Pundits write of a Feckless Presidency

Pity the next president for the mess that they will inherit from this administration.

Stephens: Anatomy of a Feckless Presidency Gone are the days when the American president was capable of articulating the American interest. 

... "Give the Russian president this much: He pursues Russia's national interests, baldly and expediently, as he sees them. The American president, by contrast, does nothing more than patronizingly lecture other countries about where their respective interests should lie.

"Yet at no point in his statement did Mr. Obama make an effort to define, much less explain, the U.S. interest in all this. Why should Americans be alarmed that Russia is carving territory from a country they know little, and care even less, about? It would be good to hear the president give an account of just what is at stake for the American people...."

 

IBD Editorials; Obama's World Without America Looks A Lot Like Ukraine  "The brazen seizure of Crimea by Putin's Russia has brought into bold relief how the world would look if America is unable or unwilling to project power and influence. Is this what our diplomatic president wanted?"

Elliott Abrams; How We Can Make Putin Pay, and Why We Must

"...  there is more than Putin to think about. Tyrants in places from Tehran to Beijing will also be wondering about the cost of violating international law and threatening the peace and stability of neighbors. What will China do in neighboring seas, or Iran do in its tiny neighbor Bahrain, if actions like Putin’s go without a response?"

....

"The combination of zero action on Syria despite our own declared “red line” and the weakening of the American military sent a dangerous message, and not just to Putin."

 

Kerry Blasts Putin’s ‘Brazen Act of Aggression’  

 

"Pressed on whether Putin would pay a price for his incursion into sovereign territory, Kerry said, “We’re busy right now coordinating with our counterparts in many parts of the world.” He emphasized that “we don’t want this to be a larger confrontation” and that the administration is “not looking for a U.S.-Russia, East-West redux.' ”

Standing up to aggressors appears to be above Obama's pay grade. 

 

WaPo: Obama’s Foreign Policy Is Based on ‘Fantasy’  ... "China has interests in Asia and off the coasts that it wants to advance, but the United States and our alliances stand in the way. China is paying close attention to Barack Obama’s actions on Ukraine, or lack thereof.

"For all the talk of a “new economy,” nations still need fuel, raw materials, access to ports, and the ability to impose their will on occasion. Obama either still doesn’t understand, or he does but doesn’t deem America’s interests as worth advancing."

 

Pirro Scolds Obama on Ukraine: 'Being Dictator in the United States Doesn't Make You King of the World'   

Some perspective: Obama Finds a Country to Threaten. Too Bad It’s Israel.

 

 

Obama's military

Gay and lesbian troops perform in drag on American military base  "Troops based at the Kadena Air Base in Japan know how to party. On Saturday, six gay and straight service members applied some of their finest makeup and lip synced to "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" in what is believed to be first drag queen and king show on an American military base. The show was thrown in support for the base's recently formed OutServe-SLDN chapter, a nonprofit advocacy group for the army's LGBT community." 

 

.... "Just a few years ago, performances like these would have been grounds for a possible discharge. The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell has made it possible for events like this to occur. --Jordan Valinsky"

 

There will be open season on any true career sergeants who believe in a warrior culture and think this is a travesty. How will this ever be undone?

What's this about "standing" preventing this president from acting in rebellion against the Constitution?

Volokh Conspiracy; How liberals learned to stop worrying and love standing doctrine    

"In an op-ed in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, I discuss the Obama Administration’s embrace of standing doctrine:

President Obama’s proclaimed strategy to “bypass Congress” — most conspicuously his broad rewriting of the Affordable Care Act — has given unusual prominence to a fairly arcane legal doctrine: standing. Standing is what is preventing a potential blizzard of litigation against the president’s unilateral decrees, and ironically, it’s a doctrine liberal jurists have long decried.

Republicans: Obama violating Constitution, but little can be done about it   "Washington Republicans on Sunday restated their argument that President Obama has violated the Constitution by using executive orders to alter the Affordable Care Act but acknowledged they likely have no recourse or ability to stop another incident." ...

 

There seems to be a consensus pictured here:

 

http://obamacartoon.blogspot.com/2011/10/executive-orders-or-how-to-screw.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anti-Left Street Posters Mocking Obama (and Oscars) Can’t Be Making Academy Awards Folks Happy

Note the O above is the Obama logo.

 

We the People

"Also why didn’t Sandra Bullock win for Gravity?  Not liberal enough? Perhaps.

"Bullock’s politics are as mysterious, if not more so, than her religion. Here, there are conflicting reports.

 

"Allegedly, Bullock self-identified herself as a conservative on her Facebook page at one point.

 

"Then again, she is reported to be a Democrat, but has said she has “as many Democratic ideas as she does Republican.”⁷

 

Academy Awards Anti-Leftist Street Art: 32 images

Pro and con of the Obama/ Democrat foreign policies

TD has done an internet search to find positive assessments of the Obama administration's foreign policy achievements. These are among the top five that Google came up with. Two others were White House links, so, well, you know...

From Madame Noire:  Top 8 Foreign Policy Achievements of the Obama Administration

CBS praises Obama's foreign policies Norah O'Donnell, just before the 2012 election.

You knew you the posts above would be placed next to these didn't you? Weigh the arguments of the above against these:

Why Russia No Longer Fears the West  The "West" meaning to me the democracies of Western Europe as led by the major democracy, the United States (referred to by Winston Churchill in World War 2 as the enormous power of the New World that would overcome the Nazi conquerors of Europe).
Sadly, today's Democrats will not overcome anything but academia, the media and Republicans.
This Politico columnist holds western business just as culpable as liberals.

... "When Russia sees Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal outbidding each other to be Russia’s best business partner inside the EU (in return for no mention of human rights), they see America’s control over Europe slowly dissolving…"

But Ben Judah at Sweetness and Light does not let left-leaning Politico's opinion above go unchallenged:

"This article is 1,575 words long. Obama’s name is not mentioned once. Which is simply ludicrous. The reason Russia no longer fears the West is be due to one person alone: Barack Hussein Obama.
 

"And that is because after decades of Russia nearly being frozen out of the Middle East, Obama invited the Russians back in to help with Syria. It is because Obama is gutting our military, while Russia and China are building up theirs. It is because Obama gave away our missile defenses in Europe and those at home. And he even gave the Russians our missile secrets for good measure." ...  Full article here. 

Video: Did Obama's foreign policy stumbles lead to Ukraine crisis?
  
"If Ukraine likes their sovereignty, they can keep it"    "Once again, America's chicken has come home to roost. Barack Obama's utterly spineless response to Russian military action in Ukraine has pretty much signaled to the world that the United States is officially no longer a meaningful player in foreign affairs and no advocate for freedom or democracy."

Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?

Raymond Ibrahim

 

"... Christians are the most likely targets of Islamic intolerance; because sharing the Gospel, or “witnessing,” is a dominant element of Christianity, Christians are most likely to fall afoul of Islam’s blasphemy and proselytism laws, as even the barest pro-Christian talk is by necessity a challenge to the legitimacy of Islam; because most Muslims who apostatize to other religions convert to Christianity, it is as Christians that they suffer persecution; and because boldness in face of certain death—martyrdom, dying for the faith—is as old as Christianity itself, Christians are especially prone to defy Islam’s anti-freedom laws, whether by openly proclaiming Christianity or by refusing to recant it, and so they die for it."