Reprised: Obama’s Blunders Tell Me He’s a Naive Neophyte
By Lena Grove aka nasuS on December 28, 2008 at 1:00 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton
From Susan: Larry and I, and then our growing family of writers, began writing so many stories on the candidates and the elections that we nearly lost track of the rich history of frank reports in our archives — those stories we wrote that provide the tell-tale “truth and nothing but the truth” that YOU and I knew even while the rest had stars in their eyes. Here’s an article I wrote in December 2007, and we’ll find some more. Sneak peek: Shoot to the end of this article, and click on the story about Hillary’s REAL biography that the “chattering class” never, ever mentions.
December 29, 2007: I keep thinking about those early December CBS Evening News candidate interviews that I recently mentioned. Each was asked which country scares them the most. Sen. Clinton correctly responded, “Pakistan” (CBS video). Sen. Obama said “Iran,” (CBS video).
It hit me that Obama has drunk the Bush/Cheney/Neo-con “Kool-Aid” exaggerating the threat of Iran — like he bought GOP talking points on Social Security — and hasn’t thought out real global concerns. Partly, it’s that he hasn’t traveled much; Steve Clemons is still trying to get an accurate statement from Obama on his travel history. [Susan, December 2008: We NEVER got Obama's travel history.] Nor has he done the hard work: He hasn’t held a single hearing as chair of the Foreign Relations’ subcommittee on European Affairs (which includes NATO and therefore Afghanistan, which Obama loves to bring up as neglected due to Iraq, but which he hasn’t done any “executive decision making” about — more on NATO/Afghanistan below the fold).
Dr. Reza Aslan, in a WaPo op-ed today, hits Obama’s weakness head-on. Obama’s besotted fans, like “conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan” (it’s so odd, isn’t it, that there are so many conservative fans of Obama) who “imagine” that:
[I]t is Obama’s face — just his face — that “proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can” …
Democratic voters had better sober up. It is “naive, well-meaning, amateurish.”
Dr. Aslan, who is the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, continues:
[It is that Obama fans are] convinced that everyone understands the goodness of U.S. intentions — that worries me again these days. That’s because a curious and dangerous consensus seems to be forming among the chattering classes, on both the left and the right, that what the United States needs in these troubling times is not knowledge and experience but a “fresh face” with an “intuitive sense of the world,” and that the mere act of electing Obama will put us on the path to winning the so-called war on terror.
Here’s how Dr. Aslan begins today’s op-ed. It is a statement of warning:
Every time I hear about how Sen. Barack Obama is going to “re-brand” America’s image in the Middle East, I can’t help but think about Jimmy Carter’s toast.
When the idealistic Democrat came to Iran in 1977 to ring in the new year with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the country’s much-despised despot, throngs of young, hopeful Iranians lined the streets to welcome the new American president. After eight years of the Nixon and Ford administrations’ blind support for the shah’s brutal regime, Iranians thrilled to Carter’s promise to re-brand America’s image abroad by focusing on human rights. That call even let many moderate, middle-class Iranians dare to hope that they might ward off the popular revolution everyone knew was coming. But at that historic New Year’s dinner, Carter surprised everyone. In a shocking display of ignorance about the precarious political situation in Iran, he toasted the shah for transforming the country into “an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world.” With those words, Carter unwittingly lit the match of revolution.
It’s just this sort of blunder — naive, well-meaning, amateurish, convinced that everyone understands the goodness of U.S. intentions — that worries me again these days. …
Dr. Aslan addresses the rapturous endorsement of the Boston Globe, and Obama’s failure to do the hard work required to give him necessary experience:
In their glowing endorsement of Obama, the editors of the Boston Globe noted that “the first American president of the 21st century has not appreciated the intricate realities of our age. The next president must.”
True enough. But such “intricate realities” are not best dealt with through “an intuitive grasp of global politics” — Obama’s chief asset, according to the Globe — but through an intimate knowledge of those realities and of the nuanced responses necessary to address them.
Obama may possess all the intuition of a fortuneteller. But as chair of a Senate subcommittee on Europe, he has never made an official trip to Western Europe (except a one-day stopover in London in August 2005) or held a single policy hearing. He’s never faced off with foreign leaders and has no idea what a delicate sparring match diplomacy in the Middle East can be. And at a time in which the United States has gone from sole superpower to global pariah in a mere seven years, these things matter.
The main issue in U.S. foreign policy that the next president will face is repairing our image in the world. But in foreign policy, unlike advertising, image is created through action, not branding. Which is why one cannot help but sense a touch of shirking (not to mention a lack of short-term memory) in all this talk about “intuitive experience” and “re-branding images,” particularly when it comes from those who began the “New American Century” as ardent supporters of Bush’s wars and his self-advertised “gut” instincts.
[T]hese things matter. Indeed they do.
Besides his diligent but frustrating effort to nail down Obama and his campaign staff on the true story of Obama’s travel history, policy expert Steve Clemons is also concerned about Obama’s work ethic in the U.S. Senate — emphasizing that Obama’s subcommittee is very important to Afghanistan:
I tried to deal with the question of how to measure “executive decision making capacity” when looking at legislators last week — and was pretty surprised that Senator Obama did not call a single issue-oriented hearing in his role as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Europe Chairman.
Had Obama held such hearings — or even if he was planning them now for January — he might have highlighted Europe’s remarkable success in scoring the only tangible success with Iran on its nuclear program in September 2003.
Obama might also have focused his attention on Afghanistan — which Axelrod says we’ve all been distracted from — because Obama’s committee has jurisdiction over the foreign relations dimensions of NATO which is deeply embedded in the Afghanistan problem — which of course, is the Pakistan problem.
Indeed. In Deed: Obama’s failure to become active, to even hold a single hearing, to pay attention to Afghanistan or to NATO, has had its impact, in ways we’ll sadly never know about, on the current crisis in Pakistan.
A “face” is nice. A smart man, as Obama is, is also a great thing. But give me the worker. Give me the woman who has traveled the world (83+ countries, many, many times) and gone to countless remote villages, empowering women through microeconomic grants and more. Give me the one who really gets it done.
[SUSAN'S NOTE: DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HILLARY'S HISTORY? CLICK ON THAT LINK.]
It wasn’t that Sen. Clinton was prescient in responding “Pakistan” to the CBS Evening News question in early December. She knew. She knows. She’s done the work. She knows the world, and its complex and rapidly changing issues.
Obama’s Blunders Tell Me He’s a Naive Neophyte
(Release: November 13)
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Never has so little spoken so much and fooled so many. That will be the legacy of That One.
And at least Bush learned to stop talking at some point.
So, uh, how’s your campaign for RNC Chair going?
This ought to up your (Wall) street cred. Fer sure.
And how is yours for bot of the week, Goob?
Be easy on him Ferd, just a few days ago he realized there was no Santa Claus.
LOL. My bad. These darn neophyte NQ commenters. They have no idea, apparently.
Is your vicodan wearing off bot? YOU ARE A GOP HATER.We are not the GOP stoopid. WRONG BLOG. Bite it dufus.
Pakistan! And Hillary knew then and knows now. 0bama was just parroting the purported obvious, Iran. Now if only 0bama can get out of her way to at least run the State dept the way she see fit. I also hope he takes her foreign policy advice seriously without any ego. A true comedy of errors but I am not laughing. She should be running the show.
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/12/21/the-real-hillary-i-know-and-the-unreal-obama/
The above link is the piece by Joseph Wilson….
Nor has he done the hard work: He hasn’t held a single hearing as chair of the Foreign Relations’ subcommittee on European Affairs (which includes NATO and therefore Afghanistan, which Obama loves to bring up as neglected due to Iraq, but which he hasn’t done any “executive decision making” about — more on NATO/Afghanistan below the fold).
Geez now he wants to refocus on Afghanistan.
Looking back at some of this in writing brings home how negligent the MSM really were.
I often wondered why the MSM never discussed That One’s lack of diligence with respect to his position in the Senate and chairmanship of that subcommittee. I would surmise that he only considered it a stopover on his way to Mt Olympus. Those Greek Columns were only the beginning.
Are Greek Columns made of styrofoam flame retardant?
One can only hope, although I believe they are actually thought-retardant, rather like a cone of ignorance. That’s why he and his minions like them so much.
It is so unbelievable as to be humorous if it wasn’t so true and so sad. Never in my worst nightmares would I ever have believed this arrogant fool could seize power. My only hope is that his complete incompetency will ruin HIM before he ruins US any more than he already has.
pm317, I do not think any one person is capable of “running the show”. We’re now leaving 8 years of a Decider presidency; I’m hoping for a bit more of consensus building, ideally resulting in more unified foreign & domestic policies.
You better have your best hopey-changey-hat on then, because That One is just another Shrub. The only consensus I can find is that the Polyethylene Provocateur is just another divider. Nice try, though.
When I said that, I meant that she should have had the bully pulpit unlike the bully who has it right now.
After reading Susan’s article about Hillary’s many accomplishments, I feel very sad that she is not our President-elect. A year ago this time, I came alive politically for the first time because of Hillary. I too never paid too much attention to her days as First Lady, because I was so turned off by Bill’s misbehavior and I am very glad that Susan had put together that piece. Words cannot describe my disappointment at how the primary season turned out and how an experienced, incredibly accomplished, serious woman lost to an empty suit. The same empty suit who hired Larry Summers to be part of his team — remember Larry Summers and his comments about women in science and math? Although not much has been made about this appointment, it is on a par with Warren and the gays/lesbians. Again, emphasizing within the Bambi administration, sexism is quite acceptable.
Who or what is bank rolling this ignorant, self centered jerk? WHY?
We know that he literally bought media by pumping millions into “advertising” — one media expert told him that he was spending too much in Penn. during the primary but 0-zero continued to pump in the money. My guess at the time –t this was a pay-off to the media — just the way Chicago politics works.
The primary was a farce — who ever his backer is (or are) they seem to have an unlimited source of cash to BUY whatever they want.
Plus the unreported money that was spent to tidy up the n0bama couple — plastic surgery for both — when did this happen? BEFORE the 2004 dem convention.
The dem parties in the caucus states were BOUGHT well in advance to provide the winning edge. Then the votes of the black voters were weighted so that their vote (knowing that most would vote for 0-zero) would give 0-zero the advantage.
No one but 0-zero was going to win — this is why –zero was telling his rich supporters and the Governor of Penn — that HE was going to win. BECAUSE he has already BOUGHT the election — forcing the states to spend millions they did not have on a show case farce — which was continued at the Obamacrat “convention” (coronation).
So we have some very powerful people who WANT a Naive Neophyte in the white house — WHY WHY WHY?
Northwest–Why? Because he is such a fool that he will do whatever they tell him to. They know he hasn’t a braind of his own and that the only thing he is capable of doing is reading hopey-changey off a teleprompter so he will be no threat to their agenda. More than 60% of his campaign funding came from Wall St. and the rest came from overseas sources whose identities he refuses to release, NONE of whom have the interests of our country, our constitution or our people at stake.
At the end of that op-ed piece the author writes:
“After all, we are not launching a new product. We are electing a president.”
Obama will become the next president, but he was elected thanks to a massive marketing campaign, just like a new product. And unfortunately it’s a new product loaded with sugar containing no fiber or nutritional benefit at all. It’ll give a quick “sugar high” only, with no sustainable benefits.
And to make it worse, Obama is already undermining Hillary’s power as SoS.
I would tell stupid bots during the primary and GE that “you would vote for a can of coke for POTUS if it was marketed correctly”. I was right in a way, but wrong in another. They’d vote pepsi by the looks of the new cans and boxes. Ugh! This all still pisses me off. I will not be getting over this election. Not ever!
I do thank Obama for one thing, I now am almost completely transformed into a Republican, with the exception of a couple of issues, I have much more common with conservatives that liberals. I just can’t even believe it. I was a lifelong dem, but I do not see ever supporting democrats again. They decided the best way to get rid of corrupt leaders was to become corrupt as well??? I do not agree with their motto:
If you can’t beat them join them.
It may seem so since I am turning Repub, but I just see liberals as ponylandpixiedusttokers and I am a realist.
I wish I had a new party, but it is which of the old, corrupt ones can I tolerate now, and that is where I have to make a home!
Stupid liberal pie in the sky takeover!
Yeah. You guys sure are witty.
Well, halfway, “Goob.”
It isn’t anyone’s fault but yours that you cling to your hope and change as though is it real and that you must believe That One is your savior. You microcephalic morons are no better than the bushbots you replaced. Must I give you a complete description of your delusions?
oh — this is good:
Harty:
D+ on the retort! You’ll need to strive to do better.
Stop the hate!
ROFLMAO Donna!!!!!!!! OMG!
Ferd, I voted for McCain, but sure, by all means feel free to expound on your Obama is Bush is Obama theory. It could possibly be entertaining.
I doubt you did vote for McCain but I’ll bite. Which part of arrogance and incompetence are you failing to understand? Both men and their supporters are arrogant, ignorant misfits. Neither have made any sort of mistake according to their own logic, and both have a need for attention. Both never really did anything in their sorry existences except run for and win the Presidency. I can go on, if you like, but I doubt you would, since you your reply was not for the purpose of edification. Nice try, drive-by-bot.
Ferd, while your typing allow me to 2nd guess you: the “new” economic team is really the old economic team that messed us up so bad. It’s like repertoire theatre, right? Solis, Salazar, & HRC all appear to be advocates of “comprehensive immigration reform” which is not reform but a rubber stamping of GWB’s open borders policies. How am I doing? OK, for a moron? None of the “new” team has voiced an iota of concern about the CRA. No hell raising about Freddy & Fanny in that crowd. Enough. I await your response.
You seem to have all the answers, obamabot. So why come here? Oh, you’re an anal-retentive, control-freak just like the rest of the bots, both bush and obama. Do us all a favor and commiserate with your fellow traveler bots at a site where obama worship is in vogue.
Bots: they buzz about in perpetual darkness unwittingly drawn to flickers of light. One can only “hope” that at some point the truth will burn them.
One can only hope, but I shant be holding my breath.
The obamabots don’t even know who is in charge of congress! When asked over 60% of the obamabots replied Republican!
Hell, half of his minions didn’t even know who his Vice-President was. Bots don’t do anything for me but invoke a sense of pity. How anyone can be so stupid and still be drawing breath is both a wonder and a puzle.
Larry, given the facts subsequently revealed about BO’s dubious NBC status, on what basis were you inquiring into his foreign travel way back in December 2007?
I read this site but I HAVE NEVER GOT Point any time .
Too many lies…. most of the people here are simply a collection of angry people .. They don’t have anything to do with issue.
But your truly issue is COLOR.
THAT IS WHAT WHO YOU ARE .
Aside from being functionally illiterate, you are a poor judge of character and really have no business posting here. Kindly find your way to the door, troll.
I guess this bot is attempting to play the race card, if I interpret the bot babble correctly. And we thought the bots they sent us before the election were lame. Oh for the days of Freedom Fighter, believe, and all the other eloquent bots we had in those days. These new bots could be bots in training for 2012.
LMAO, Rita. Remember Francis the Talking Mule Troll and Little Debbie? And who can forget Kelvin. Nope, because any supporter of That One with an IQ over 50 is working on the transition, we get the really dull ones here.
LOL Ferd, these are indeed hard times when we grow nostalgic for the vile trolls of yore.
LOL
RST…
Really Stupid Troll.
Noo neo:
What color would that be?
Dark red for anger?
Light yellow for joy?
Dark green for jealousy?
Dark blue for power?
Light blue for tranquility?
Dark purple for gloom?
White for innocence?
Black for power?
Red orange for desire?
Gold for wisdom?
So what color are your referring to exactly?
Stop the hate!
..”a collection of angry people”…
Ahh those pesky type of people.
Good title for a post.
shiny happy people holding handssssssssssssssss…….
LMAO. We really need to get Larry to do one of those name that bot challenges.
Thanks for another detailed, insightful article, Susan. Hearing Hillary say in the debates that bho had not held one substantive meeting of his subcommittee on foreign relations, which oversees Europe/NATO and therefore Afghanistan and Pakistan was eye opening for me. It was the first primary debate I’ve ever watched. I was as impressed with Hillary’s knowledge of the world and passion for our country as I was appalled with bho’s arrogance in answering that he has not held a hearing for over a year because he was “busy” campaigning. When the MSM ignored this horrifying fact the next days and weeks, I knew the fix was in.
I am still disgusted and appalled at the criminal behavior of the DNC, MSM, bho campaign, paid off delegates, IL Combine who stole this election and our democracy from us. Buying off candidates and delegates is despicable enough. Buying off a willing press is the death rattle of democracy.
Citizen journalists like Larry and Susan are our lifeline to saving our country. Many, many thanks to the NQ team.
Bots are scared. They are in a panic. Why else come here? Let’s see.. is it Blago, ineligble to be prez, worry over half of the country not supporting Oblahblah..I could go on..
I wonder how long it will take for Oblahblah’s approval rating to tank into single digits like Congress’s is??? 1 month?
That depends on how soon we can get an antidote for the Kool-Aide his minions have beeen sucking down to beat the band.
Just let them choke on it.
I hear you but again, we have to find something for the mindless to do whan the sheen wears off That One.
Thanks for reposting this, Susan. I really appreciate it. I did not discover NQ until late January or early February. So I had never read this and the Hillary article linked in it. Both outstanding pieces. I look forward to reading more posts from my pre-NQ time.
I started reading NQ a few years ago (pre 2005 when I was still watching television). Larry was an analyst on CNN, one of the very few people on television who made any sense when talking about terrorism, Iraq, al Qaeda etc.
Larry presents a lot of excellent information and allows people the opportunity to speak freely on this blog. Most of the really nutty people seem to have disappeared in the past few weeks. Of course we still get a few trolls-in-training.
Thank you Susan for the wonderful biography of HRC’s accomplishments. Those are real accomplishments. I’ve made it through the anger stage and now I’m in the sadness stage. Reading your link to the blog about HRC made me sad. It reinforced how much we lost and what we won’t have on January 20th.
i was looking up info on a particular medication and saw the feds had ruled it for use. it isn’t a narcotic and hasn’t killed anyone in fact it is very useful. i happen to think they are just as bad as the fdic and the rest bought and paid for by the corporations to do their bidding and ignore what’s right for us. i mention this because it fits in well in a general way with this discussion. it starts at the top and goes to the bottom.
Ferd, you are really on a roll! I really did vote for McCain, although not with great enthusiasm. Mac & several others, to their credit, did try to do something about the Freddy/Fannie mess in ‘05 when the financial debacle, that is now upon us, first became obvious. Mac is more of an environmentalist than is known in most circles. I like that about him. Didn’t care much for his johnny come lately border security position, his running mate, his sometimes short-fuse or his fondness for nuclear energy BUT at least I knew who he was & I felt like the conservative flank of his party would keep him from taxing me into the poor house & deepening the recession. Please try to control your paranoia about Obots. I’m a pragmatic idealist. I believe in our Country & our Constitution & am not really prone to the cult of personality or dynastic family rule. I have openly admitted I voted for Obama in the primary but there were too many things that started to freak me. Being pragmatic, I accept that he’s POTUS elect & being idealistic, yes, I’m hoping for the best.
Where to start:
1) He wasn’t “Johnny” as he is from Arizona and understands far better than you the problems with immigration.
2) Nuclear energy is not the bogeyman you pinheads make it to be. As someone who is both a scientist and someone who has worked as a contractor for DOE, I can inform you of your lack of knowledge on that one. Unlike carbon emissions, radioactivity can be mitigated quite easily though time, distance, or shielding. The same cannot be said for petroluem products. They are the genie who is impossible to put back in the bottle.
3) You are no pragmatist as I’ve demonstrated in 1) and 2), above. To the contrary, you are a dogmatic bot, apparently of Obama origin, but perhaps Dubya.
Idealism is no substitute for concrete realism and platitudes such as those spouted by That One are no substitute for *real* idealism, anyway. You lose on each account. His idealism is nothing more that words; his means to achieving such an idyllic state are nothing more than words; and your pretending it does are also nothing more than words. Wods, words, words. When will you pretenders actually do something?
“intuitive experience”, thats just classic Obamaspeak. How are people buying this BS?
As an aside, what phase of rehab are these OBots in now? Confusion and agitation? Must I take the high road when they reach the part when they have to make amends? It would be the right thing to do but it will test my gag reflex.
I this akin to vicarious work? LMAO.
Ferd, keep on trucking!
I want to see the agitation of the trolls when they start getting the bills from the “O”! If any of them work!
The best is yet to come.I heard it discussed on NPR. Obama plans , as his first act as President, to make a speech in a Muslim country. Indonesia and Egypt were discussed. He’ll offer hope and change to the world. All the extremeist will lay down arms and go home to hope and change.
I think when Obama says Muslim country he means Dearborn, Michigan.
Its close enough for NPR to carry the speech live, and they love Obama there.
Also Obots aren’t good at maps, geography, telling reality from fantasy or detecting BS from the media. They will never notice Mr. Obama has not left the USA.
He can even grab some Hallal meats on his way home, and maybe some nice headscarves for Michelle and the girls.
After the speech we can all sing happy songs and watch the sunset in perfect peace and harmony.
Seems like a perfect choice.
ROFL. You got That One down pat. LMAO. Maps are for old geezers like me but then I never get lost, either.
He can even grab some Hallal meats on his way home.
SPRINGFIELD — Governor Ryan today signed Senate Bill 750 creating the “Halal Food Act,” providing for inspections by the Department of Agriculture to ensure that all food labeled Halal is prepared according to Islamic law.
Wow! What a relief!
I was actually worried that some of the terrorists would be uncooperative!
Ferd, the hell Mac wasn’t late to acknowledge the need for border security, he spent years waxing about how “we’re all G-d’s children” & in complete oblivion to the economic drain this massive influx was having on the lives of U.S. blue collar workers while also shifting health care costs from the private to public sector. A few runs through the rust belt & W. Virginia apparently woke him up, along with some hard nudging from what remains of the conservative flank of his party, no doubt reminding him 90% of new immigrants vote Democratic. As for nuclear energy vs carbon based fuels you make a point, although it sure uses a lot of water & construction costs all always passed on to the rate payers rather than the shareholders, nonetheless I like T Boone Picken’s ideas better: natural gas, wind, solar, hydro & please note I haven’t called you a liar, moron, pinhead or any little term of endearment. I’m always amazed by folks who cherish the conformity of the echo chamber & appear resentful of free speech & exchange of ideas.
I don’t think that particular quote (Iran) is telling and shouldn’t be used as an example to prove or disprove anything. Obama is a politician and at that time, there were many questions in the Jewish community about Obama. The answer may have been politically calculated to appeal to the Jewish voter.
Think of a better example Larry. I understand what you want to say, I just need to hear it expressed differently to be convinced.
Excuse me. ADD is such a distraction. The comment in the post following this one was meant to clear up my comment in this thread above. My apologies to No Quarter for posting an undecipherable comment in his post. But Nina, it’s there for it if you care to read it. It was an apology for calling you Larry and and an addition to my comment above.
I plan to use the term “intuitive experience” at my next job interview when asked how I will complete something I’ve never done before if hired. I’m sure the job will be mine. And when the interviewer laughs at me, I’ll just remind them it worked for Obama and being president is certainly a much harder and more complex job then any I’ll ever do.
Gov. Patterson needs to send Caroline Kennedy to the capital so we can have a intuitively experienced female also. Can’t let just the boys have all the fun.
[...] The details of the interview and a commentary were posted on NQ in December 2007 and reprised recently in “Obama’s Blunders Tell Me He’s a Naive Neophyte.” [...]