Slap and Tickle

Optics
Former President George W. Bush has opted against joining President Obama on Thursday at Ground Zero in New York City for an event to mark the death of Osama bin Laden. (Washington Post, 5/4/11)

If anyone deserves to be at Ground Zero it is George Bush. Kudos to President Obama for inviting him. In declining the gracious invitation, Bush follows in the footsteps of his father and Ronald Reagan in conducting themselves with grace and dignity – and staying out of the spotlight – in their retirements. Now let’s contrast that with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Does anyone doubt for even a nanosecond that those two publicity hounds would rush to the scene if invited? Clinton would grab the microphone and talk for hours and Carter would find a way to blame America.

And So It Continues
Q: But we are a society of laws. What was the legal basis for going into another country and assassinating a person? (Question asked on a Washington Post blog)

Presumably the person asking the question prefers that the U.S. had gone to the United Nations....where it would have been debated for 14 months......and eventually a resolution would be passed condemning the U.S. for acts of aggression against the Muslim world....and bin Laden would have died of old age.

Peanuts
This is a decisive moment. Under the auspices of the Egyptian government, Palestine’s two major political movements — Fatah and Hamas — are signing a reconciliation agreement on Wednesday that will permit both to contest elections for the presidency and legislature within a year….. This accord should be viewed as a Palestinian contribution to the “Arab awakening,” as well as a deep wish to heal internal divisions. (Jimmy Carter, Washington Post, 5/3/11)

Speaking of the former president/ peanut farmer, check this out. Carter equates the possible reconciliation between the two main Palestinian terror groups with the “Arab awakening” where every day Arabs are taking to the streets to protest their dictatorial governments. He urges the U.S. to throw its support behind this effort. Is there anyone in the world more clueless than Jimmy Carter?