December 6, 2010

LET'S REVIEW (From October 2008) Obama: Not Man Enough to Be President

rall-bromley-hello-kitty.jpg

What an enormous number of sheaths!
Isn't the kernel soon coming to light?
I'm blessed if it is! To the innermost centre,
It's nothing but sheaths - each smaller and smaller -
Nature is witty!

- Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt, Act V, Sc.5

When you peel off the layers of signifying and symbolizing, of blathering and bamboozling, Obama lacks in the elemental qualities of manliness necessary to be President. Obama is like the onion in Peer Gynt. Take away the layers there's nothing at the core.

You’ll peel past many layers about helping people, about caring, about giving and devotion of the Obama onion. Those pungent peels taste good to the poor, the grasping, the gullible, the craven, and the rich-so-rich that nothing dents their days. The layers remain the common malarkey of the con-man who hopes that by stimulating your greed for grub or good feelings now, he'll be able to hoover your bank account later. It's an old con and it works. That's why con-men are always with us; not because they are so smart, but because so many are so stupid. Con-artists (and Obama is a brilliant flim-flam flinger) not only know this, they depend upon it.

Obama is very much a man with “a hand full of gimme and a mouth full of much obliged.” Just this morning, as he has for so many mornings, he wrote to me asking for five bucks. This after he squandered so many millions just last night with his noninfomercial for flaming narcissists of all five genders. It’s obvious the man and his minions can't handle money.

The money, however, is trivial. What is critical is whether or not the person for whom I'm voting has the right stuff to lead this country. Right up at the top of that list for me is manliness. And by that I do not mean a quality exclusive to men. Rather I mean the old-fashioned values of courage and the ability to do the right thing, the strong thing, under pressure - regardless of the consequences. Those who do not know what I mean by "manliness" by now will never know it, but by way of example I'll cite the most recent President to possess it, George Bush.

Regardless of the perverted souls who look upon him as their inner Satans made manifest, the manliness of Bush is really not open to question. Some would say that it is, perhaps, too much with him, that he should have been a more subtle player in the fields of power politics. That's for history to decide in the long term. The hard fact of our present moment is that nobody has attacked America on its home soil since September 11.

“No attacks” is not an accident. This is because there was, in the minds and hearts of our many enemies, no doubt as to what might happen to them and their countries if such an attack had come. No doubt. None. Niente. Nada. Zero. Zip. The only question was whether the Bush response would be in the form of an airborne division or a small, man-made sun being brought to life about 5,000 feet above their capitol city. This is not a bad question for our enemies to have in mind. The question itself keeps the terrible answer at bay. They ask the question and then remember our 18 ballistic missile submarines somewhere at sea.

In an essay in early September I asked: Does Obama Possess Courage?

What has Obama done that demonstrates real, classical courage? I would really like to know.

To my mind, courage is a far more necessary element for a leader of the United States to possess than any other. It even trumps experience. I've heard a lot from Obama and his supporters about it taking "courage to vote for Obama." But really all it takes to do that is to get to a polling place in November, go into a voting booth, and pull a lever, push a button, or mark a paper. It takes no courage at all.

Since then nothing I've observed makes me think Obama has a shred of personal courage. Perhaps he does, but if so he has been keeping a very low profile in courage. He's never been tested for courage -- even as his opponent has met and prevailed over such tests time and again.

In place of courage there's a persistent whiff of something ineffably feminine about Obama. He is, at bottom, the very model of a modern metrosexual. This, of course, accounts for his appeal in the cities and among the youth. It does not reassure. When it comes to the Republic, I prefer Caesar over Caligula.

A glance around the world tells all who are not in a media-induced stupor that the globe is getting more dangerous by the day. The temperature of the human race is going up, and hotter is not better. Last month, before they locked Biden in that campaign attic reserved for crazy relations and mouth-shooting-off wives, the man told everyone that, yes, they're going to test Obama. But he said we shouldn't worry because Obama has "steel in his spine."

Really? Maybe when it comes to running internet porn site standards on his credit-card scams. Perhaps when it comes to getting his minions to try and ruin a plumber in the mid-west. Maybe when it comes to electrifying the weakest of our youth; a youth fattened on a life of peace and circuses.

But a wider world awaits the next President; a world that can kill 3,000 Americans at their place of work in a single morning. A world that wants to see, more than anything, the destruction of American hegemony so that their dreams of conquest can go forward unabated.

After thousands of years of crawling up from the swamp of totalitarianism we can see, at last, in the distance a world where this ancient nightmare is removed from the world. But we cannot get there if America does not stand.

Again. The world cannot rid itself of the terror of totalitarianism if America does not stand.

For that to happen we need to have a leader -- man or woman -- who possesses real, demonstrated courage. For that to become true we need to have a leader who has -- man or woman -- real manliness.

Obama is intelligent, charming, good-looking, stylish, well-educated and slick. He's everything that other people who value such surfaces look for... not in a leader, but in an icon. And that's what they're buying by buying Obama, an icon. A glowing plastic post-modern Jesus for the dashboard of their Prius. They know, as we all know by now, that he can talk the talk. He just can't walk the walk. He's soft talk and no stick.

I keep coming back to the one indisputable fact first spoken in Sarah Palin's acceptance speech: "There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death."

One of those places where defeat means death is in the Oval Office on a very bad day.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying Obama is not a man. He's just not man enough for the job.

Posted by Vanderleun at December 6, 2010 12:49 PM | TrackBack
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

That noninfomercial was just a way to bribe the media for their support. It was a payoff.

Your photo or needlepoint magazine works the same way. The company that takes out an ad for a new camera, or a book of pillow designs, gets editorial support and praise.

A President with courage will demand the same from the people. The people do not wish to be courageous. They wish to be praised for their post-raciality by the Euro-weenies.

Labeling courage as manliness just pisses off certain people whose support we aspire to.

-----
By the way, which is correct, Euroweeny or Euro-weeny?

Posted by: JFred at October 30, 2008 3:06 PM

Both are incorrect from birth.

Posted by: vanderleun at October 30, 2008 3:12 PM

"the only question was whether the Bush response would be in the form of an airborne division or a small, man-made sun being brought to life about 5,000 feet above their capitol city."

Beautiful. Also, try this:

"...we have a unique responsibility as the Greatest Nation on Earth, and that is to remain the Greatest Nation on Earth at all costs. No other country on this planet bears that responsibility right now. I hope, clear down to the shorthairs of my very soul, that every President we ever elect is a horrible bastard. No other sort of person could possibly be qualified to keep us on top."

Posted by: Andy at October 30, 2008 3:26 PM

Just to climb into the cockpit of a plane requires courage. Often times you will hear a pilot laugh after they land "Cheated death again" and pat the spinner or the cowling. Just have your engine stutter, know your plane has the glidepath of a safe like a jet, look down and see nowhere to land should make you realize it's not a joke. George W. Bush did this day in and day out. So did John S. McCain. I'd chose a pilot over a mantyhose wearer like Bambi any day of the week. If you want your life in good hands, the pilot will get you back on the ground right side up. It takes a positive thinker to fly. Bambi and his *itch are 2 of the most negative people who we've been blighted with in decades.

Posted by: Lucy at October 30, 2008 3:34 PM

We don't want all our presidents to be horrible bastards all the time. We probably DO, however, want them to have the capability when and if they need it.

Posted by: Rich Fader at October 30, 2008 3:59 PM

If he loved this country, I'd have some hope that he could muster some manhood when push comes to shove.

He does not love this country - the foundation our forefathers created.

He loves 'change'. He is the agent of that change.

He loves the idea of himself.

Posted by: Cathy at October 30, 2008 4:37 PM

"...I'm not saying Obama is not a man..."

I will, he is not a man. He is the postmodern equivalent. An emasculated poser. He wears his mantyhose. He cannot control his bitter wife unit. He cannot choose his friends to be upstanding citizens but chooses those who can and do control him and indoctrinate him into empty philosophies.

He has no center and hides behind others and platitudes. He believes in nothing. He is not loyal.

He will NEVER be counted as my POTUS. EVER.

Posted by: Robohobo at October 30, 2008 9:16 PM

Obama's 30 minute info-mercial condensed.
Here:
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/1882/obamashamwowwf5.png

Posted by: Jimmy J. at October 30, 2008 9:32 PM

Seven genders. But you are correct, in fact, about there being excessive shell with precious little nut once arrived at.

Posted by: og at October 31, 2008 3:40 AM

A boy learns about courage and manliness from his father, and Obama's was AWOL, and he clearly never picked up anything of that sort from the effete academics and 60s children that have populated his life.

Obama looks to be the classic Man of Straw, the protagonist in C.S.Lewis' "That Hideous Strength" who, although he had put up with snideness and backbiting applenty had never encountered the righteous anger of a real man - and when he eventually did it knocked the stuffing out of him.

But then, a topic for a doctoral dissertation, as Barry retires to the Senate, having blown the Democrats best chance of the Presidency in living memory.

Posted by: Brett_McS at October 31, 2008 4:47 AM

Gravitas

Remember the media bantering this word out about Kerry, like they were all on the exact same sheet of music. Limbaugh illustrated it very nicely for us. Well, they won't be using it to describe this guy.

Personally, I think Palin can kick his ass.

Posted by: JD at October 31, 2008 4:56 AM

"When it comes to the Republic, I prefer Caesar over Caligula."

There is a certain beauty in brutality toward one's enemies. Any man knows that. The world is in the state it's in because America's enemies are no longer afraid.

Posted by: gabrielpicasso at October 31, 2008 5:15 AM

WHO OBAMA REALLY IS:

AYERS, KHALIDI, WRIGHT; REZKO - and the Machine:

If there was no there there, then Obama wouldn't have lied about Ayers OR Khalidi, or disowned Wright three weeks after saying he couldn't any more than disown his [typical] white grandmother.

Rezko was his first and foremost fundraiser for decades.

And Obama never ever took on ANY machine: not the Cook County machine, not the Chicago Machine, not the statewide Illinois Combine.

This is who Obama was when nobody was looking - it's the real Obama:

a radical leftist;
an anti-zionist;
a racist, anti-American
and a corrupt politician.

Posted by: DANIEL at October 31, 2008 7:07 AM

Have you seen the picture of Obama riding the bicycle? That's your answer to the manliness question. Nothing against bicycles of course, but a skinny Obama perched atop one does little to inspire confidence in the liberal illuminati's ability to kick enemy tail.

Posted by: A.B. at October 31, 2008 8:13 AM

T 90 Battle Tank
Oversize helmet listing
On head
Rising slowly
Through hatch
Serene smile
I laugh
I weep
Doofus in Chief.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519EHMJMTNL._SL500_.jpg

http://daddytypes.com/archive/scary_old_scarry.jpg

Posted by: Lance de Boyle at October 31, 2008 10:59 AM

Effective Foreign Policy

Joe Biden said in Seattle, "Mark my words. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy….. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy." Vladimir Lenin said, “Probe with a bayonet: if you meet steel, stop. If you meet mush, then push.”

Under Kennedy we barely avoided nuclear war, and he mandated our military commitment to Vietnam. In those cases adversaries reverenced their homelands, and present positions of power enough to mitigate probing when facing resolute actions. In this case, the Wahhabi/ Salafi heresy rejects traditional Muslim allegiances to family, tribe, ethnicity, and country, embracing murder and desolation for both means and ends. In this case, the Twelfth Imam Shiite heresy, now dominating Iran religious/ political life, envisions utter chaos preceding the imam arrival. The Caliphate sought and Twelfth Imam arrival both postulate catastrophic regional and worldwide devastation. Cherishing no particular human or physical remnant leaves rogue states and terrorists immune to diplomacy, containment or retaliation.

Abominable weapons technologies and inventories, not bayonets, provide capabilities now permeating global locations. F.B.I. Director Mueller reports enough highly enriched uranium worldwide to arm thousands of nuclear weapons, and to fuel a seller’s market in the so-called atomic bazaar.

Chemical and biological agents can emanate from dual-use facilities and cottage industries. The biological pathogens, which decimated Europe, still reside one step away in our food chain, ready for exploitation. Open societies provide excellent delivery means where 2,000 to 20,000 people work and travel within closed HVAC systems. Complex fresh water and food distribution systems invite chemical and biological intrusions.

Terrorist converts include engineers and scientists easily accommodating academic excellence within cancerous philosophies appended to Muslim faith. They share deviate human characteristics similar to those enabling Himmler to officer S.S. units with accomplished professionals for the Holocaust, and slaughter of Slavs, Jews and Soviets during Barbarossa.

For this coming test, Obama’s foreign policy centerpiece promotes commitment to talks without preconditions. Adversaries like Assad, Ahmadinejad, and terrorist surrogates would manage Obama’s open negotiations into submissive posturing; compromising positions allies would otherwise support. Patient dissembling would exact concessions in exchange for photo ops and sound bites coordinated to U.S. news and election cycles.

Unless offered compelling enticements, or confronting unanswerable force, their best strategy remains endless mendacity and violence, while we debate national interests into ever-narrower parameters making allied support ever more conditional. The last Iranian nuclear weapons NIE initiated such self-destructive debate drawing Persian Gulf countries closer to Iran.

Effective war diplomacy against emerging threats will be methodical, covert, multi-faceted, and predictably lethal. Opponents we face initiate and respond to international relations using Oriental/Asian principles. For them diplomacy occupies a continuum including war. Talks, conferences and economic measures serve as war without bloodshed; war and terrorism serve as diplomacy with bloodshed. Intelligence, propaganda, and espionage invigorate all options.

We cannot afford administrations finding war a bewildering, tragic, accidental consequence of shattering attacks, when failed diplomacy descends into appeasement. A world unrepentant before Western diplomatic nuances requires leaders who work problems in Oriental/Asian terms to retain allies against the intimidation, bestiality of terrorism. If force must discredit an opponent, deliberate battle must first be prepared by measures consistently cultivating internal and international isolation.

John McCain understands primary homeland defense against global terrorism demands a strong forward-deployed military. His war diplomacy promotes counterinsurgency tactics enabling countries to defeat terrorists, promote moderate constituencies, and create the social and economic infrastructure extinguishing chaos. Sustaining initiatives of African, Oriental and Asian countries brings Global War On Terror (GWOT) victory by frustrating plans, breaking alliances and fracturing organizations of Islamic fundamentalist jihadists. Severing terror organizations into ever less effective units, possessing neither cities, countries nor armies, means bin Laden and successor sociopaths forfeit credibility and power. These itinerant prophets live out unnaturally shortened lives as pariahs, and no longer attract acolytes embracing self-immolation. Rogue states find an effective weapon for regional domination impotent, and their power jeopardized.


Posted by: Nolan Nelson at October 31, 2008 2:21 PM

""""""...I'm not saying Obama is not a man..."

I will, he is not a man. """"""""

Me too. He is not a man. Hillary and Palin are both more man than Obama.

Posted by: Roderick Reilly at October 31, 2008 3:24 PM

Far from possessing courage, Obama has shown himself to be a craven coward every chance he's had to take a stand for something, anything. He has abandoned his longtime friends, loathsome though they may be, he has delivered entirely different messages to different audiences, and he has never once Raged Against the Machine, whether in Chicago, the State of Illinois, or in the national Democratic Party. Mr. Nelson above is correct in how our principal Middle East antagonists view diplomacy. The Russians and North Koreans are similar. The Chinese present difficulties of their own, more complex and subtle than those of straightforward adversaries. But in all cases, a President at times needs to look across the table, or into the camera, and say "not one step further", and have the other party know he is completely, utterly serious, and to know he is willing to back up his words with the full might of America. McCain has this quality. Obama has none of it.

Posted by: at November 1, 2008 6:49 AM

Hey, where'd my name go? I posted comment 6:49am above, and the system seems to have eaten my name. Anyhow, I just wanted to add that it takes no courage whatsoever for a national politician to destroy a working-class guy who happens to ask a pertinent albeit somewhat embarrassing question. Just remember, Obama voters, what happened to Joe the Plumber is what happens to YOU if you question the Obamessiah.

Posted by: waltj at November 1, 2008 6:57 AM

The photo of The Skinny One perched on his bicycle was a winner in certain quarters...think college town, or liberal leafy well-to-do suburb. The bike paths are crowded with helmet-wearing 'women of a certain age' (think Dohrn & Ayers for the demo). As Paris Hilton might say, "that's hot". And to them it is.

Posted by: Boots at November 1, 2008 6:57 PM

The .png above was fairly funny even if some of the components could have used some perspective adjustment rather than being flat, but that's a minor point.

As for most everything else on this page, it's simply an ad hom, and it's not going to exactly convince undecideds no matter how good it makes everyone feel.

There's a list of 20 non-partisan reasons to oppose BHO at my name's link, and sending that to any undecideds you know might be a better choice. Feel free to adjust the list to meet the interests of those to whom you send it.

Posted by: My list of reasons at November 1, 2008 7:41 PM

"Caligula"? I don't get it it.

Wasn't caligula that designer lettuce that The One was bitching about the price (at Whole Foods, no less) of when talking in Iowa to those yokels during the primaries??

Posted by: hanoi paris hilton at November 1, 2008 8:36 PM

Obama may very well be capable of becoming a man through the process of serving as president. Isn't that a frightening thought though? Someone using the U.S. presidency to cut their milk-teeth...

Posted by: Mimi at November 1, 2008 9:10 PM

Obama may very well be capable of becoming a man through the process of serving as president. Isn't that a frightening thought though? Someone using the U.S. presidency to cut their milk-teeth...

Posted by: Mimi at November 2, 2008 5:41 AM

I agree with mimi; I know its an old argument but it still is very disturbing to realize that there is a large percentage of the population poised to vote for the illuminati babe.

Posted by: anon at November 3, 2008 7:21 AM

Wow. The bitterness here is tangible.

And fucking hilarious! Mind if I copy these comments? Nothing makes me happier than sad little republicans bemoaning a historic day in America. Sorry your old hack and new moron lost so big. But, it had to happen. He was incompetent and she was completely retarded.

Bush killed the Republican Party, McCain and Caribou Barbie took the corpse to the morgue, Barack buried them and I'm holding the celebratory Wake. All invited, of course!

Posted by: TimPundit at November 7, 2008 8:15 AM

If you think Bush is/was anymore than a retarded terrorist then you need to get out more. He is the reason that the world looks upon America as a bunch of inbred rednecks and that is a real shame because it doesn't reflect the people and the America I encountered when I visited. I hope Obama can live up to expectations; Bush has left a hell of a mess for him.

Posted by: Johnny English at January 15, 2009 1:11 PM

Definitive, Gerard. Great job. Our Great Reader gives comfort and succour to our enemies. Daily. Just by being who he is. He is not a patriot, and you are right that he has never been man enough for the job. His one excuse is that he never had a decent male role model growing up. But not good enough. I fear for my country.

Posted by: RETRIEVER at January 28, 2010 10:29 AM

Posted by TimPundit at November 7, 2008 8:15 AM

It has been over a year after you wrote your disgusting comments.

Tell me... How's you Hope & Change treating you? Can you actually come here and read this? Maybe not, if you don't have a job... 10 percent unemployment, maybe even an unreported 20 percent! What a Miracle Worker your Messiah is!

Where is that trillion-dollar stimulus that was supposed to "revive" this economy? We also own two car companies... that aren't breaking even! Wonderful! And then, he wants to nationalize one-sixth of our economy in the name of an unconstitutional "right" to health care. Even that scheme is dying a death of a thousand cuts!

Miracle Worker, indeed!

New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts. All lost for Obama. Two governed by Republicans now, and the third one represented in the Senate by the most unlikely of creatures: a Republican, Scott Brown of Wentham. A seat that was supposed to be Democrat and Kennedy Till Kingdom Come is now in the hands of a non-Kennedy! A miracle from Lord Obama.

Messiah, indeed!

The People have been waking up to your Messiah's schemes, and don't like what they see in him. The Pied Piper's Magic is wearing out. More people are repeating a new catchphrase: "I can't believe I voted for that guy!" And they have taken to the streets. In droves! There has even been our March on Washington, believe it or not!

And Caribou Barbie? She neutralized all those who wanted to harm them by cutting them by their knees and leaving her position before they bankrupted her. She's a best-selling author - and a few million dollars richer now. Neither she nor her family will starve for the rest of their lives. How about YOU, champ?

Your friends the Dems are in BIG trouble right now: some are jumping as rats off the Titanic. The outlook is grim: Dems losing control of the House and maybe even the Senate. All part of Obama's Miracles, of course!

And after YOUR Idol's speech last night, in which he publicly dissed and humiliated the SCOTUS... That is a huge No-No. He still blames Bush even after doing so has worn thin. This current mess is now his, His, HIS. Admit it.

Three years is too long to declare it too soon, but Obama better see that MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPARSIN written on that wall. Not even Jimmy Carter exuded so much contempt as this man currently is. (And even with good ole' Bill Clinton's SOB-ishness, he was still our SOB.)

Obama didn't sound Presidential last night: he sounded like a street bully. Even my husband noticed that he was close enough to push and shove a few people like one. Obama showed us last night, with actions speaking much louder than his words, that he can't avoid acting as what he truly is: the son of a Kenyan Marxist. (Emphasis on Marxist, of course.)

Therefore, I will take this time to laugh out loud at your credulousness and stupidity. You thought we were dead, but you are wrong. We are as alive as ever, and we're coming back with a vengeance!

I see a truckload of hot crow ready... with YOUR NAME on it. Hope you have a healthy appetite.

Posted by: newton at January 28, 2010 10:25 PM

And as for "Johnny English", some of us do get out, quite a bit. Some of us know our history, too. Like the fact that Bush didn't cause anti-Americanism -- once you Brits went into your century-long decline, somebody had to pick up the slack, and that was us. So, all the slings and arrows that used to be aimed your way, when you still had a country to be proud of instead of a dhimmified shithole, were then directed at us. I've lived overseas for at least parts of the administrations of six presidents, and I can assure that anti-Americanism was alive and well during the Carter and Clinton Administrations, just as it was for Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. And it's not going away just because Obama wants to apologize for keeping Europe free from the Kaiser, the Nazis, the Commies, and now the Muslims. Oh, wait. He's not doing so well on that last one, is he? Sorry, Europe (and Britain), it's been nice knowing you. Hope you enjoy being part of the Caliphate. Don't know if we can save you this time. And since you show no inclination to save yourselves, you're probably not even worth saving.

Posted by: waltj at January 29, 2010 5:27 AM

Newton:
Point.
Game.
Match.
Best whack-a-troll I've seen in a loooong ol' time.

JWM

Posted by: jwm at January 29, 2010 5:28 AM

waltj - Sure, the UK is in a century-long decline caused by losing a large part of a generation in World War I, only briefly arrested by the Iron Lady of the West. It is worth mentioning, however, that part of the reason for that decline is US attitudes to the UK, particularly in the inter-war years - such things as swopping overseas bases for scrapyard-refugee ships being symbols of that attitude.

It is IMHO also worth noting that American determination to reduce the standing of the UK (and of France) in world affairs is one of the reasons for the rise of Arab totalitarian nationalism and Muslim fundamentalism. Suez ring a bell? All because some people in the USA hated Britain. And some still do. It is quite arguable that Eisenhower is ultimately at least partly responsible for 9/11.

At the time of that decision, the War of Independence had been over for 170 years. Time enough, one might have thought, for you to get over it; but apparently not.

Posted by: Fletcher Christian at December 6, 2010 12:18 PM

Ah, Fletcher, I'm glad to see that England's NHS provides internet access at Hanwell.

Posted by: Capt. Bligh at December 6, 2010 2:25 PM

Oh, I don't know, I think Fletch raises some interesting points. We did stop the combined Brit/French/Israeli takeover of the Suez in a fit of "anti-colonial" magnaminity towards people who hated us then and still do now.

It may be simplistic to think so, but perhaps there have been misguided efforts by the U.S. that may have led to it carrying a disproportionate burden as "world policeman."

As to anti-British sentiment, that's exaggerated, since our aggregate feelings about the Brits have been mixed over the generations. However, the single most influential Brit-haters in America have been the "professional Irish," which included the Kennedys, who supported the IRA long after the Irish Republic itself declared those brutes outlaws.

Posted by: Don Rodrigo at December 6, 2010 3:12 PM

Whenever I picture a leader, it is the picture of Pres. Bush in his cowboyhat, cleaning brush on his ranch...that's what a leader suppose to look like, not like this current guy riding a girl bicycle in mommyjeans, and an oversized helmet!

Posted by: inge at December 6, 2010 10:14 PM

Love the writing Gerard, but I can't let this pass. George W. Bush only looks manly as compared with his successor.

I consider him one of our four worst presidents...five, now that Obama clearly heads that list. And a lot of that is based on his conduct after 9/11, as opposed to his rhetoric.

He was not man enough to name our true enemies after 9/11, not man enough to confront Iran, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia either diplomatically or militarily, the true engines of the jihad against the west. None of those countries were scared enough of George Bush to stop harboring, financing and fomenting Islamist terrorism.

That particularly applies to the Saudis, for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who knows anything about the Bush family.

Instead, after 9/11 he told the American people that our enemies creed was peace, and to calm down and go shopping.When he said 'you're either with the terrorists or with us' he was not man enough to follow through.

He was not even man enough to protect our borders, although he called himself a war president.In fact, he actually tried to reward his family's business partners in Dubai with control of our ports, even though Dubai has serious connections with al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.

He was not man enough to pardon Scooter Libby for something he never did in the first place, and not man enough to take Condi Rice in hand when she ran amuck with American foreign policy during his second term. And he was craven enough to fire Donald Rumsfeld after the 2006 midterms and make him the scapegoat for implementing Bush's own policies in Iraq in one of the most shameful treatments to a dedicated public servant I've observed in my lifetime.

Since he's been out of office, he's left the heavy lifting on confronting what the Obama Administration has been trying to do to this country to Dick Cheney, a far better and braver man than his former boss.

Bush didn't even have the manliness to step forward and tell the truth when Obama and Hillary Clinton lied about the arrangements Bush made and the assurances he gave to Israel that got Ariel Sharon to pull out of Gaza and sign on to the Road Map.

That was left for Elliot Abrams and John Bolton to do.

Dubbya is one of the luckiest men on earth, because he was followed in office by someone who made him look like Mount Rushmore material in comparison.He's now being rehabilitated by people with short memories. And I speak as someone who worked hard to get him re-elected in 2004.

More manly than Obama? Yes...but that's a pretty low bar.

Regards,
Rob Miller

Posted by: Rob Miller at December 6, 2010 11:27 PM

Fletch, you're not wrong that American attitudes towards Britain have sometimes been ambivalent, if not outright hostile, and that's unfortunate. In the inter-war years, some U.S. Navy planners viewed Britain as America's most likely near-term adversary. Japan and Germany weren't seen as probable threats. We all know how that turned out.

I still count Britain as one of America's most reliable allies, and look with sadness rather than glee at what has happened to Britain over the years. A stronger Britain would be good for the U.S., for Europe, and for the world. I'd allow that U.S. policies may have contributed to the decline, particularly the anti-colonial zeal, at least some of which may have been misguided, in the aftermath of WW2.

But let's face it, Fletch. As with us, most of your wounds have been self-inflicted. Your disastrous Labour governments of the 1970s, your slack immigration policies towards your former subjects, especially Pakistanis, your encroaching nanny state, Gordon Brown--all of that you did to yourselves. Just like we--oh God, what were we thinking?-elected this latest loser to the presidency.

Posted by: waltj at December 7, 2010 2:03 AM
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