Terror Fallout

"The errors could prove a political problem for Mr. Obama, who spoke for the second day running about the attack, after three days of silence. Over the weekend, other administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, argued that air-security systems had worked in the attack's aftermath. Campaign consultants for potential Republican presidential challengers in 2012 have been waiting for an opportunity to paint the president as soft on terrorism." (WSJ, 12/30/2009)

Had the recent failed terrorist attack occurred on GWB's watch, RedStateVT has no doubt that critics of President Bush would have held him personally accountable. It would have been an unfair accusation and, therefore, we will not make the charge against President Obama. There are, however, a couple of points that can be made:

First, President Obama does seem to exhibit a certain tone-deaf response when it comes to these national security issues. The "three days of silence" referenced above does not reflect well on him and does not inspire confidence. Recall also his clumsy handling of the Ft. Hood terrorist act.

Second, there is no doubt frustration on the part of various national security organizations given the relentless attacks by many of President Obama's most ardent leftward supporters. We have a certain sympathy for at least some of these folks who are attacked as torturers, human rights abusers, and outright criminals, all the while trying to protect this country from just this kind of act. President Obama need look no further than his Attorney General to find someone who has second guessed (and maligned!) some of these people.

Third, does Janet Napolitano remind readers of another Janet? Why yes! The equally incompetent Clinton era Attorney General Janet Reno!

Year-End Leftovers

Yes Virginia, They Still Want to Kill Us
The attempt appeared to underscore the continuing determination of Muslim militants to kill Americans more than eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks. (NYT, 12/27/2009)

Rahm-bo: First Bloodletting
As the saying goes, politics can make strange bedfellows. Well, conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist is teaming up with liberal blogger Jane Hamsher in calling for White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to resign. They've sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder saying Emanuel's time on the board of directors at the government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac from 2000 to 2001 may have given him some knowledge of alleged financial irregularities. The unlikely duo claim Emanuel and the White House are stonewalling, writing: "A 2003 report by Freddie Mac's regulator indicated that Freddie Mac executives had informed the board of their intention to misstate the earnings to insure their own bonuses during the time Mr. Emanuel was a director." (Brett Baier, Political Grapevine, Fox News 12/24/2009)

The Education of Olympia
The bill Democrats approved on Christmas Eve was drafted "in the shadows, without transparency, just to garner the necessary 60 votes and nothing more," as Mrs. Snowe put it in a statement on Sunday. (WSJ, 12/26/2009)

The Penny Pincher
This week brought a more troubling incident. Harry Reid's Senate had just secured its 60th vote for Mr. Obama's health-care reform. Whatever one's view, its trillion-dollar-plus cost is an agreed given. Days earlier the public saw Congress vote to raise the debt ceiling by almost $290 billion to make room for the needs of the $800 billion stimulus bill, the unprecedented $3.5 trillion budget, and the House's approval Dec. 16 of a new $154 billion jobs bill. Amid this President Obama said Monday: "We can't continue to spend . . . as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money." (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 12/24/2009)

Unholy Alliance
Across the country, trial lawyers and green pressure groups—if that's not redundant—are teaming up to sue electric utilities for carbon emissions under "nuisance" laws. A group of 12 Gulf Coast residents whose homes were damaged by Katrina are suing 33 energy companies for greenhouse gas emissions that allegedly contributed to the global warming that allegedly made the hurricane worse. (WSJ, 12/28/2009)

Good Question
A U.S. government that has barred the phrase "war on terror" has nonetheless acknowledged that a failed Christmas day bomb attack on an airliner was a terrorist attempt. Can we all now drop the pretense that we stopped fighting a war once Dick Cheney and George W. Bush left the White House? (WSJ, 12/28/2009)

Fat Cat Pat
It was equally outrageous to read in the Decemver 16, 2009, Wall Street Journal that Vermont's Senator Patrick Leahy, along with four other senators, similarly exploited taxpayer funds to treat himself and his wife to a trip to England. According to the story, Leahy spent four days on our dime at the Danesfield House Hotel & Spa at $340-a-night. The state business Leahy was supposedly tending to in order to justify this junket included a riverboat trip down the Thames and a private tour of Windsor Castle. (VTGOP, 12/21/2009)

RedStateVT Announces 2009 Cheney Award Winner

RedStateVT announces the winner of the 2009 Cheney Award, our inaugural presentation of this honor. The Cheney Award will be given annually to the individual who – in our opinion – has done the most to preserve and promote the values of American liberty, strength and exceptionalism. The award honors Vice-President Dick Cheney for his service to and defense of this great country.

RedStateVT considered a number of qualified candidates for this award. We’ll list just a few here.

1) Ann Coulter – Her Royal Highness, Ann is our toughest and perhaps our most brilliant conservative. Her columns are required reading for exposing the lies of liberalism.
2) Sarah Palin – Why do they hate her? She’s a moose-hunting, life-affirming, frontierswoman who draws special ire from the left for not acting like an aggrieved minority.
3) Dick Morris – Clinton’s former strategist has paid his debts in full with his extraordinary work in fighting Obamacare.
4) Rush Limbaugh – A perennial contender for any award of this type, El Rushbo, is the original. And he’s still going strong.

Our winner this year is a man that the left has underestimated at their own risk. He’s passionate. He’s emotional. He’s relentless. And yet – unlike the politicians who claim the mantle – he’s a regular guy who wears his love of America on his sleeve. His following grows daily as does his influence. RedStateVT is pleased to honor Glen Beck as the 2009 Cheney Award recipient.

Mr. Beck will also receive a free lunch courtesy of RedStateVT on Burlington’s Church Street. We can’t wait to see the looks on the faces of the “progressives.”

White Lies in the Green Mountains

Burlington Free Press, 12/25/2009:

After decades and decades of talk about health care reform, something significant has been done amidst extraordinary obstructionism from Republicans,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said during a brief news conference after flying into Burlington International Airport shortly before noon Christmas Eve.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said people upset about any shortcomings in the measure should aim their criticisms at the GOP, not Democrats or President Barack Obama.

Something about the above comments from Vermont's Senators seemed odd to RedStateVT. And then it hit us! The Dems had the numbers to pass whatever bill they wanted to. They could have passed a bill the day after President Obama was sworn in. Any perceived deficiencies or delays were a direct result of other Dems who didn't want a public option or didn't want abortion funding or wanted extra goodies for their state. The Repubs had nothing to do with it. A point that will be made over and over again next November.

A Holiday Greeting from RedStateVT

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS AND GRATITUDE TO OUR BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN IN THE ARMED SERVICES.

They Will Pay

Indeed the Senate will pass a health care bill on Christmas Eve. It is a bill that most Senators will not have read and that some will probably vote for while holding their noses. Of course, the American public - to whom President Obama promised total transparency – does not know everything contained in the bill. On this, there is nothing else to conclude but that Obama lied.

The artificially imposed Christmas deadline has two purposes. The first is to ram a bill through before all the details can be divulged. The Obamacrats knew that time and disclosure were not on their side. The more people find out the lower the support goes. It is now less than 50%. Dick Morris (who has redeemed himself for once working for Bill Clinton) deserves enormous credit for his efforts in both exposing the dirty details of the bill and for tirelessly fund-raising to stop it. The second reason is equally important. Obama needs to be able to claim victory in 2009 for something….anything. He couldn’t get the Olympics for Chicago, Copenhagen was a giant screw-up, his party lost two important gubernatorial races, and half his party is mad at him for Afghanistan. And so he will – with a straight face – claim that 2009 was a successful first year and maybe even raise his self-grade from B+ to A-. That’s what this health care drill is all about…..avoiding the perception that he is an ineffectual lame duck one year into his term.

As the Senators scramble to return home on Thursday, more details will emerge about the extra taxes, benefit reductions and special deals that were cut to pass the bill. And when the Senators arrive, they will begin to hear from their constituents. It won’t be pretty.

RedStateVT Presents the Worst of 2009

1) Barney Frank and Chris Dodd – The Subprime Twins…for using their powers to screw up the mortgage business, nearly wreck the economy and then become “champions” of reform.

2) Reality Television – the Kardashians, Jon and Kate, the various Housewives, and other assorted oddballs and losers….for publicly displaying their shallowness and banality.

3) Rahm Emmanuel – the Left loved to demonize Karl Rove as the evil genius behind W. Well Rove is a pussycat next to Rahm-bo who brought Chicago style thuggery to the WH.

4) General Motors – brought down by union greed and the generations of weak-kneed managers who let it happen.

5) Mary Landrieu – Louisiana Senator who sold her health care vote for $300 million.

6) The Mainstream Media – for failing to vet Obama and for ignoring stories that conflicted with their political biases. Game over.

7) ACORN – isn’t this what RICO was designed for?

8) Climate change scientists – for lying.

9) Charles Rangel – New York’s senior rep…….he of the multiple rent-controlled apartments, unreported Caribbean condo rentals, etc. Look up “corrupt politician” in the dictionary and you’ll find Charlie.

10) The Jacksons – never mind “Father of the Year” Michael who apparently parented his children while blotto on who knows what prescription drugs; you also have psycho Dad Joe who used his son’s death to promote his business ventures and the remaining male siblings who didn’t wait until their brother was buried to score a new reality show. They all just need to go away and leave America alone.

Honorable Mention: The Democrat Party. It seems like it was only yesterday that the Donkey Party won their mandate and promptly began lecturing the Repubs on what they were doing wrong. The party of ballooning federal deficits, runaway spending and double digit unemployment chose to focus on the really important issues. You know, blowing up the U.S. health care system, the “settled” science of global warming (or was it cooling?), gay marriage, closing the Guantanamo Bay Resort and Spa and punishing this country and other developed nations for having the nerve to offer its citizens a better way of life. Payback starts November 2010.

QUESTIONS (FOR LIBERALS) ON HEALTH CARE

--How do you feel about the special deals that were cut with a handful of states (e.g. Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont) in order to get the votes to pass the bill?

--Do you think it’s fair that people who choose not to buy health insurance will be fined?

--What is the rationale for placing special taxes on certain products or services (i.e. cosmetic surgery, tanning salons, medical devices, etc.)?

--President Obama promised a transparent and deliberative process around health care reform. Do you think that has been achieved?

--Most polls show that more Americans oppose rather than favor the health care bill. Your thoughts?

You MUST answer honestly.

Moonbat Conference Ends

Here's all you need to know about the climate change conference.....

Obama got 'dissed' by the Chinese:
"Twice during the day, Mr. Wen sent an underling to represent him at the meetings with Mr. Obama. To make things worse, each time, it was a lower-level official." (NYT, 12/19/09)

It was all only ever about a wealth transfer to poor countries:
"Obama's day of hectic diplomacy produced a document promising $30 billion in emergency climate aid to poor nations in the next three years and a goal of eventually channeling $100 billion a year by 2020 to developing countries." (Fox, 12/19/09)

These guys never practice what they preach:
"As his motorcade idled in front of the conference center, Mr. Obama took to a rostrum emblazoned with the presidential seal." (NYT, 12/19/09)

Meanwhile, the truth:
"We've been deceived by a stroke of luck. In the two million years during which we climbed from stone-tool wielding Homo erectus with sloping brows to high-foreheaded Homo urbanis, man the inventor of the city, we underwent 60 glaciations, 60 ice ages. And in the 120,000 years since we emerged in our current physiological shape as Homo sapiens, we've lived through 20 sudden global warmings. In most of those, temperatures have shot up by as much as 18 degrees within a mere 20 years. All this took place without smokestacks and tailpipes. All this took place without the desecration of nature by modern man." (Climate Change is Nature's Way, Howard Bloom, WSJ, 12/17/09)

While Gore continues to protect his franchise:
"Mr. Gore says he cares a lot about science and scientific accuracy. His whole theory of Climate Alarmism depends on it but today at the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference he refused several opportunities to correct the record when asked about his errors by journalist and film maker Phelim McAleer. Instead his Press Secretary grabbed McAleer's microphone to stop questions being put to the vice-president." (WSJ, 12/15/09)

Grading the Grader

No sooner does President Obama win praise for displaying humility in accepting the Nobel Prize, then he self-reports a "solid B+" for his first year in office. Others have already commented on what a more realistic grade might be. RedStateVT would prefer to focus on another issue; namely that of this President's utter lack of self-awareness, his failure to appreciate the prestige of the office. For goodness sakes, when you are asked to grade yourself YOU DO NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION! Instead you say something like: "Well, there have certainly been challenges, but we are working hard on them.....I'll leave it to the American people to decide how well we are doing." Obama sounds like a.....well, like a community organizer.

Other examples? We've talked about the bowing and scraping before other heads of state so we'll remind readers of Obama's behavior at various confabs of world leaders. American Presidents are usually carefully managed at these events so that they do not end up in a picture with the likes of Fidel Castro. The last thing America needs is the visual image of parity between the President and a crackpot dictator. Does Obama follow this time honored protocol? Of course not, and so back in April he ends up being handed a piece of propaganda from the likes of Hugo Chavez:

"...Chavez gave Obama a copy of "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent," a book by Eduardo Galeano, which chronicles U.S. and European economic and political interference in the region." (FoxNews.com, 4/18/2009)

Great photo op, Mr. President!

Of course, we would be remiss if we did not remind readers of a previous President who likewise failed to respect and promote the office. Yes, it's former President Bill Clinton who treated the office like his personal trailer park. You already know the stories, but RedStateVT will remind you that candidate Clinton put himself in a position to be asked a question about his choice of underwear. When asked the "boxers or briefs question" Clinton answered. How much more appropriate and dignified it would have been for him to respond: "You look like a bright young man. With so many pressing issues facing this country today, I am going to give you another opportunity to ask me how I am going to tackle these challenges."

Now that would have been Presidential!

At Last, Some Good News From Copenhagen

"As world leaders began making their way to Copenhagen for an uncertain conclusion to the two-week talks, protesters and police also clashed on the streets. For the first time since the two-week conference began, law enforcement officers used tear gas to disperse crowds of rioters, who were reportedly lobbing small firebombs, a police spokesman said Tuesday. Nearly 200 more arrests were made Monday night as the protesters, angered by the lack of progress in negotiations, set fire to makeshift barricades in Copenhagen’s Christiania neighborhood." (NYT, 12/15/2009)

It's great to see the police cracking down on the little darlings of the "Peace, Love and Understanding" crowd....you know, the ones "lobbing small firebombs."

The Profit Motive

Defending his call for government-run health care, Corporal Bernie Sanders today vilified insurance companies for engaging in the still legal practice of selling insurance:

"(Sanders) cited widespread support for his plan, which he said will eventually become law when Congress has the “courage” to stand up to those who “profit off human sickness.” (BFP, 12/16/2009)

Using the Corporal's logic, RedStateVT has put together the following list of businesses that are likely to be targeted next:

-- Supermarkets and food producers......for profiting off human hunger.
-- Clothing manufacturers...... for profiting off human frailty.
-- Luxury goods companies.....for profiting off human vanity.

It's a fun exercise. Try it!

Stranger Than Fiction

ONE MAN'S TRAITOR IS ANOTHER MAN'S......
A sentiment among some lawmakers present seemed to be that if they were intent on not letting Republicans defeat the health care legislation, they certainly were not going to let it fail at the hands of Mr. Lieberman, whom many Democrats regard as a traitor.

Had to laugh at this one! Demos consider Lieberman a traitor, but Olympia Snowe is routinely characterized as "principled" and a "moderate."

DEF JAM CLIMATE COMEDY FEST
In a signal of the state of affairs, Yvo De Boer, the chief United Nations functionary running climate talks, carried an orange-and-white life ring to his midday news conference. “What makes this process complicated is that you have small island nations who are about to disappear because of sea level rise...."

As a service to readers, RedStateVT promises to closely follow and identify all island nations that become submerged.

ALL VACATIONS MUST END
The Obama administration is expected to announce on Tuesday that it has selected a prison in northwestern Illinois to house terrorism suspects now being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a major step toward shutting down that military detention facility.

Expect an uproar from the jihadists as their idyllic stay at Gitmo ends and they face the harsh Illinois winter!

A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES
Meeting with top executives from 12 financial institutions, Mr. Obama sent a clear message that the industry had a responsibility to help nurse the economy back to health and do more to create jobs in return for the huge federal bailout last year that kept Wall Street and the banking system afloat.

Wait a minute! Isn't that how we got into this mess? Politicians like Barney Frank strong-armed Fannie and Freddie to increase mortgage lending to unqualified buyers helping to accelerate the financial crisis. Now Obama uses the same playbook. Of course, the same banks whose dismal business practices required them to run to the government for a bailout have no one but themselves to blame.

(All items sourced from New York Times website.)

Who is this guy?

RedStateVT is dumbfounded by President Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Omitting a minor reference to torture here and one to global warming there, the speech could almost have been given by Ronald Reagan. It was in most respects a hard-nosed assessment of the threats that peace-loving nations face. Highlights include the following.

• A humble and realistic admission

"...I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage."

• A forceful reminder to the world

"...(Afghanistan) is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by 42 other countries -- including Norway -- in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks."

• An oblique reference to Ronald Reagan?

"The Cold War ended with jubilant crowds dismantling a wall."

• An understanding of the threat!

"I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason."

• Damn straight!

"The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest -- because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity."

• Amen!

"I -- like any head of state -- reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation."

• Time's running out for Ahmadinejad.

"But it is also incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system. Those who claim to respect international law cannot avert their eyes when those laws are flouted. Those who care for their own security cannot ignore the danger of an arms race in the Middle East or East Asia. Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war."

• American exceptionalism!

"So even as we respect the unique culture and traditions of different countries, America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal."

RedStateVT suspects that the Code Pink crowd is aghast at Obama's speech. But not to worry, if Obama continues in this vein he'll pick up lots of friends on the right!

This Just In: Bush Was Right!

From STRATFOR:

The jihadist attack on the United States has failed. The presence of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has reshaped the behavior of regional governments. Fear of instability generated by the war has generated counteractions by regional governments. Contrary to what the jihadists expected or hoped for, there was no mass uprising and therefore no counter to anti-jihadist actions by regimes seeking to placate the United States. The original fear, that the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan would generate massive hostility, was not wrong. But the hostility did not strengthen the jihadists, and instead generated anti-jihadist actions by governments.
(http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091207_jihadist_strategic_dilemma?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=091207&utm_content=readmore)

This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR

All The News That Fits Our Agenda

The New York Times refuses to let a little scandal get in the way of promoting their global warming agenda. The lead story on the paper's website describes the opening of the Copenhagen summit with talks of calls to action and school children singing. Truly inspiring... Fourteen paragraphs into the story, The Crimes mentions a little old scandal wherein "objective" scientists talk of manipulating the data and deleting e-mails.

The second story reports on an EPA ruling on greenhouse gases. Guess what the ruling concludes? They are dangerous!

And finally, because The Crimes figured they could not ignore the East Anglia revelations completely, they include a Revkin and Broder article that addresses the scandal. And guess what it concludes? Notwithstanding the faked data, global warming is real. Lots of people say so!

Based on fossilized evidence of plants and animals, scientists long ago concluded that Great Britain once had a tropical climate. And the global warming crowd says.......... what?

The Death of Shame

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has been convicted of embezzlement for stealing gift cards meant for the needy. Yes, you read that correctly. Democrat Dixon’s response:

"I deeply regret that the citizens of Baltimore have had to go through this ordeal with me." (www.upi.com 12/4/2009)

Is it just us, or does that sound like Dixon is playing the victim?

The Dixon scandal follows that of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich who was impeached and subsequently removed from office for trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat. Democrat Blagojevich’s response to his ordeal was to hire a public relations firm and appear on multiple talk and news shows.

Of course, the Blagojevich scandal follows that of Representative William Jefferson from Louisiana. Readers will recall that the FBI found stacks of cash in Democrat Jefferson’s refrigerator. Jefferson was indicted for corruption in 2007, but continued to serve until he was defeated for reelection in 2008.

We remember the good old days when people who were discovered doing bad things simply crawled away in shame. Not any more. Now, notwithstanding irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing, politicians cry foul, blame their opponents, vow to continue serving “the people”, go on Oprah, and further obfuscate.

RedStateVT would be remiss if we did not note the progenitor of this approach: none other than Democrat William Jefferson Clinton. Faced with incontrovertible proof of lying to the American people, Clinton refused to be bowed by shame and dragged the country through a prolonged public airing of his sins. This is what Bill Clinton bequeathed to those who followed and is his legacy.

We'll Take Manhattan!

The Manhattan Declaration that is.... It was inspiring to hear and read The Manahattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience (see www.manhattandeclaration.org). Although it comes out of a Christian framework, we believe that thoughtful Jews, Mormons and Muslims can easily embrace its precepts. The treatise is reasoned and compassionate and draws upon centuries of thought and experience in the promotion of a culture of life. At last some people are drawing a line in the sand and saying: "Enough!"

The assault on traditional values by secularists has reached alarming proportions. So much so that traditionalists are made out to be the ones who are out of step, instead of vice versa. Of course, much of the blame can be laid at the feet of the pop culture media (television, music, movies, print, etc.) For example, a brief click through the television line-up reveals the moral wasteland that is nonagenarian Hugh Hefner and his pixelated bimbos; the Kardashians, a.k.a. the worst family in history; the vain and trite Housewives of Various Counties, etc. All of these are presented not as the circus freaks that they are, but as fun and edgy folks.

Following in the footsteps of The Manhattan Declaration, it was interesting to see the Bishop of Providence call out Senator Patrick Kennedy. The message: don't call yourself a Catholic and show up for church if you are not prepared to live as a Catholic. The Kennedys are famous (infamous?) for living as secularists and then wrapping their deaths in the majesty of an elaborate Catholic funeral pageant.

Surge in Afghanistan

Although President Obama would never agree with the characterization, his decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan by 30,000 is effectively a surge, akin to Bush’s Iraq surge…which is now largely viewed as effective and which Obama argued against. Well, at least he got the macro decision correct and RedStateVT gives the President credit for that.

But what to make of his speech last night? It was so strange and so full of contradictions, like a microcosm of the Obama presidency as he looks to reconcile irreconcilable differences. Besides the overall decision, other positives include the following: he was at times forceful and passionate; he showed respect for the military; he recited the road to the Afghan war including the atrocities of Al Qaeda; and, he attempted to respond to possible objections from both sides. On the negative side, he was defensive on why the decision took three months. He never explained why 30,000 and not 40,000 troops was the right number. And his talk of training the Afghanis to handle their own security was not exactly new or game-changing.

Of course, the biggest concern is the one you have heard – the deadline to withdraw in 18 months. Obama cites this as the hammer to drive the Afghanis to step up. But why signal the opposition of your intentions, particularly when the message could have been delivered forcefully and privately? The only answer, of course, is that Obama fears alienating the left wing of his party who would cut and run from Afghanistan, like, yesterday. They are not happy with his decision, but perhaps can swallow hard for another year and a half. But this begs the larger question: did Obama make a poor strategic decision (by revealing his timetable) for political reasons?