I apologize to my fellow bloggers for employing such a trite phrase as “Barf Alert,” but British PM Cameron and US President Obama comparing themselves to Thatcher and Reagan pushed me over the edge.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Mr. Obama, you're no Ronald Reagan!
In a sternly worded column in The Times of London, the two leaders liken the effort to free Arab people from authoritarianism to the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the 1980s.
They liken their personal efforts to two leaders who came before them: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. (USA Today)
Not even close!
Reagan did not dither and stumble, pander and bumble as President Obumbles has done on his staggering, jagged path of narcissistic self aggrandizement. Reagan would have shined a light on the plight of the Iranian freedom protesters being slaughtered by that bloody regime, not turn his back on them as Obama did.
Reagan and Thatcher marshaled morally righteous global forces in opposition to the dictatorial slave masters in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Obama thinks he's Caesar, but he acts like Nero.
The Arab Spring Could Yet Bear Rotten Fruit
Eastern Europeans instinctively rushed towards liberal democracy once the wall fell. We do not yet know what direction the North Africa and Middle East uprisings will take. And regardless of the outcomes, Cameron and Obama didn’t have a damned thing to do with them. We were actually on the side of the dictators, and the Arab street hates us for it.
If these two men really believe themselves to be the avatars of Reagan and Thatcher, they are seriously delusional, and we are in big trouble. Our leaders are unhinged from reality and ready for the nut house. Do they really believe us to be so dumbed down that we would believe such tripe? Even worse, our intellectually vapid and historically-challenged press, in the thrall of His O-ness, doesn’t even challenge such absurdities.
"Barf Alert!" is the perfect term.
ReplyDeleteAnd the following is accurate too:
Our leaders are unhinged from reality and ready for the nut house.
And what's up with Obama dating his signature at Westminster Abbey as 2008?
I think he's unstable. Add to that the apparent fact that his coterie of toadies are inept, and we have a very bad situation.
ReplyDeleteMy comparison would tilt more to Ali Baba
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say the Cold War was ended by Reagan's moral impetus. He was repeating what everyone who wasn't a Communist, or everyone under the thumb of Communism, already thought.
ReplyDeleteHe ended the Cold War technologically and economically. He understood that they could not possibly keep up with the US's purchasing power, and he basically called their bluff.
Come to find out years later that he was absolutely right. They were so far behind us in technology and economically that there was no way they could catch us.
Morality or ideas ultimately had very little to do with the Soviet Union toppling.
Barf alert works, gagged as I read it...
ReplyDeleteLady Di: Good one! LOL!
ReplyDeleteJack: I did not say Reagan's moral impetus ended the cold war. My point is that he and Thatcher had plainly declared communism morally corrupt while unabashedly holding up Western liberal democracy and extolling it's obvious superiority over the creaking Soviet system.
People who suffered under communist oppression have stated in oral and written histories that this strong, unambiguous stance by these great western leaders gave them hope that they were not along and encouraged them to fight their masters.
I agree with you on what brought down Soviet Communism, but my point is that moral courage is the father of action.
Ah, I see. Thank you for the clarification.
ReplyDeleteThe only time Barack Obama has ever proven me wrong is when I think that he can't get any more pathetic and ridiculous...
ReplyDeletethese two men really believe themselves to be the avatars of Reagan and Thatcher, they are seriously delusional.
ReplyDeleteThat about sums it. The audacity of the man is simply outstanding. Arghh...
Barf!
Reagan tripled the national debt, so the men have one thing in common!
ReplyDeleteObama wants so much to be seen as an American hero. It's never going to happen.
ReplyDeleteWell, Obama and Cameron are facing a sort of similar problem and have the same positions. So, they do have that in common.
ReplyDeleteThey also have this in common:
The impending collapse of the Muslim autocracies has very little to do with Obama and Cameron, just as the eventual collapse of the Soviet empire had very little to do with Reagan and Thatcher.
All any of these leaders want and wanted was for people to live in relative peace and freedom - and to do business with us if at all possible. The way they all approach this is very similar, going to show that how we behave internationally has always been more stable than how we govern at home.
There are good, understandable reasons for that. That's why presidential administrations have long and routinely passed along state and defense departments' people.
Obama did do something that very much reminded me of Reagan - he killed Osama. That's the kind of thing Reagan would do. I am no big Reagan fan, but I'll give him this: when he really wanted something, to heck with the consequences, he did it.
If you recall, Reagan did not engage militarily in the Middle East, and he had ostensibly the same impetus later presidents did.
Seems to me the Bush administration tried to marginalize Osama rather than hit him. It seems a political calculation from a projection of weakness to me.
JMJ
Self-love is something that comes far too easily from liberals.
ReplyDeleteCountry: Not to defend the Reagan era profligacy, but GDP more than doubled as did revenue.
ReplyDeleteHe strengthened the dollar, lowered interest rates, inflation and unemployment, starting the longest economic boom in our nations history.
The Soviets went broke trying to keep up with us, leading to the collapse of international communism.
I'm not defending big government, just pointing out the salient differences between this failure we're stuck with now and Ronald Reagan.
Obummer's numbers are all going the opposite direction, so I don't see where there is any comparison.
Jersey: Obama rode the coattails of the hard work of our intelligence community and military. That hardly makes him Reaganesque.
ReplyDeleteGot any substantive comparisons?
The Reagan comparisons, whether coming from the left of from Palin fans are getting old.
What is Obama like? He is surely the anti-Reagan. He is a facade and what lies behind may be far less than we once thought. With a faked birth certificate, a Connecticut SSN, a mystery benefactor getting him into Harvard and propping him up as the editor of the Law Review I am grasping to find any substance to the man beyond collectivism, anti-capitalism and subservience to the elitists who keep and feed him. We don't really know who he is but we can see what he is and that is a threat to truth, justice and the American Way!
ReplyDeleteThat was another time, leaders comparing themselves to Reagan makes about as much sense as comparing themselves to 15th century Chinese emperors.
ReplyDeleteOMG he could never hold a candle to Reagan. He is not even a Jimmy Carter.... he is worse!
ReplyDeleteHere's a difference. Reagan would never have compared himself to a prior POTUS to make himself look good.
ReplyDelete