Some months ago a few conservative bloggers began comparing
President Obama’s presidency to the presidency of the thoroughly likeable, but thoroughly
ineffectual Jimmy Carter. At the time I
thought that was going a bit too far; now I am not so sure.
To be sure, President Obama faces a perfect storm of
problems these days – the new Sunni “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, Russia’s expansionist
moves, China’s increasing assertiveness, the current blow-up between Israel and
Hamas, the massive influx of illegal child immigrants across the Texas border,
an obstructive Republican block in Congress, continued opposition to ObamaCare
and the imminent rise in health insurance premiums this fall. He could hardly have been expected to
anticipate these.
Or could he?
Serious and respected military and foreign policy experts have
warned for years that letting the Syrian civil war drag on was just providing a
breeding and training ground for extremists. And sure enough, they were right, as we found
out when ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant) came storming out of the Syrian debacle and took over large portions
of Iraq, massively increasing their supply of funds and arms in the process. It is not comforting that after a closed-door
briefing this past Monday with the President, several Senators, both Democrat
and Republican, complained publically that the administration seemed unable in
the meeting to define any coherent administration policy toward this problem.
Serious and respected military and foreign policy experts
have followed for years, and frequently written about, the inevitable Russian
moves to expand its influence back into the territories of its old Soviet
empire. Why were the events in the
Ukraine such a surprise to the administration? Why did they not have a plan or
policy in place, and indeed why do they STILL seem to be simply reacting ad hoc to events there, making it up as
they go along?
President Obama’s much hailed “Russian reset” has come to
nothing. Nor did his famous speeches at
Cairo University offering an open hand to the Muslim world seem to make the slightest
difference in the current Middle East turmoil.
In retrospect it is pretty clear that he misjudged entirely both the
motives and the agendas of the Muslim world, as well as of the Russian government.
Republican opposition was to be expected, given the rise of
the Tea Party, but frankly I think much of the hard feeling and opposition is
due to President Obama himself. He
clearly has no skill in negotiating, nor in building relationships with
opponents. When he invited the Speaker of
the House to play golf with him once it was a big news item, because he had
done nothing like that before (or since). His general attitude is well summed
up in his 2012 comment “We won, you lost. Get over it.” Hardly the way to work with your opposition.
As to the current influx of largely unaccompanied children
across the Texas border, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how that
came about. If the president goes on and
on in speech after speech pressing the case for an amnesty for illegal
immigrants, especially if they came to America as children, the clear message
people in poor South America nations are going to get is this: get yourself, or
at least your children, into America as soon as possible, so that they will
come under the amnesty.
The world is a difficult and complex place these days, and
the problems the president faces are indeed very hard. The liberal press keeps
trying (with increasing difficulty) to convey the picture of a thoughtful, measured
president considering all the options carefully before moving. Sorry, that isn’t what it looks like to me: I
see more of a deer-in-the-headlights indecision by someone who is out of his
depth, and would frankly rather be shot of the whole job.
It’s hard to tell if Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Mitt
Romney would have done better in this job, but the odds are pretty good they
would not have done any worse. A new
poll from Quinnipiac University made the news last week – it reported that 33%
of American voters now rank President Obama as the worst president since World
War II, and 45% think in retrospect that we would have been better off with
Mitt Romney. Considering how unappealing
Romney was, that is a pretty harsh rating.
So perhaps the comparison with President Carter was not so
far off the mark after all.
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