RUTHFULLY YOURS

President Obama suffered a rebuke at the ballot box last month.  But his presidency continues to shrink.  There’s been the embarrassing release of WikiLeaks secret,  the collapse of his Middle East policy, the unseemly push for the START treaty, and then the recruitment of a predecessor, Bill Clinton, to come to the White House to push his domestic agenda. Obama is now at his smallest state since he became President.

Obama’s agenda is dangerous for America.  So seeing his power and prestige diminished is a good thing,  right?  Yes,  up to a point.  But when a presidency becomes too weak,  even one that undermines American power, it can become so ineffectual that it invites foreign aggression.  No one is going to directly attack America.  But we cannot avoid the reality that Obama’s profound political weakness means that foreign powers such as Iran,  North Korea, China and Russia will be looking for opportunities to maximize their power.  Remember the Carter years?  They were doubly bad for America because Carter undermined our strength and the Soviet Union was energized and became even more aggressive.

As far as I’m concerned,  a weakened Obama is good for America.  There are threats out in the world,  but fortunately no superpower like the Soviet Union who can try to exploit it on a global scale.  There is also the very clear reality that presidents can and have in the past used foreign crises to regain their domestic strength.

At present,  we face the ultimate in bad choices: pray for a weakened Obama to protect America;  but pray that he’s not so weak that our adversaries and enemies decide its time to move and take a chance.   We live in precarious and dangerous times.