change some things for the better in what seemed a sadly-splintered society.

WTH did that Obama go? Have you listened recently to this Chicago Doppelganger who's replaced him? This 2012 Obama is strident and mean, even deceitful, divisive, telling half-truths after half-truths. He's using Air Force One as his personal Brinks truck with wings to collect cash all over the country, disguising the trips as official.

He tries to intimidate the Supreme Court, an equal branch of government, when its thinking might stray from his. He distorts history, and if no one calls him, then it's true. If he's caught, this Obama says you obviously mis-heard. Because, as everyone knows, he could never mis-speak.

The economy, like everything else adverse, is someone else's fault. But if only we borrowed and spent a trillion dollars, unemployment would stay beneath 8%, Obama promised. It soared far above. It's still above. No apology. No acknowledgment. Now, he hails any dip as proof of progress when, in fact, it comes because so many just give up seeking work.

He chastises House Republicans for their draconian budget when his Senate Democrats haven't written a single one in three years; so, the fiscal drift abides. And wait till he exaggerates the frightening things the GOP wants to do, instead of presenting his own ideas.

Obama claims credit for the bottom half of a pipeline he had nothing to do with, when he killed the top half. He brags that domestic oil drilling is up when the part he's responsible for is down.

He says no one should ever go to Las Vegas on the taxpayer's dime. Then his wife, daughters and entourage do just that.

This year's Obama talks of the importance of windmills, algae and green energy, but he takes a 17-SUV motorcade to a photo op with an electric car. He lambasts oil companies for getting the same legal tax incentives (he calls them "subsidies") that other companies receive, hoping to aim anger at them so voters won't notice that gas prices have doubled since his inauguration.

Take this Tuesday. The 2012 Obama flew to Florida for an official presidential speech on the economy, then three fundraisers. That way his campaign only pays a fraction of Air Force One's $182,000 per flight hour cost. All presidents do that, though none have done near as many.

But read the four speeches. You can't tell which is official and which is political. They're all political. He can't be a real president for one lousy speech? Why the phony presidential fig leaf? To chintz the United States of America out of a few thousand bucks when he plans to raise a billion?

The Buffet Rule? Americans have always admired the successful. The only thing wrong with rich people is we're not one of them -- yet. But now he's pitting most of us against rich folks, which is him, come to think of it. The only way he's bringing us together now is to resent their paying a smaller legal rate because theirs is a different kind of income.

And speaking of taxes, whch are due Monday, how can the president of the United States allow 36 of his own White House aides to fall $833,000 behind in their tax payments?

How is that what the first Obama offered, making him an example of American success? (Hint: His GOP opponent is far richer than Obama and earned it the old-fashioned way through work, not fronting books.)

OK, Obama wants political skirmishes all over on any petty thing so people won't notice the absence of any conceivably positive record to run on. Risky when Americans start paying attention. But if that's his only card. It's all the Republicans' fault, of course. That's the candidate in him, the one that prefers performing for adoring crowds instead of performing Oval Office duties.

But whatever happened to the president part? The leader. The principled man who through his personal story, skills and charm was going to inspire, convince, cajole Americans as diverse as himself to work together for a common national success? That official part has merged with the political, like the four Florida speeches. Now, he's just trying to fool everybody about everything.

In a way, this could be good news for Republicans. The duplicate Ernst Blofeld makes Mitt Romney look like Mr. Rogers.

But without real presidential leadership, Obama's hand-picked harpie atop the Democratic National Committee feels empowered to assign a hired gun to dismiss his opponent's wife, the cancer-surviving mother of five sons, as someone who's never worked a day in her life. Are they that scared already?

Seriously? We're going to pit now one kind of working woman against another? The guy who talks about having so many women in his life isn't going to fire the women responsible for that? He thinks American women will buy this stuff?

OK, Obama was raised by grandparents because he didn't always have a stay-at-home mom or dad. But this is a nation, not a dysfunctional family or a windy city party where factions are left to their own wards and Solyndras.

Obama is the guy who said his own wife was off limits politically, the guy whose mother-in-law has resided since Day One in the White House at taxpayer expense as a live-in nanny so the first lady can campaign for money and healthy foods? But a woman who stays at home with her kids at no public expense can be trashed because of her party?

Monday, March 26, 2012

Obama to the Russians, " After My Election I Have More Flexibility.."- REALLY ?? I don't think so...you will not be getting reelected.

This is one of the BEST reasons why NO ONE should want to reelect the idiot who is keeping the seat warm at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

He tells the Russians, " After My Election I Have More Flexibility.."-


REALLY ?

Really ??? Are you f%^king kidding me ? Why not just hand over all the secret info they want why you're at it ?? The Russians are not someone we want to be loosy-goosy with especially as they don't want us to maintain a tough defense....we would like to work with them but first and foremost is the defense of our nation and our allies in the West. Sending signals like this to Putin is NOT what our President should be doing.

I don't want to give OBAMA the "flexibility" he'll have after getting reelected as he will have NO ACCOUNTABILITY to anyone.



This is a Prima Faci case of why he SHOULD NOT BE REELECTED.


What happened to " Protect, preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States ??" His statement speaks to someone who has no care what he does once he is reelected....this is dangerous for anyone who believes in our country.

I have said it before, and I will say it now -

OMG - Obama MUST GO. Vote this idiot out of office. Really.


President Obama Asks Medvedev for ‘Space’ on Missile Defense — "After My Election I Have More Flexibility" - ABC NEWS

SEOUL, South Korea — At the tail end of his 90 minute meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev Monday, President Obama said that he would have “more flexibility” to deal with controversial issues such as missile defense, but incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to give him “space.”

The exchange was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room for remarks by the two leaders.

The exchange:

President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.

President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…

President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

When asked to explain what President Obama meant, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Ben Rhodes told ABC News that there is room for the U.S. and Russia to reach an accommodation, but “there is a lot of rhetoric around this issue — there always is — in both countries.

A senior administration official tells ABC News: “this is a political year in which the Russians just had an election, we’re about to have a presidential and congressional elections — this is not the kind of year in which we’re going to resolve incredibly complicated issue like this. So there’s an advantage to pulling back and letting the technical experts work on this as the president has been saying.”

-Jake Tapper

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The President of the United States needs to " Man Up " as his failure is an embarrassment to the citizens of our great country

The tantrums coming from the White House and the non-stopping stammering are the signs that the Obama Administration is toast.

No one believes them and the markets showed that to the world.

Be a MAN Mr. President and take a lesson from HARRY TRUMAN who had a sign on the same desk you sit at each day that said "
The BUCK stops here !"

Obama is unworthy to even think he should sit at that desk as he is only keeping the chair warm for the next occupant of the Oval Office. He needs to MAN UP, accept that his failing as President is his responsibility and admit it to the voters. To continue to deny what is obvious to the rest of the world is both immature and delusional.

Let us PRAY that it is someone with more sense than this embarrssing poser that was elected in 2008 who has been a national embarrassment since day one.


Ron Hart: Stop the blame. Do something!
By RON HART - Orange County Register

As they always do, our representatives in Congress raised the debt ceiling and said they were going to make cuts later. Then they fled Washington to go on a long vacation. Why not address this now? Why the suspense? Congress has not left so many things dangling in front of so many Americans since Anthony Weiner left.

They called what they did a "two-step deal." It looks like both were side steps.

Remember, Obama kept using the word "bankrupt" and threatened not to pay Social Security checks. The country was not nearly bankrupt; he just used the word as a scare tactic to get his way. Obama blames everything on someone else: the Tea Party for forcing budget cuts or Japan for having an earthquake. I guess he is blaming God, too.

Blame and threats are not a strategy.

The Democrats called those wanting to cut the spending "terrorists" who were holding the country hostage. Obama might want to be careful; being unable to negotiate the release of hostages invites even more comparisons to Jimmy Carter.

It is getting more dangerous in the Obama administration. Last week a man hopped over the White House fence and made a run for it. Then the Secret Service caught him and told Mr. Geithner he had to finish his term as Treasury Secretary. It turns out it is much easier being the problem than the solution.

After months of indicating that he might leave his post as Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner said he would stay. In the end, he decided to keep his safe government job since he determined there is no way of finding a good job in this economy.

Interestingly, last week it was also reported that Washington, D.C. has the highest use of cocaine, pot and alcohol. That explains a lot. The S&P downgrade was not a decision; it was more like an intervention.

It is like Obama and the Democrats were called into a room to find S&P, Moody's, the U.S. dollar and the stock market, who told them, "We love you, but you have a spending addiction." I don't care if they have a drug problem; it is their spending that is hurting others.

If Obama wants to borrow again soon he is going to have to get his financier buddy, George Soros, to co-sign for him.

Let's be as clear as we can. Federal spending has gone to $3.8 trillion per year and tax revenue remains at $2.1 per year. We run annual losses of $1.7 trillion – and climbing – and Geithner and Obama are blaming S&P and the Tea Party for the downgrade? Wow.

The $14 trillion dollar debt is not so much the problem; we are projected to have a $27 trillion debt in 10 years. For Obama and Geithner to blame S&P for it is like being late for two years on payments for their big screen TV and then shooting the repo man who comes to get it.

Their new stall is the "Super Committee" to be appointed to cut the budget down the road. They are just so delusional that they will call on Superman, Captain America, Green Hornet, Iron Man, Superwoman, Spiderman and Batman to cut the budget. I presume Barney Frank will be Batman; he spends his time with Robin, who spends a lot of time on the bat pole. Only those egomaniacs in Washington could call themselves "super" anything. I still snicker when they are called "The Honorable...."

Obama used his media arms, NBC, CBS and ABC, to make political points in prime time and told people to call their representatives. The "post-partisan president" was surprised that few called to support his spending on entitlements and that the vast majority favored spending cuts. Voters do not wait on hold for an hour to talk to a congressman's intern in order to leave the message "Just compromise."

The dysfunction of Washington is such a disaster that al-Qaida is claiming responsibility for it. The good news is Obama will soon be making taxpayer-funded visits to swing states in the Midwest, and he will be trying to save jobs – mainly his.

Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author and TV/radio commentator. Email Ron@RonaldHart.com or visit www.RonaldHart.com

Sunday, August 7, 2011

This is not working....

During the 2008 Presidential election, I supported the best candidate for the Presidency, Senator John McCain.

I live in Massachusetts and always was supportive of the men from Massachusetts who made a difference - President John Kennedy, his brother Bobby Kennedy and House Speaker Tip O'Neill. They were LEADERS. Since there are no longer people of that character in Massachusetts, (with an exception of US Senator Scott Brown) I became "unaligned", which means I do not follow party dogma, I vote for the candidate that I feel best represents my ideals of a good and honorable Leader.

After the 2008 Election, my son asked me if I was taking my "McCain for President" bumperstickers off the back of my truck. I said " No, as I want people to know where I stood." I am glad to say I was right then, and I am correct now. America elected the wrong man for the job. We should have elected a Combat Veteran who was tried and tested in the toughest conditions instead of listening to the simpletons in the media who supported a "community organizer" who voted "present" 130 times purposely to ensure he would not have a record that we could judge.


To anyone who would state differently, I question your version of reality, judgment and sanity. Look at the state of affairs in our country and get a grip as this "empty suit" that was elected is an abject failure.


August 5th, 2011
This is not working
by Holly Robichaud - Boston Herald

So much for retiring early.

Don’t you love this era of Obamanomics? It is going so well. Is this the hope and change you liberals wanted? Quite frankly, I knew this was going to be bad, but not this bad. Yikes.

I think it is clear to everyone, except the Kool Aid drinkers, that Obama is now the worst President we have ever had. Never elect someone who voted present 130 times.

This economy is not going to turn around until we elect a new President who wants to end the uncertainty. Businesses don’t want to expand or add jobs when they are going to get hit with Obamacare. They are no fools. Smart business people have looked at what happened to the cost of health insurance costs here in Massachusetts under Romneycare and they don’t want to pay 70% increases.

Moreover, this is the most anti-business administration. The only jobs they want to create are politically correct green jobs.

Finally, Obama has failed to tackle the housing market problem. The only thing we hear coming out of Washington is a desire to kill the home mortgage deduction. That’s just plain nuts. It is a recipe for making this recession a depression. If they were serious about fixing the housing market, they would repeal the new rules that penalize middle class investors. Right now, only the rich can invest in real estate. Obama has wiped middle class real estate investing.

I don’t like this summer of recovery part II.


Thursday, June 23, 2011

POTUS mucks it up in a speech regarding MOH Recipient Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti

Everyone makes mistakes...that's a given. The issue isn't making the mistake but the way you handle it and making sure you don't make mistakes about certain things - Things that are very very important.

When you are the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, you don't make errors about who you awarded the Medal of Honor to and whether he was awarded the medal posthumously. Unless you are a former Community Organizer who doesn't respect the military......

YOU are the PRESIDENT - YOU are speaking about a MEDAL OF HONOR recipient...You can't make a mistake in speaking about this, especially when you are speaking to his comrades in arms.


Really??? - I know he has issues when he speaks without a teleprompter but REALLY??

Please, I am begging you...don't re-elect this fool....we have already had enough of his level of incompetence. His lack of care for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice is appalling. He is hazarding our nation and our military.


Commander In Chief Misspeaks About Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
Dana Ritter
CBN News White House Producer

During his remarks to troops at Fort Drum today, the President was reminiscing about the times he has spent with the US Army's 10th Mountain Division, when he got something wrong.

" Throughout my service, first as a senator and then as a presidential candidate and then as a President, I’ve always run into you guys. And for some reason it’s always in some rough spots.

First time I saw 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first ones there. I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn’t receiving it posthumously
."

The problem is, Jared Monti was killed in action in Afghanistan, on June 21, 2006. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, September 17, 2009. President Obama handed the framed medal to his parents, Paul and Janet Monti. He and the First Lady comforted them in the Oval Office following the ceremony.

I contacted the White House to see what happened. I'm told the President didn't have prepared remarks.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "“At Fort Drum, the President misspoke when discussing the first Medal of Honor he presented posthumously to Jared Monti, who was a member of the 10th Mountain Division. The President paid tribute to Monti in his remarks to troops in Afghanistan in March 2010. Last year, the President presented the Medal of Honor to Salvatore Giunta, who was the first living recipient of the Medal who served in Afghanistan.”

The gaffe comes one day after the President announced his plan to bring troops home from Afghanistan at a faster pace. He deliberately spoke at Fort Drum because of the 10th Mountain Division's multiple deployments to Afghanistan

Saturday, December 11, 2010

ART IMITATES LIFE - POTUS BECOMES NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN

HISTORY

16th September 1938: Neville Chamberlain (1869 - 1940) prime minister, arrives back at Heston aerodrome after his appeasement meeting with Adolf Hitler.



TODAY - ART IMITATES LIFE...


POTUS repeats history, not because his political foes are as bad as Germany, but simply because he is as feckless, incompetent and as clueless as Neville Chamberlain was....He had control of both houses of Congress and he still couldn't get it done....He was self-absorbed and turned a deaf ear to the real needs of the American people - instead he spent our treasure on the STIMULUS, which is nothing more than a slush fund for his political friends, and a Healthcare Bill that is the most wasteful and screwed up bill ever produced by Congress...They weren't even reading the bill before they passed it....His Presidency was like handing the keys to a brand new car to a teenager, then watching as POTUS drove our country into the ditch and then tried to blame it on everyone else.

The American people could have elected better but bought into the dreck that the media fed them and that brings us to today, with an American President that emboldens our enemies and imperils us as he cannot even handle things at home...

Maybe he should have listened to another voice out of history.....

Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.”

Andrew Carnegie (Scottish born American Industrialist and Philanthropist. 1835-1919)

It is OBVIOUS that POTUS never had any principles to start with....his favorite thing to do is admiring himself in the mirror while looking down his nose at those in our country who try to work hard and earn a living.

So if POTUS is Neville Chamberlain, where is our WINSTON CHURCHILL now that we need him more than ever????

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Mort Zuckerman: World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur

PRESIDENT JAFO (Just Another F'ing Observer) is seen as Incompetent by the rest of the world....shocker.

Jefferson, Madison, FDR and the rest of the former Presidents must be spinning in their graves.
Is it 2012 yet?


Friday, June 18, 2010
Mort Zuckerman: World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur
The president is well-intentioned but can't walk the walk on the world stage


By Mortimer B. Zuckerman
Posted June 18, 2010


President Obama came into office as the heir to a great foreign policy legacy enjoyed by every recent U.S. president. Why? Because the United States stands on top of the power ladder, not necessarily as the dominant power, but certainly as the leading one. As such we are the sole nation capable of exercising global leadership on a whole range of international issues from security, trade, and climate to counterterrorism. We also benefit from the fact that most countries distrust the United States far less than they distrust one another, so we uniquely have the power to build coalitions. As a result, most of the world still looks to Washington for help in their region and protection against potential regional threats.

Yet, the Iraq war lingers; Afghanistan continues to be immersed in an endless cycle of tribalism, corruption, and Islamist resurgence; Guantánamo remains open; Iran sees how North Korea toys with Obama and continues its programs to develop nuclear weapons and missiles; Cuba spurns America's offers of a greater opening; and the Palestinians and Israelis find that it is U.S. policy positions that defer serious negotiations, the direct opposite of what the Obama administration hoped for.

The reviews of Obama's performance have been disappointing. He has seemed uncomfortable in the role of leading other nations, and often seems to suggest there is nothing special about America's role in the world. The global community was puzzled over the pictures of Obama bowing to some of the world's leaders and surprised by his gratuitous criticisms of and apologies for America's foreign policy under the previous administration of George W. Bush. One Middle East authority, Fouad Ajami, pointed out that Obama seems unaware that it is bad form and even a great moral lapse to speak ill of one's own tribe while in the lands of others.

Even in Britain, for decades our closest ally, the talk in the presssupported by pollsis about the end of the "special relationship" with America. French President Nicolas Sarkozy openly criticized Obama for months, including a direct attack on his policies at the United Nations. Sarkozy cited the need to recognize the real world, not the virtual world, a clear reference to Obama's speech on nuclear weapons. When the French president is seen as tougher than the American president, you have to know that something is awry. Vladimir Putin of Russia has publicly scorned a number of Obama's visions. Relations with the Chinese leadership got off to a bad start with the president's poorly-organized visit to China, where his hosts treated him disdainfully and prevented him from speaking to a national television audience of the Chinese people. The Chinese behavior was unprecedented when compared to visits by other U.S. presidents.

Obama's policy on Afghanistan—supporting a surge in troops, but setting a date next year when they will begin to withdrawnot only gave a mixed signal, but provided an incentive for the Taliban just to wait us out. The withdrawal part of the policy was meant to satisfy a domestic constituency, but succeeded in upsetting all of our allies in the region. Further anxiety was provoked by Obama's severe public criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his coterie of family and friends for their lackluster leadership, followed by a reversal of sorts regarding the same leaders.

Obama clearly wishes to do good and means well. But he is one of those people who believe that the world was born with the word and exists by means of persuasion, such that there is no person or country that you cannot, by means of logical and moral argument, bring around to your side. He speaks as a teacher, as someone imparting values and generalities appropriate for a Sunday morning sermon, not as a tough-minded leader. He urges that things "must be done" and "should be done" and that "it is time" to do them. As the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Les Gelb, put it, there is "the impression that Obama might confuse speeches with policy." Another journalist put it differently when he described Obama as an "NPR [National Public Radio] president who gives wonderful speeches." In other words, he talks the talk but doesn't know how to walk the walk. The Obama presidency has so far been characterized by a well-intentioned but excessive belief in the power of rhetoric with too little appreciation of reality and loyalty.

In his Cairo speech about America and the Muslim world, Obama managed to sway Arab public opinion but was unable to budge any Arab leader. Even the king of Saudi Arabia, a country that depends on America for its survival, reacted with disappointment and dismay. Obama's meeting with the king was widely described as a disaster. This is but one example of an absence of the personal chemistry that characterized the relationships that Presidents Clinton and Bush had with world leaders. This is a serious matter because foreign policy entails an understanding of the personal and political circumstances of the leaders as well as the cultural and historical factors of the countries we deal with.

Les Gelb wrote of Obama, "He is so self-confident that he believes he can make decisions on the most complicated of issues after only hours of discussion." Strategic decisions go well beyond being smart, which Obama certainly is. They must be based on experience that discerns what works, what doesn't—and why. This requires experienced staffing, which Obama and his top appointees simply do not seem to have. Or as one Middle East commentator put it, "There are always two chess games going on. One is on the top of the table, the other is below the table. The latter is the one that counts, but the Americans don't know how to play that game."

Recent U.S. attempts to introduce more meaningful sanctions against Iran produced a U.N. resolution that is way less than the "crippling" sanctions the administration promised. The United States even failed to achieve the political benefit of a unanimous Security Council vote. Turkey, the Muslim anchor of NATO for almost 60 years, and Brazil, our largest ally in Latin America, voted against our resolution. Could it be that these long-standing U.S. allies, who gave cover to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's nuclear ambitions, have decided that there is no cost in lining up with America's most serious enemies and no gain in lining up with this administration?

The end result is that a critical mass of influential people in world affairs who once held high hopes for the president have begun to wonder whether they misjudged the man. They are no longer dazzled by his rock star personality and there is a sense that there is something amateurish and even incompetent about how Obama is managing U.S. power. For example, Obama has asserted that America is not at war with the Muslim world. The problem is that parts of the Muslim world are at war with America and the West. Obama feels, fairly enough, that America must be contrite in its dealings with the Muslim world. But he has failed to address the religious intolerance, failing economies, tribalism, and gender apartheid that together contribute to jihadist extremism. This was startling and clear when he chose not to publicly support the Iranians who went to the streets in opposition to their oppressive government, based on a judgment that our support might be counterproductive. Yet, he reaches out instead to the likes of Bashar Assad of Syria, Iran's agent in the Arab world, sending our ambassador back to Syria even as it continues to rearm Hezbollah in Lebanon and expands its role in the Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas alliance.

The underlying issue is that the Arab world has different estimates on how to deal with an aggressive, expansionist Iran. The Arabs believe you do not deal with Iran with the open hand of a handshake but with the clenched fist of power. Arab leaders fear an Iran proceeding full steam with its nuclear weapons program on top of its programs to develop intermediate-range ballistic missiles. All the while centrifuges keep spinning in Iran, and Arab leaders ask whether Iran will be emboldened by what they interpret as American weakness and faltering willpower. They did not see Obama or his administration as understanding the region, where naiveté is interpreted as a weakness of character, as amateurism, and as proof of the absence of the tough stuff of which leaders are made. (That's why many Arab leaders were appalled at the decision to have a civilian trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York. After 9/11, many of them had engaged in secret counterterrorism activities under the umbrella of an American promise that these activities would never be made public; now they feared that this would be the exact consequence of an open trial.)

America right now appears to be unreliable to traditional friends, compliant to rivals, and weak to enemies. One renowned Asian leader stated recently at a private dinner in the United States, "We in Asia are convinced that Obama is not strong enough to confront his opponents, but we fear that he is not strong enough to support his friends."

The United States for 60 years has met its responsibilities as the leader and the defender of the democracies of the free world. We have policed the sea lanes, protected the air and space domains, countered terrorism, responded to genocide, and been the bulwark against rogue states engaging in aggression. The world now senses, in the context of the erosion of America's economic power and the pressures of our budget deficits, that we will compress our commitments. But the world needs the vision, idealism, and strong leadership that America brings to international affairs. This can be done and must be done. But we are the only ones who can do it.

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