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Obama’s Hubris Problem
According to The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, Barack Obama’s biggest challenger this election season is his own hubris. Milbank details the way Obama has been swaggering around Washington as if he’s already the President.
Barack Obama has long been his party’s presumptive nominee. Now he’s becoming its presumptuous nominee.
Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection, Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president’s) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally.
Along the way, he traveled in a bubble more insulating than the actual president’s. Traffic was shut down for him as he zoomed about town in a long, presidential-style motorcade, while the public and most of the press were kept in the dark about his activities, which included a fundraiser at the Mayflower where donors paid $10,000 or more to have photos taken with him. His schedule for the day, announced Monday night, would have made Dick Cheney envious…
In the latest issue of the New Republic, Gabriel Sherman found reporters complaining that Obama’s campaign was “acting like the Prom Queen” and being more secretive than Bush. The magazine quoted the New York Times’ Adam Nagourney’s reaction to the Obama campaign’s memo attacking one of his stories: “I’ve never had an experience like this, with this campaign or others.” Then came Obama’s overseas trip and the campaign’s selection of which news organizations could come aboard. Among those excluded: the New Yorker magazine, which had just published a satirical cover about Obama that offended the campaign.
Even Bush hasn’t tried that. But then again, Obama has been outdoing the president in ruffles and flourishes lately. As Bush held quiet signing ceremonies in the White House yesterday morning, Obama was involved in a more visible display of executive authority a block away, when he met with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani at the Willard. A full block of F Street was shut down for the prime minister and the would-be president, and some 40 security and motorcade vehicles filled the street.
Later, Obama’s aides issued an official-sounding statement, borrowing the language of White House communiques: “I had a productive and wide-ranging discussion. . . . I look forward to working with the democratically elected government of Pakistan.”
It had been a long day of acting presidential, but Obama wasn’t done. After a few hours huddling with advisers over his vice presidential choice, Obama made his way to the pep rally on the Hill. Moments after he entered the meeting with lawmakers, there was an extended cheer, followed by another, and another.
“I think this can be an incredible election,” Obama said later. “I look forward to collaborating with everybody here to win the election.”
Win the election? Didn’t he do that already?
Keep in mind that Dana Milbank is no moderate. He’s one of Keith Olbermann’s left-wing shills, so it’s pretty interesting that he would write a piece like this.
Washington Post Calls Obama’s Iraq Speech “Irrational”
I don’t think I’ve heard this much honesty out of the Washington Post–ever. They completely shred Obama’s big speech yesterday where he outlined his naive plans for Iraq and Afghanistan.
BARACK OBAMA yesterday accused President Bush and Sen. John McCain of rigidity on Iraq: “They said we couldn’t leave when violence was up, they say we can’t leave when violence is down.” Mr. Obama then confirmed his own foolish consistency. Early last year, when the war was at its peak, the Democratic candidate proposed a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. combat forces in slightly more than a year. Yesterday, with bloodshed at its lowest level since the war began, Mr. Obama endorsed the same plan. After hinting earlier this month that he might “refine” his Iraq strategy after visiting the country and listening to commanders, Mr. Obama appears to have decided that sticking to his arbitrary, 16-month timetable is more important than adjusting to the dramatic changes in Iraq.
The Washington Post could not be more right about that. It takes real chutzpah to accuse the Bush administration of being stubborn about Iraq, when Obama himself has been stubborn. His plan from the beginning was a “get out at any cost” approach and he indicated yesterday he intends to stick to that.
So why even visit Iraq? If his plan is to pull out all the troops in 16 months no matter what then why bother going to Iraq at all? General Petraeus may have spent the last 30 years of his life in the Army, but clearly Obama believes he knows more about fighting wars than he does. Rather than wasting tax payer dollars on an expensive photo-op in Iraq with his budy Chuck Hagel, Obama should just stay home.
I think Barry has shown what kind of leader he’ll be. It only took him about four hours to completely cave to pressure from the far-left on his Iraq position. When he spoke on July 3rd about visiting Iraq and further “refining” his position, it caused on uproar on the looney left. By around four o’clock that afternoon, Obama held a second press conference reiterating his promise to start withdrawing immediately upon taking office.
Since then he’s been ratcheting up his rhetoric on Iraq to pre-general election levels. Assuring everyone that he intends to see America defeated in Iraq no matter what.
For all the criticism of President Bush, one thing you cannot say about him is that he caves to pressure. When he believes something he sticks with it no matter who’s against it or how many people protest. He once said famously that he’ll stay in Iraq “even if Laura and Barney (his dog) are the only ones left who support me.” You’re not likely to ever see that kind of backbone out of Barack Obama. He couldn’t even make it through a full day before totally caving to MoveOn.org and Code Pink.
The real difference between John McCain and Barack Obama is that Obama views the Iraq war exclusively through a political lens. While McCain looks at it from a national security point of view without regard to politics. Proof of this is that John McCain was a vocal supporter of the surge when public opinion was running about 80% against it. That’s one of the reasons his campaign went belly-up in the beginning of the primaries. It was during that time that McCain said he would rather lose an election than lose a war.
Obama could care less about winning the war, he just wants to be President. If he has to suck at the teet of MoveOn.org and Code Pink to get there he’s certainly more than willing to do so. One needs only to look at the way Obama’s website was scrubbed of all his past criticisms of the surge last weekend to know that Barack Obama plays politics with national security.
-Chris Jones
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