I think pigs just flew by my window!!!
Dick Cheney has not been silent on Barack Obama's weakness as Commander-in-Chief and reading his latest comments, via The Politico, I find much of what he is saying to be spot on.
In a 90-minute interview at his suburban Washington house, Cheney said the president’s “agonizing” about Afghanistan strategy “has consequences for your forces in the field.”
“I begin to get nervous when I see the commander in chief making decisions apparently for what I would describe as small ‘p’ political reasons, where he’s trying to balance off different competing groups in society,” Cheney said.
“Every time he delays, defers, debates, changes his position, it begins to raise questions: Is the commander in chief really behind what they’ve been asked to do?”
None of this is shocking however, but what it is shocking is that Dick Cheney's words and thoughts about Barack Obama's performance so far, is being echoed by what Commentary Magazine calls a "broad range of observers (both domestic and foreign)".
It is December, and in less than a year Cheney now represents a good deal of mainstream thinking, both in the Beltway and among ordinary Americans. That’s how far we’ve come. Meanwhile, Obama is increasingly seen as ideologically misguided and temperamentally at a loss to deal with the plethora of international challenges, which will only increase as a worldwide audience takes in his haphazard performance.
Another Commentary piece highlights what foreign and domestic observers see when they watch, and they are watching, Barack Obama:
First, the roundup of international public opinion highlights what the Obama team often forgets: the whole world is watching wherever the president goes and whatever venue or crisis is occupying him at that moment. The Russians pay attention when he bows in Japan. The Iranians perk up when he meekly agrees to avoid free encounters with Chinese dissidents. The Syrians watch closely when the Obami try to finesse the reaction to the Goldstone report. And the North Koreans breathe a sigh of relief as they watch the farcical negotiations in Iran unravel. One senses that the Obami don’t quite grasp this, that they believe they are simply catering to this or that despot, trying as best as they can to ingratiate themselves and meet the “concerns” of whichever thugocracy occupies their attention that day. But in fact everyone watches everything, and the portrait of accommodation and concession is taken in by many audiences. That image of irresoluteness becomes fixed in our adversaries’ minds, even when they are not the immediate subject of the president’s focus on that visit or in that particular negotiation. Slowly, our adversaries begin to learn and to test us again and again, motivated by a sense that this president can be pushed and intimidated. The task of keeping foes at bay and allies in line becomes more difficult as a result.
Emphasis mine.
What I find so amazing is that Dick Cheney, the man who the left loved to hate, the man who GOP politicians did everything in their power to distance themselves from when they were hoping to attain or keep their seats in either the Senate or Congress, is now the man speaking their thoughts out loud and leading the charge.
Better yet, it is Barack Obama's own performance, decisions and inability to lead with strength that has given Dick Cheney the audience he now has.
Now folks, I don't know about you, but that is change. Just not exactly the type of change Democrats and Obama expected, desired or will be pleased with.
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