About that 3:00 am Call

posted at 10:46 am on December 30, 2009 by Howard Portnoy
[ Media ]   

I can scarcely believe I’m uttering these words but here goes: Hillary Clinton was right. The 3:00 call she predicted would come came. It was on Christmas, and no one was home — literally and figuratively. Barack Obama was 6,000 miles away from the White House, but no matter. There hasn’t been a real occupant of the White House for a year now. Instead we’ve had in effect a child dressing up in his father’s too-big clothes, strutting and posturing, bowing and apologizing, instead of running a country.

His initial response to the there-but-for-the-grace-of-God outcome of an attempt by a Nigerian terrorist to murder 300 innocent people was silence. In Obama’s world, nothing happened — no harm, no foul — so there was no need to interrupt his vacation. But then the person he chose to play Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, spoke up, revealing her own naivete (and his in selecting her for this job for which she is singularly and spectacularly ill-equipped), and all hell broke loose. Obama was forced to appear in front of the TV cameras and make a statement. And then another statement, as the American people began to respond to their own wakeup call, realizing that the country had dodged a big bullet no thanks to Obama or Napolitano (who had already begun walking back her story).

So how bad is it for Team Obama? Judge for yourself. Today’s MSM opinion headlines are a pretty good barometer of the nation’s mood. The headline from Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post: “Red Flags Waved — And Ignored.” From the ever-flip Maureen Dowd at the New York Times: “As the Nation’s Pulse Races, Obama Can’t Seem to Find His.” But it gets even worse, when you reach the last line of her op-ed: Heck of a job, Barry.

Put somewhat differently, it’s easy to call Dick Cheney Darth Vader and George W. Bush a cowboy when no one’s spitting on your lawn. Let Al Qaeda launch a loogie that narrowly misses its target, and suddenly — grudgingly — even the most diehard socialist loses that smirk of assured confidence in a leader who knows better, who promises he’ll sweet talk the Islamofascist beast into submission.

In order to escape with his political life, Obama needs to offer up a sacrifice. And in this case, the call is an easy one. Janet Napolitano: Say hello to the underside of the bus. You can tell she’s already gone, because Obama has released a statement indicating that her job is secure. The timing on this is also easy. My guess is that she will tender her resignation at precisely the stroke of midnight on December 31st.

But her head isn’t the one the American people should be content to see on a pike this time. There is a cancer on the White House, to borrow a well-worn coinage. The tumor is as aggressive as it appears outwardly benign to observers on the left. And unless it is excised soon, next time we may not be so lucky.

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