http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/10/all_the_presidents_women_and_men.html
Among the key responsibilities of a president is choosing highly capable officials to steer the nation’s course wisely. President Obama has failed in this duty. Romney declared during the debate that Obama only picks losers regarding green energy boondoggles; the same pattern holds true when it comes to picking people to run the nation. His picks span the spectrum from the incompetent to the dismal.
Recently, I was struck by the tone and gist of a column by New York Times liberal columnist (but I repeat myself) Roger Cohen. His piece, “Obama’s Team of Idolizers,” made mincemeat of Barack Obama’s campaign claim that he would assemble a Cabinet that would resemble the stellar cast of characters that became Abraham Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals.” Four years later, Cohen was so critical of their performance that he dismissed them as having been chosen for their willingness to serve as a “coterie of idolizers.”
Given the debacle or Libya, this excerpt is particularly relevant and timely:
The Obama inner circle remains a group of tough political tacticians: David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Valerie Jarrett. The White House national security team does not boast a single name of strategic stature. Anyone outside Washington would be hard pressed to name one.
On Egypt, he toyed with preserving Mubarak ad interim before the tide became irreversible. On Syria, he has in essence dithered. On Afghanistan, domestic politics dictated the agenda, at a cost in American lives.
Subsequently, we have had the massacre in Benghazi and the exposure of multiple failings by the White House, the State Department, or the intelligence community, one or all of whom ignored warnings and rejected pleas for more security. People were asleep at the switch (or, in the case of President Obama, busy fundraising, ignoring the duty to hear daily intelligence briefings, discussing the merits of various hot peppers or dishing with the Pimp with the Limp); people also died.
While a mother wants to know how and why her only son was killed (see “I want to know what happened to my son”), Barack Obama avoids any questions involving Libya and instead of talking with a grieving mother, talks sports on a radio show in Ohio (see “Obama: I’m a Professional Ohio State Cheerleader”). And the media fashions an image of him as being the empathetic, likeable candidate.
But this was just the latest in a series of failings by various members of the Obama entourage.
Their foibles can serve as epitaphs for a failed presidency.
Vice President Joe Biden
Here we have the Gaffe-Master, America’s favorite punch line; a supposed foreign policy guru who has a long history of making the wrong calls; a sheriff of the stimulus boondoggle, who went AWOL as hundreds of billions of dollars was spent and, in many cases, wasted; and a man who has no problem spouting falsehoods and remaking Obama’s policies on the fly. He is the Joker.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Smart diplomacy that has led to distancing from allies (Israel), betrayal of allies (the Czech Republic and Poland, regarding the stationing of anti-missile missiles in their nations to serve as a defense against Iranian nuclear missiles); dissing of allies (primarily the British — see the symbolic return of the Churchill bust, siding with Argentina over the Falklands); trying to sabotage the democratization of allies (Honduras); turning down pleas by potential allies to help overthrow theocratic, dictatorial, and dangerous regimes (Iranian Green Protesters to Obama: Are You With Us or With Them; they got their answer soon enough, and it was not want they were hoping to hear).
The so-called smart diplomacy led to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians being less likely than before the Obama presidency, an Iranian nuclear bomb being more likely, the Muslim Brotherhood on the march throughout the Arab world, the Saudi royal family feeling shafted by Barack Obama, and America’s reputation in many nations of the Muslim world being lower than it was when George Bush left office.
Ah…the fruits of smart diplomacy.
Then there is the Russian reset, which got off to a wrong start when “smart” diplomats in Clinton’s own department failed to even find the right Russian translation for “reset” when handing over that ridiculous “reset” box with the red button. That box became a symbol of incompetency and, later, naiveté. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Putin regime has measured the man in the Oval Office and is not impressed. The failure of the Russian reset has been made manifest in the closing of the USAID office in Russia; the cancelation of the Nunn-Lugar Threat Reduction program; stiff-arming at the U.N. Security Council as Putin protects his clients in Syria and Iran, while funneling arms to them; and many other Russian bear hugs of neighboring republics that used to be part of the Soviet Union and that Putin intends to bend to his will.
