An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sept. 18 found Obama’s foreign policy approval rating among registered voters to be 49%, down from 54% a month earlier. Among independents that fall was steeper, down to 41% from 53% a month prior. (Time)Finally, reporters other than Jake Tapper are standing up on their hind legs and pointing out the wreckage Obama's bumbling foreign policy has caused. His administration's stumbling and chaotic response to the latest violence overseas was too much to paper over, apparently.
In the days following the attacks, the White House at first said it believed the attack in Benghazi in eastern Libya that claimed Stevens’ life was spontaneous, born of protests over an inflammatory California-made video mocking the Prophet Muhammad. “We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sept. 16.
The Administration has since changed course and now admits the attack may have been pre-planned. Clinton told senators on Thursday that she believed that it was “self-evident” that it was a terrorist attack. (Time - Libya Makes Obama Vulnerable)
The Daily Beast points out the obvious: That the Obama administration's mumbling, self-contradictory Libya narrative is falling apart, even as it took Obama's team more than a week to stop contradicting one another.
“I think this is a case of an administration saying what they wished to be true before waiting for all the facts to come in,” says one senior retired CIA official. (Daily Beast)Obama didn't build that!
Up to this point, "It's better to be lucky than good" has been an apt description of Obama's foreign policy. He didn't get bin Laden; all he did was authorize the operation that was made possible by the hard work of others that was started under President Bush. He choked the Afghanistan surge in its cradle by simultaneously announcing our withdrawal. He could have saved lives and money by simply ordering us to get out.
Obama has been a passive observer on the world scene. Like a middle school boy in a new school, he hangs back until he finds out which football team the cool kids like and then jumps on board. That is what strikes everyone about this administration. America doesn't jump on bandwagons and attempt to ingratiate itself with shady characters; we lead. Or at least we used to.
It's no surprise that Obama's foreign policy is in shambles. His National Security Advisor, Thomas Donilon, has no foreign policy experience. Ambassador Susan Rice is a smart woman, but inexperienced and in over her head, and Hillary may be a hard-boiled tough guy, but she too lacks a foreign policy background. This is what amateur hour at the White House looks like.
Forget the perils of a 3:00 AM phone call. This White House is dangerously unprepared regardless of the time of day or night.
It's no surprise that Obama's foreign policy is in shambles. His National Security Advisor, Thomas Donilon, has no foreign policy experience. Ambassador Susan Rice is a smart woman, but inexperienced and in over her head, and Hillary may be a hard-boiled tough guy, but she too lacks a foreign policy background. This is what amateur hour at the White House looks like.
Forget the perils of a 3:00 AM phone call. This White House is dangerously unprepared regardless of the time of day or night.
