Who does he think he's kidding?

An American

This is what happens when people don't listen to the words that a candidate puts forward during his campaign. When the American media turns into worshipful cheerleaders instead professional news researchers and reporters. When the candidate and everyone around him hides the truth about who he is and what he stands for and believes in.

We end up with an incredibly arrogant, ignorant, inexperienced, petty, idealogue completely out of his depth. We end up with a president who swore upon the Holy Bible in his inauguration that he would defend and protect the United States...but seems to be doing everything but that.

Hysteria

scary stuff Ms Phillips...

but pretty much accords with my own view of the challenges we face - in "normal" times any one - or even a number - of the following issues would not result in catastrophe. But when you think that all the below list are happening right now it makes you realise we are really heading for a massive problem - here is my list of issues we face - to be tackled in a time of unprecedented Americam weakness...

peak oil
lack of personal accountability (especially in the leadrship class)
Islamic expansion
mult-culturalism
removal of the nation state
corruption in public office
the party system
removal of the cold war balance of power
collapse of the global economic system
protectionism

I really do despair - I see no good outcomes

Diana from Australia

All of Obama's foreign policy blunders have probably gone unnoticed by the left chattering classes. Imagine what they would have had to say if Sarah Palin had made such an impressive collection of faux pas! We would never have heard the end of it.

Roger K

The Barmy One's list of failures and faux pases grow by the day, and this from the one who allowed his smirking socilaist elite to call Sarah Palin inexperienced and uneducated. I look forward to the day when the hockey mum will return to bury him.

But The Barmy One is right now at the U.N. endorsing the global carbon tax which will directly tax the people of the world over the heads of their sovereign governments and fund the U.N. as a separate entity with it's own authority, with it's own power and it's own international army responsible to to it alone. In most cases individual countries will not be allowed to have weapons or standing armies.
Conspiracy theory? No, before you start sneering please check out the following.
David Shearer, UN official, papers on standing armies.
Helen Clark, ex.New Zealand Prime Minister, what is her role and agenda in the U.N.?
Look below the surface and see what The Barmy One is signing up to right now.

JohnW

John Bolton for US President.

Margaret

You detail quite effectively, as always, the insanity of Obama and the suicidal decision of my countrymen in electing him.

I have been at every local Tea Party, and even traveled to Washington DC to try to signal that normal, middle-class people do not want to have our country, and our allies, destroyed by this American-hating pretender.

May God have mercy on us all.

Mladen Andrijasevic

In contrast, here is the speech to the UN General Assembly by Benyamin Netanyahu, the true leader of the free world, a role he was pushed into by Obama’s abdication of his leadership.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign+Relations/Israel+and+the+UN/Speeches+-+statements/Address_PM_Netanyahu_UN_General_Assembly_24-Sep-2009.htm

Derek

Melanie Phillips goes to the heart of the problem. The "Palestinians" will not accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, not on this nor any other occasion.

My view is that, for the muslim and certain other power centers, the Palestinian question is merely a mask behind which they advance their various ambitions. It will be tossed away when the principals see fit, but until then no formal recognition of Israel by any palestinian authority will be permitted.

In the meantime, we have an American president who is mesmerized by the mask, as of an audience willingly suspending disbelief in a shadow play in Jakarta, unable to focus on the puppet masters. What's the price going to be for his enjoying the show?

Terry, Eilat - Israel

Compare Obama's speech at the UN with the speech given by Israeli PM Netanyahu.
Need I say more?

Andre

More worrying still is the disarray of the Republican arty and the right generally. Who can they field for the next US presidential election? Palin? Shudder Jindal? Who he? Does America have leaders in the wings who have commanded men under fire, run businesses, engaged with the wider world, read of history and art and economics?

Austin Barry

Hysteria

I do wish people would stop using 'multi-culturalism' with its implications of the general public weal, wonderful community cohesion and 'It's a small world after all' love-fest. We should use the more realistic 'multi-tribalism' with all its pejorative but accurate connotations.

Oh, and I share your despair: Obama's preening, pious Pollyanna syndrome will be the death of us.

Andre

More scary still is the comparative disarray of the right in America. Who will contest the US presidential election in 2012? Palin? Jindal? Where are those who have commanded men under fire, run businesses, and engaged with the wider world? Is there any body there who is firm of purpose and clear eyed as to the dangers we in the west face?

tiki

Spot on, but you didn't have to be a "genius" to see this coming. This man and his "advisers" are a grave danger for the FREE WORLD and a "gift from heaven" for the dictators, terror groups and all the imbecils of this world.

Sharon

“Pragmatist” Obama is the same person as “ideologue” Obama and that person has the delusion that his ideals are pragmatic. And what are his ideals? Are they truly socialist or are they those of the liberal ?Muslim/?Christian who is in sync with Islam - that is the danger the world faces now and I wonder how long he can be allowed to continue on this path before the American people either capitulate completely taking the rest of the world with them to his new world order, or rebel!

GaryO

Elsewhere, US's bankrolling of pakistani economy (what is it now, $12 billion?), largesse of free military hardware and training of its secret service is going apace (and unreported in the lefty media circles) without even a scant regard of its consequence on India.

US President shunning the British Prime Minister, lest we forget a country whose young have laid down their lives in both Iraq and Afghanistan for what are essentially American (illegal) wars, is a slap on our faces – all the while extending the hand of friendship towards those who want to kill Americans!

Thank you America!

Mailman

This is what you get when you put someone clearly not suited for national office in to a position of power.

As I keep telling my Iranian friends, you get the Government you deserve...and unfortunately the 53% of America that voted for Barry thoroughly deserve what they get over the next couple years.

As for the near half country that voted against him...I can only offer my condolences.

Mailman

William Hannam

Whom!!!!

Mailman

Mladen/Terry,

The differences between Barry's speech and that of Netanyahu are as clear as day and night!

This is actually the first time Ive heard Netanyahu speak and have to say that he seems a much more "fluent" speaker than Barry's "left,right" teleprompter delivery.

And then there is content, one was waffle, the other wasnt. One was hard hitting and touching, the other a bunch of campaign wind!

If every Barry wanted to see what a real world leader looks like all he had to do was listen to Netanyahu.

Mailman

Vision Aforethought

M has often commented that Islam is filling the vacuum left by the collapse of moral values, here in the UK anyway. Likewise, the greed shown by the banks has tarnished capitalism (even if the concept is sound) and the left and the disillusioned are seeking solace in Obama as someone who will change things - and he may well do so to a certain extent. But they fail to comprehend the baggage that goes with people with ideals like Obama, as covered by M's post today. Either way, the right and the financial institutions need to get their act together and enter the modern age in order to give their other cause (foreign policy) more bite and respect.

Re Israel, it is becoming clear that as the rest of the world falls apart, it will probably remain solid. There is something about having a zest for life that enables people to resist 'bombardment'. Consider the UK during WW2. We were happy with our lot so defended it. The other nations seeking it's destruction are envious. They just need a little enlightenment. Easier said than done though. Oh well.

An American

Gary O,

Please don't blame America or 'real' Americans for Obama's snub.

Do you really think Obama has any idea or any gratitude for anything your young soldiers or our young soldiers have sacrificed...get real, we are dealing with a cold, calculating, freedom hating idealogue.

Larry in Israel

This pathetic Obama dross is to be contrasted with Netanyahu's brilliant speech to the UN, his invocation to Churchill struck the right note, and I reckon, although of course Netanyahu could never say it, he implies, in the subtext of his speech, that Obama is the return of Chamberlain.

There are other things implicit in the speech, namely that he knows the Eurotrash and America under Chamberlain 2 are not going to act, that they don't care about a nuclear Iran, until it is too late. He knows Israel is alone and has to act NOW, and he is the PM - this is implied in his speech, one can easily connect the dots here. So surely this means...that Israel is going to strike Iran and sooner rather than later. Yet there has been too little comment on this aspect of the speech, namely what it implies re an Israeli strike on Iran.

AAE

How long will it take the Left to realise how much evil can be perpetrated by a "nice" man? At least in the USA Republican and Democrat alike have quickly seen through Chance the Gardener's mask, and how vigorously they articulate their dissent. Those of us of like mind on this side of the pond are grateful and heartened by the few, like Melanie, who say what needs to be said.

peter

Thank God for ObamA.

Imagine a world governed by Zionist ideologue racists like the ones celebrated here.

Maven

Mladen Andrijasevic & All, your point about Netanyahu being the new leader of the free World was also made in the USA media by Marl Levin, a radio host who worked many years for Reagan and who is a Conservative. He passed that comment to Hannity and I expect it to permeate the USA media.

Barack Hussein Obama is sinking fast. He is vaccuous. His speeches often free of content and desicion.

Austin Barry

Mark Steyn writes:

"As the great scholar Bernard Lewis warned...America risk(s) being seen as "harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend."

Indeed.

Mladen Andrijasevic

Although I already posted the transcript, here is the video of the speech PM Benyamin Netanyahu gave to the UN General Assembly
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1253820677120&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Ian C

The question is will reality overtake him? And will Obama then have to dance a quick about-turning jig to enable him to adjust his position to taking the necessary action. He has only been in office a few months so he does have alot of learning he can yet do, on the job.

Given the apparent loss of US authority under Bush, there is arguable merit in doing what Obama has done by invoking soft power - providing he will call the Iran’s and the UN's bluff if they do not respond quickly to the reasonable sounding call he made. Netanyahu's speech says what Bush would have said (with infinitely greater eloquence). But if Bush had made such a speech it would not have been heard because it was from him.

To go through these diplomatic motions is potentially a good move - provided that the threats implied are absolutely real if Iran does not respond. I would like to think (hope) that Obama’s message is an agreed strategy with both Netanyahu and Moscow - why else did the former fly there secretly?

But the doubts expressed here by Melanie are on the money if the necessary follow through by Obama and majority of the members of the UN are not forthcoming. In short it will be a Middle East war and much worse one than if ‘the "unteachibility of mankind" is, as usual, proven right’. I do recommend that you all read Netanyahu’s speech – it could have been written by Melanie!

Dixon

Thanks for that WaTi list of gaffes. Can you imagine Bush committing any of those mistakes without it being trumpeted in the media for months.

We can hope that Obama fails to obtain a second term. Indeed, Whether he is re-elected might be considered a reflection of how informed or how kept-in-darkness the US population is.

Either that or a referendum on stupidity.

Bill M

Right on, Melanie! Who didn't see this coming? Oh...yes...well, besides the idiots who voted for him.

We are the laughing stock of the world. This Utopian imbecile is delusional. When the American people finally realize they elected a Marxist, he may get voted out. First, they have to learn what Marxism is and why it really doesn't work in their favor. Unfortunately, it will be too late at that point.

Here's a beauty from the Washington Post this morning:

"Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow," Obama said, detailing how the facility at Qom had been under construction for years without being disclosed, as required, to the International Atomic Energy Association. "International law is not an empty promise."

Extend that hand, Obama, you pathetic empty promise.

Paul L

Obama - Fellow Traveller or Useful Idiot?

John

Priceless. Phillips: UN = the club of terror. Gadaffi: UN security Council = the terror council. It's true what they say - whatever their political roots, the lunatic fringes generally all congregate on the same ground. The one area where MP is right is that the failure of the Obama administration to face down Israeli instransigence over settlements has cost them dear in terms of credibility and makes the task of dealing with Iran and North Korea a whole lot harder.

d1carter

Chavez and Quaddifi are his biggest fans. God save the USA.

Derek

Mladen Andrijasevic

"...Benjamin Netanyahu, the true leader of the free world...".

You are right.

louis ajzenkopf

I think you are completely accurate in your assessment of Obama and the current situation. It seems as if the west and especially western leftisits are totally delusional. I feel like we are living in the theater of the absurd. A universe where the pot head stoners I once knew in the sixties are running the show and conducting diplomacy. It's actually sad and eerily comical. The Fey Period of Western Civilization, maybe?

JamesC

He's making a right old obummer of things.

John Edwards

Well what did Obama actually say about the Israel?Palestine conflict?

"The time has come to re-launch negotiations - without preconditions - that address the permanent status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians; borders, refugees and Jerusalem. The goal is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security - a Jewish state of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian State with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realises the potential of the Palestinian people".

An admirably clear and balanced statement on the two state settlement of the conflict. Let's hope Obama is able to deliver on it.

Linda Smith

John Edwards: "Well what did Obama actually say about the Israel?Palestine conflict?....The goal is clear.....Let's hope Obama is able to deliver on it?

If he does, he must be the messiah. Can he walk on water?

Derek

Even taking at face value president Obama's spurious assumptions,and the "unclench-your-fist"-ist bien pensant approach to the muslim problem in parts of Palestine endorsed by John Edwards, there is an initial task to be tackled before we can hope to see "two states living side by side in peace and security"; that is, that by their own definition, the palestinians' state is presently "two countries, two systems"; one, Gaza where the government is a terrorist organization which claims Judea and Samaria and whose charter is dedicated to the destruction of a member of the United Nations; the other, portions of Judea and Samaria, where the writ of another rival terrorist organization runs which claims Gaza and whose charter declares the creation of a member of the United Nations by the United Nations "null and void".

These two terrorist organisations are of course also committed to the destruction of the other and each has fallen under the benign eye of Mr. Obama.

This is what we might call "the two state non-solution".

colin

Melanie...I don't know if it's dawned upon you yet , but Obama has the potential to be the most hated president since Lincoln...and we all know what happened to him don't we ?
After living here in the US for more than twenty years , it's clear to me that there are a great many gun totting ''wingnuts'' of the Timothy Mccviegh variety...all it takes is one of these maniacs to decide that he wants to save America from Obama and we'll have the ''crime that dare not speak it's name''...it could happen !!
There is an evil LEITMOTIF running through American history of political ''security breakdowns''.....God help us ..anything but that !!

david elder

When Obama was elected I never felt so conflicted in my life. As a lifelong admirer of Martin Luther King I was happy to see one of his heirs get the top job, and to hear that fine King style oratory once again. But I could not overlook Obama's long association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his divisive rants - AIDS was a government plot against blacks, black liberation theology (= reverse racist marxism). This set off warning bells. The media missed them. In a properly organised society they would be sacked. I can still warm to Obama when he does things like challenging black fathers to stick to their family responsibilities. But I cannot stomach his association with extreme figures like Wright, terrorist William Ayers and co., or his naive appeasing foreign policy. Or his naive greenhouse attitudes - working us up into a panic at the time when global temperatures have not risen significantly since 1995 (that's a decade and a half ago). So greenhouse policy debate does not need to be rushed by alarmist hysteria. This is further compounded by media misreporting of the issue - Bush was doing nothing but Obama saved the day ... In reality the US rejection of Kyoto was from the Clinton/Gore era. Bush did an emission control scheme, using tax credits for emission reduction, which worked better than the EU cap and trade scheme. And Obama's program for CO2 reduction hasn't even gotten through the US Senate, let alone saved the whole globe. It would also help if the media had told voters that the GFC was in large part due to Obama and his colleagues pressuring subprime housing lenders to make loans which could not be sustained. And if the media had properly reported the findings of Duelfer of the CIA re Saddam's WMDs - though only modest stockpiles were found, Saddam nevertheless was retaining his WMD production programs and planning to reactivate them as soon as possible, using money stolen via the oil-for-food program. And if the media had mentioned that both Israeli intelligence and Iraqi defectors had testified that Saddam had sent WMDs to Syria - this cannot be proved at present but is nevertheless worth watching. To return to Obama: he could have been another Martin Luther King, but so far he has not risen to this opportunity, and what an opportunity is being lost.

daustins

There is a cartoon in America showing Jimmy Carter saying, "At least now I'm not the worst president in history."

Although every day Parson Carter tries to make sure that he remains so.

solemnman

I do not believe that he is making mistakes.I do not believe that he is inept.I believe that he is doing precisely what he wants to do and that he is slowly acheiving,with these methods, precisely the results he wants to acheive: a diminished America and an elevated third world- both under socialist control or worse

Tasman Walker

And he was voted in by the people to the cheering of the media. He is the symptom of a far greater sickness in the west.

logdon

peter
September 25th, 2009 11:48am

Thank God for ObamA.

Imagine a world governed by Zionist ideologue racists like the ones celebrated here.

Rather than Islamophile ideologue racists?

I know which I prefer. The ones who don't saw off heads as video sport.

Augustus

At the United Nations Obama spent quite some time denigrating what is good about America. But he will rescue it!
That speech had nothing to do with the confident style of Franklin Roosevelt (whom he quoted twice), or Truman, or Kennedy. It insulted that tradition. Unfortunately, here we have a junior senator elected to the highest office in the land to lead the free world who is woefully unprepared
for that task. So, he finds himself selling...himself.

Susan Hill

He has no foreign policy. He has a Capitulation Policy. Typical leftist apologia for the country you lead but in effect despise.

Omar

John W. Said:

"John Bolton for US President"
____________

The Moustache of Justice! Yes!

Simon

Ms Philips insists that Israel be accepted as "a Jewish state". What precisely does this mean for the 20% of Israelies who are not in fact Jewish?

Kirk Strong

Solemnman, 9/26 9:23 -- Yes!

I do not think Obama is inept either, and I do not think he is alone. I do not think he can have planned all this destruction by himself. There is just too much of it going on all at the same time.

I think he and his colleagues are implementing a strategy that was continuously developed and revised over a period of years by people who want to see America and her allies humbled and transformed into socialist workers' paradises.

I have been pondering: If an extremely wealthy former Hungarian had set me the task of doing as much damage to America and her allies as possible in four years, what would I do?

I can think of nothing that the Obama administration has not already at least set in motion. And I can think of nothing they actually have done which does not directly support that goal.

As Sherlock Holmes said: When you have eliminated all but one explanation for the crime, the one that's left must be the correct one.

logdon

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.4381/pub_detail.asp

Hello? A bit of cross pollination going on here?

Good! The more reading this, the better.

And Family Security Matters, despite it's quaint name ain't so quaint when you read it.

Linda Smith

Simon, A Jewish State means Israel's values, ethical system, and legal system are Jewish. All the other states of the middle East are Islamic, as is the PA whose Basic Law states that the offical religion is Islam and its legal system based on religioujs Sharia law.

Why is the above relevant? Because whereas non-Muslims in an Islamic state are inferior subordinated dhimmis, non-Jews in a Jewish state are equal citizens with Jews under the law of the land.

Mladen Andrijasevic

Kirk Strong, here is the Sherlock Holmes quote:

"That process," said I, "starts upon the supposition that when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

http://sherlock-holmes.classic-literature.co.uk/the-adventure-of-the-blanched-soldier/ebook-page-10.asp

Frank P

Paul L

"Obama - Fellow Traveller or Useful Idiot?"

Well the fellow has certainly travelled: on Gramsci's 'Long March' from Hawaii (or Kenya - take your pick) to the Oval Office. Nurtured every inch of the way by Marxist mentors and Black Power bullies, not to mention the pervasive influence of the Chicago Machine comprising a medley of malignant mischievous interests. I doubt he is an idiot, but he certainly is useful to a variety of interests, all of which are inimical to the US, lethal to Israel and destructive of Western Civilisation. The annals of world history will one day record just what harm the American electorate did to its nation and the wider West in January 2009. Perhaps it is not to late to rectify the terrible error; the mid term elections could begin Long March back to sanity. That is always supposing that disaster doesn't strike in the meantime. The Iranian posturing could well precipitate such a disaster. The weakness of the West is now understood by the dictators of the East and the South; it will be exploited in myriad ways.

John Thomas

Half of the incidents you quote in your 'catalogue' refer to things that Obama would not have been involved in. Obama put together Hilary's reset button? He sent the letter to the French President (and licked the stamp too)? Obama sorts through all the photos of events and chooses ones he wants to release to the media?

Sure, he has made some gaffes, but this article smacks of desperation and partisan idiocy - throw all the mud you can and see what sticks. You're not doing yourself any favours.

Percy from Australia

Excellent article, Melanie, and on the money. I just read an interesting article by Caroline Glick, at Townhall.com, in which she talks about Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of Obama's senior foreign policy advisers during his 2008 presidential campaign. He was also former US president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser.

In a recent interview, in reference to the issue of Israel making a pre-emptive strike against Iran, Brzezinski said, "They [IAF fighter jets] have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? We have to be serious about denying them that right. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not."

With advisers like this, it's little wonder that Obama has the attitude he has towards Israel.

Hereford

"As Sherlock Holmes said: When you have eliminated all but one explanation for the crime, the one that's left must be the correct one."

Actually it was, "When you have eliminated all explanations which are impossible, then the explanation left, no matter how improbable, is the correct one."

But of course he was a fictional character and didn't actually exist, so he couldn't have said anything really :o)

Graeme

Did anyone notice what Obama said about a Palestinian state? He said it should be contiguous I.E a single landmass. This would divide Israel into two sections like the West Bank and Gaza Strip are now. This is no different to the demands which Nazi Germany made on Poland over the Polish corridor in 1939 that Germany should have an extra territorial highway and railway line across the Polish Corridor to East Prussia, which the Poles rightfully refused. This will undoubtedly become an issue in which Obama has played a role. So in addition to the 1938 Czechoslovakia analogy,that the West Bank is the Sudetenland, it would appear that Israel is also Poland in 1939

Steve Sattler

Don't be surprized if pentagon generals decide to save the USA, and send tanks and troops to the white house to arrest that fool!

Salomon s Mizrahi / Brazil

Ms. Phillips, you have made an accurate portrait of King Hussein of USA. If he is idiotic, 78% of american jews are self-destructive, because they knew in whom they where voting for.

Chris Hamilton

How many of these problems has Obama inherited from the previous President? All of them, barring Hondurus. Putting the blame for everything on Mr Obama's shoulders makes one look just a tad partisan. Not a good look for a "journalist".

Wagner

Chris, these people have such short memories that I think it only extends partially into the Bush era, which is rosily remembered as a utopia of liberty even though illegal wiretapping and members of the cabinet cashing in on the war on terror were a hallmark of the Bush years.