Fell Dismay

At Home
Yesterday RedstateVT was watching MSNBC. Wait it gets worse. We were watching Ronan Farrow on MSNBC. Readers are cautioned NOT to do this. RedStateVT is a trained professional. Those who attempt to watch MSNBC (the journalistic home of Rev. Al Sharpton!) without the proper training could suffer grave injury. Anyway, the topic was "Homelessness in America." What was surprising about this is that this topic - Homelessness in America - has never previously been discussed when a Democrat occupies the White House. Homelessness in America, as all know, is the fault of Republican presidents, e.g. Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George W. Bush. Of course, no blame was laid at the feet of President Obama by MSNBC's boy journalist who asked for viewer input on homelessness in their communities and vowed to follow this story...even if it led to the White House. Just kidding about that last part!


Back to the Drawing Board
American officials made clear they would ratchet up the pressure if Mr. Putin does not back down. They went immediately back to the Situation Room after the announcement to begin work on a next round of sanctions that could come as early as this week. (New York Times, 3/19/2014)

In the next round of sanctions against Russia for annexing Crimea President Obama threatened to not return Putin's phone calls, to deny Russians the next iPhone model, and to stop drinking Russian vodka.


Hopeless
Mr. Obama held out hope that diplomacy may yet succeed, but he sent Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Eastern Europe to meet with nervous NATO allies like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and reassure them of American resolve. (New York Times, 3/19/2014)

After stiffing Eastern Europe several years back on the issue of missile defense in order to assuage Putin, Obama now sends Vice President Punch Line to tell them not to worry, Obama has their backs. Message to the Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians: Be worried, be very worried. 

And so this gets added to Obama's foreign policy highlight reel which includes among other things:

Telling a Russian diplomat on an open mic that he would have "more flexibility" after the election. Which Putin then rightly interprets as a license to have his way, whether it be in Syria or in the Ukraine. How ironic it all is, especially in light of Obama's derisive comments to Mitt Romney during the election about "the 80s wanting its foreign policy back." 

And one final thought for Liberals who say: what is Obama supposed to do, go to war over Crimea? That is not the point. The point is that Obama's repeated public appeasement of Putin created the very situation that he now finds himself in. Obama is like the kid who kills his parents and then asks for mercy as an orphan.