Dreaming

This blog is dedicated to national security. We predicted in the primary that Obama would be profoundly out of his league as commander-in-chief. We must remain balanced and objective. Maybe we were wrong. Thus, we could not ignore the results of a left-wing poll conducted by Democracy Corps and Third Way. Democracy Corps was founded by former Clinton adviser James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, a leading Democratic pollster. Third Way calls itself "the leading moderate think-tank of the progressive movement."

Too bad these guys ran the poll as they had to publish these results: A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than two years ago and believe BO and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security. A May/09 survey by the pollsters found that the public saw the Democratic and Republican parties as equally able to handle national security (41 percent trusted Democrats more and 43 percent trusted Republicans more). On conducting the war on terrorism, the two parties were tied at 41 percent. The latest poll shows a massive gap, with Democrats trailing by 17 points, 33 percent to 50 percent, on which party likely voters think would do a better job on national security. On terrorism, a similar failure. "We would not want the election to be held today, with this poll," said Democracy Corps chief pollster Stan Greenberg. "If the election were held today, this would be a 'change' election." You bet Stan.

Why did we elect an individual who apparently never learned a thing key to his job, while others, for centuries, not only learned these lessons but passed them on, free for the taking?

Now, he’s got all of us in a heck of a lot of trouble.

How did Obama prepare himself for the job of commander-in-chief? Has the guy read anything whatsoever about foreign affairs, or heck, even about OUR history for goodness sake? Where is the evidence of that? Does he care about our founding or the Founders? Where is the evidence of that? Does he even understand his own country? Does he respect democracy and democratic ideals; indeed, does he have any standards? Does he see black and white, or just a gray world were all is relative?

The Founders, especially George Washington admonished future diplomats and presidents not to expect sovereigns to look to other's welfare, not to expect empathy, not to expect care and understanding. Most of us know that diplomacy is not a campus 60's sensitivity session; it is not even a contentious faculty meeting; it is about looking strictly to one’s own interest. Obama doesn’t know these things because in his past career he wasn’t interested.

So what happened? Because he is illiterate in matters of foreign affairs, and, immature, he figured he’d "reach out," softly. Any fool knew that would never work with Muslim thugs. The result? The terrorists said, "Thanks for the outreach, but we’re going to kill you anyway."

But some of the left say (betraying their lack of scholarship)- hey, it was worth a try. No, it was not worth a try because it defies logic, and it defies, in this case, history.

We are thus set back in progress offshore because a bunch of college coeds, most of the public school teachers, the trial lawyers, academics and the media went bonkers for a cult figure.

As Vic Hansen noted, "Obama's utopian rhetoric created impossible expectations of a new international brotherhood. So the disappointment became greater when nations simply acted like their usual self-interested selves instead of idealistic groupies at an Obama hope-and-change rally."

We suspected we were in trouble big time when our lefty nurseryman friend cooed that Obama was a "dreamer." And then later, in the parking lot, "Did you hear that speech?" Oh boy.

Proper communication, effective delivery can enhance competence in transfer of a message, sure; slick delivery however is generally but a tool to camouflage incompetence, and Obama’s slick. It’s no secret that BO’s experience was limited to the Chicago grant-giving machine. So folks figured we’d get by because he’s a dreamer?

Think we’re safe? Dream on.

Robert Craven