Joe Biden had it right. Gird your loins.

Steve Z on November 24, 2008 at 11:03 AM

Yup, I’m girding my loins…… with plenty of 12-ga, 30-06 and 9mm ammo.

Yeah, I know, I`ll wake up any minute and come to my senses.

Mr. Scowcroft spoke by phone with President-elect Barack Obama last week, the latest in a months-long series of conversations between the two men about defense and foreign-policy issues, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Scurry scurry little furry

Why don’t they enlist Joe Wilson and get it over with?

He has the depth they need

I’ve often said that an Obama administration would be the second term of Jimmy Carter (or maybe the first term of Henry Wallace), but, as far as foreign affairs goes, I may be wrong. Ed Morrissey looks at the people……

However, I see Scowcroft as a huge improvement over Susan Rice, Robert Malley, and Samantha Power.

But who do you think will be behind the scenes pulling the strings. BO will put several “republicans” in “advisory rolls” to make it look good. He might even tack right for a bit to get the people looking the other way. Then when crisis hits, he will revert to form. He is following the Marxist playbook to a tee. I forget the name of the book by his professor buddy, but the outline is there. Oddly, it is also very similar to the Islamic pattern of taking over countries. Look pretty on the outside and have propaganda showing how nice you are, but preaching hate to your followers.

The MSM will keep the focus on great stories like what the Obamas had for lunch, Michelle’s outfits, all the “firsts” for the Obamas in the White House, and wonderful stories about movie stars and celebs staying over.

reaganaut on November 24, 2008 at 10:34 AM

Cue theme from

The Jeffersons

…..

Government by committee is fine in a stable environment. We are not in a stable environment and whether it is the economy, the GWOT, or some other trigger point; at some point the nation will need a leader. Jimmy Carter failed miserably because he wasn’t a leader at all. Ronald Reagan was wildly successful because wheter you agreed with him or not, he led. Both Bush Presidencies and the Clinton era of bad stewardship are somewhere in the middle with leadership on some issues muddled with managerial approaches.

Since he has no executive experience, we’ll see what he does. I don’t think I’ll be surprised by anything unless he actually makes a good decision. (Which I’m not expecting)

Marine_Bio on November 24, 2008 at 10:41 AM

I just don’t see how he’s going to get anything of substance accomplished. He’ll make a big show about lifting the ban on federal dollars for abortions and research, he’ll close GITMO which is a far easier process than figuring out what to do with the very bad people housed there, there will be a lot of back slapping as the smug and arrogant feel good about getting Obama into office…. but then what? The President needs to be a leader not a manager. Where is the vision and purpose? What does Obama really stand for (and stand against). Inquiring minds want to know.

Ultimately he is going to be a disappointment because the expections are so high and so vague that he can’t possibly do a single thing without “betraying” some group of worshipers. He’s not even following through on creating a new type of government since virtually everybody are partisans from the Clinton years.

Influencing areas we conquer towards more becoming open societies under rule of law is pragmatic, as it assists our cause, and also happens to be congruent with our values. It motivates all sorts of unreadable prose in op-eds and journals, and a fair amount of foreign aid spending and scholarships – but it has nothing to do with pulling the trigger on an Afghanistan or Iraq. It is actually troubling to see the more savvy observers adopting this silly false framework for understanding or discussing serious issues. Supporting “kleptocrats” and dictators, in various places and times, was the right thing to do, usually done because no better choice existed. 9/11 changed lots of calculations, in a spectacular but utterly conventional way.

BTW, we still support most of the kleptocrats we were supporting pre-9/11 – again because it’s the best available course of action.

Scowcroft and Powell and Haass would be better than the idiot crew you mentioned in the same sense that Obama is better than Gravel or Kucinich – there isn’t the slightest chance that any of their stuff would ever be tried, anyway. Cold comfort doesn’t beging to describe it.

Scowcroft et al are to more competent guides (Bolton, Rumsfeld) what the unserious Dem opposition in the early 90s were to Bush I’s team. Recall the Dems were against taking action WRT Kuwait (as was, incredibly, Powell), and Scowcroft and company had to be the adults. But it was mostly George H.W. Bush’s personal leadership and decisiveness that mattered there (I’ve read that the NSC staff was stunned when Bush made his famous “this will not stand” statement after stepping off Marine One on the South Lawn – they watched it live on TV like everyone else – having dealt with Haas from way back I can’t imagine he WASN’T one of those stunned).

Best short way of putting it, for me, has always been that Scowcroft types couldn’t “make the turn” after 9/11. They are/were vastly the better sort to deal with a bipolar, static, marginalist international competition, of the sort that ended with Soviet power. (better than the then-alternatives) But they’ve been very disappointingly timid and unrealistic when dealing with the far more dynamic game that the GWOT represents.

If you liked the last 3 years of Dubya’s foreign policy (apart from Iraq/Afghanistan), you’re gonna love a Scowcroft-style foreign policy – cede the initiative to adversaries, engage the unreliable/treacherous, try things that have failed 1,000 times before. The Dubya of the abrogated ABM Treaty, the Rose Garden challenge to the Palestinians, the full-court press against North Korea – THAT was a realistic foreign policy, which didn’t shy away from short-term costs in a futile search for painless and popular “solutions”.

In a dynamic environment such as today’s, the “pragmatic” Scowcroft approach (which itself would probably stretch Obama to his limits, as he seems extremely cautious and amazingly ignorant) is the more dangerous, costly, riskier one.

Barry could have just realized that he is in WAY over his head, and unlike the rest of his life, he will now actualy be held accountable for his decisions. Or, in other words, he’s finally growing up.

OR,

Its a Machieavellian Mastroika, to mix idioms. He is purposefully putting his enemies (Hillary, Gates, Repubs) in charge of a no win situation, while he will put forward his Socialist Domestic agenda. Things on the foreign policy front are a mess, and he will let Hill and the Repubs take the blame for any setbacks… Flips the Constitutuin on its head (President is all about foreign policy, less so domestic), but with the lack of real knowledge in his power base, it may work….

All depends on Barry’s intellectual leanings… what he is really after… and that, sadly, we don’t know.

But once the Community Organizer (aka Rabble Rouser) takes office, will he announce heart-to-heart talks with Putin and Chavez and AhmaNutJob, and throw his current centrist moves under the bus as “campaign rhetoric”, as he did with his NAFTA positions?

Steve Z on November 24, 2008 at 11:03 AM

I would be very surprised if he is open to the media. There were complaints about this with Bush, but I suspect Obama will be even more elusive. So, when he has these little heart-to-heart chats, they will be in private, and we will never know what really was said.

Unfortunately I think Obama loves AhmaNutJob, and he’ll be right behind Odinga staying in the Lincoln Bedroom.

Before the election, the Bush Administration was rather mum on foreign policy–they let McCain do the talking, and McCain IS solid on foreign policy, although the election revolved around the economy. But once Obama won the election, the Bush Administration probably realized they had a dangerous greenhorn as a successor, and he needed to be educated in a BIG hurry. Yes, Barry Hussein, there are REAL enemies out there who want to KILL us, and you can’t just talk them out of it, like what he proposed during the primaries!

Whether or not Know-Nothing-Bama really learned his lessons remains to be seen. For now, he is under the tutelage of the Bushies, and Obama knows that if he makes any brash and/or naive foreign policy moves, the Bush White House can make trouble for him, perhaps by Executive Order to strip the Presidency of some of its own power, or by scaring the lame-duck Congress into hamstringing Obama.

But once the Community Organizer (aka Rabble Rouser) takes office, will he announce heart-to-heart talks with Putin and Chavez and AhmaNutJob, and throw his current centrist moves under the bus as “campaign rhetoric”, as he did with his NAFTA positions?

This new-found foreign-policy centrism could either be a reality check and a realization that he needs some adults in the room, or just a head fake to the lame-duck Bushies who still hold power for now.

Joe Biden had it right. Gird your loins.

But hey, I’m sure we’ll see several thousand light hearted stories over the next few months that turn the White House into some reality show. The MSM will keep the focus on great stories like what the Obamas had for lunch, Michelle’s outfits, all the “firsts” for the Obamas in the White House, and wonderful stories about movie stars and celebs staying over.

reaganaut on November 24, 2008 at 10:34 AM

That does seem to be the way things are going already, doesn’t it?

highhopes on November 24, 2008 at 10:28 AM

I probably wasn’t as clear as I should have been. You’re right about the special interests having an expectation, and I suspect that you’re also correct about the decline being an erosion in enthusiasm for the one.

I was actually talking about the average person’s expectations. I know of several Obama supporters who think that he’ll do something great for the economy, but cant tell me what policy he supports that they believe will do this. They’re the portion of the electorate that will be most affected by the problems we’ll be facing under his presidency, because they’ll be surprised when whatever he tries to do fails. Economies fix themselves or fail based upon public confidence, not govenrment intervention.

Since he has no executive experience, we’ll see what he does. I don’t think I’ll be surprised by anything unless he actually makes a good decision. (Which I’m not expecting)

bambi is a socialist at best. he is not a jihadist because that would mean backing up your ideals with your life. i think bambi is too much of a coward for that. ‘course, he might back up his ideals with your life.

kelley in virginia on November 24, 2008 at 10:32 AM

Obama strikes me as risk averse (its familiar, I tend to be that way myself). The problem is that it is necessary to take some risks, for various reasons. Risk taking is essential for the businesses, and often healthy in the form of marginal tax rate cuts. In foreign policy, if you do not take risks, then you will be at the mercy of foreign powers, as all they have to do to control your behavior is create risk.
Of course, risk taking should not be confused with the over reach and disruptive behavior of FDR. Sometimes, the most important risk to take is to do nothing, and let things play out.

SUCKERS!

Guardian on November 24, 2008 at 8:40 AM

No, ‘useful tools’ come to mind.

He still has a lot of favors to honor positions to fill.

This guy is simply not a leader, and to be honest, very few on the left know how to truly lead at any level of government.

We’re going to have 4 years of government by committee, heavy on opinion polling and focus groups and light on conviction and leadership.

But hey, I’m sure we’ll see several thousand light hearted stories over the next few months that turn the White House into some reality show. The MSM will keep the focus on great stories like what the Obamas had for lunch, Michelle’s outfits, all the “firsts” for the Obamas in the White House, and wonderful stories about movie stars and celebs staying over.