Which is maddening.
Conservatives bray on about how President Obama will be weak on defense.
-Surge in Afghanistan.
-Record number of terrorists killed by Predator strikes and spook ops, including Osama Bin Laden.
-A huge number of terrorist plots thwarted.
-Bumped up security at airports.
-On going campaign against a major supporter of terrorism, Momar Gaddafi.
Okay, let's look at these.
Surge in Afghanistan- before he pulls out, which is always the plan. Imagine if we fought WWII that way. "OKay, Hitler, if you can run out the clock until 1944, we give!" He didn't surge in Afghanistan because he was trying to acheive a goal, he surged because he wanted to look strong when capitulating in Iraq.
Yeah, bumped up security. I guess that old person with the burst colostomy bag was going to be a real threat. Let's harrass Americans so we don't get called racist by profiling the people who have a history of blowing up and hijacking planes.
Gadaffi. Um. Yeah. Why are we at war with him? And why are we fighting it so ineffectively. Even if I agreed that Gadaffi was a guy we needed to get rid of (he never made that argument in front of the American people or Congress), we are doing it in a way that is so ineffective we'll never be rid of him.
Again, that would be nice and all, if he was consistant. You can't make it harder to get in, and then promise to try to reward those who made it - i.e. DREAM Act, Amensty. Then you are essentially turning immigration into a Japanese Game show.
Again, he had to be dragged along kicking and screaming on both of those. You don't get credit for signing an agreement under duress and then trying to undo it.
Let's look at what he did with the Bush Tax Cuts. He could have gotten his debt ceiling raise at the same time he got the unemployment benefit extention and continuing the Bush Tax cuts. But, no, he wanted to have the showdown we just had, so he could impose a tax increase and make the GOP accomplices. Drive a wedge between the Tea Party and the Establishment. It didn't work. The TP held its ground.
"Don't call my bluff, Eric", The One said to Cantor. He did.
My problem with Obama has never been idealogical. It's been on effectiveness. Explain your position, stand by it, and show that it works. He doesn't do that. He drives all over the highway, running other people off the road, before putting the car back into the ditch.