1. President Obama’s Birth Certificate: Why Now?
2. The Obama Doctrine and Syria
3. Don’t Raise the Debt Ceiling
4. The Devil Put On His Snow Shoes: Massachusetts Dems Vote to Limit Unions’ Collective Bargaining
5. Shuffling the Deck Chairs, Yet Again
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1. President Obama’s Birth Certificate: Why Now?
To answer any question economic, foreign policy or political regarding President Obama one must only answer one question: What is good for Obama?
President Obama coughed up his birth certificate today. So, the question is: How is this good for Obama?
It has been my view that the “birther” issue turned bad for President Obama some time before the latest round in the press brought the issue to a head.
Here’s the thing about rumors: If people like you, they won’t believe even the most vicious gossip. Like a besotted lover, who refuses to see faults, a political supporter will just see all rainbows and bunnies.
When people start to dislike you, though, they’ll believe every spurious and outrageous claim. Why? Because they’re looking for evidence to support their changed belief.
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2. The Obama Doctrine and Syria
Over the past weeks we’ve been very critical of the administration’s alleged policy in Libya. Under the guise of a rather exotic theory called Responsibility to Protect — also known by its cute acronym R2P — the United States, acting as part of a NATO force which seemingly only includes countries with financial interests in Libya, has undertaken a rather meaningless pseudo-intervention in Libya.
Our core objection to the Libyan intervention remains its incoherence. The Secretary of Defense has declared that Libya is not a vital national interest. This intervention has made us allies of al Qaeda, lacks any identifiable long term policy goals, and has been deliberately structured to fail as the use of ground forces and the goal of regime change have been ruled out. As a bonus, our allies are involved in the ethnic cleansing of Africans and they routinely behead prisoners.
On the other hand, a popular revolt is underway in Syria - where we do have vital national interests. More civilians have been killed to date by Syrian security forces than were killed by Qaddafi before our intervention. Instead of an “international” coalition being formed to R2P the heck out of Bashar al-Assad we get nothing.
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3. Don’t Raise the Debt Ceiling
I am no economist. In fact, as I researched for this piece and saw the diversity of opinions floating in the blogosphere and in the main stream press, it became clear to me that I am completely out of my element went it comes to national economics.
However, I am a tax payer. I am a small business owner, and I am a person that understands the concept of living beyond your means. I’ve even written about it before.
There is no doubt that the debt ceiling is a complicated matter. I’ve switched sides numerous times in this debate. Most of the time, I think to myself, “If they just keep raising it every time they want to spend more what’s the point? Don’t raise it again or it’s worthless!” This will also easily lead me to the conclusion that it’s not becoming worthless, it is worthless. And since it’s worthless, let’s not waste time debating whether or not to raise it when we could be focusing on spending.
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4. The Devil Put On His Snow Shoes: Massachusetts Dems Vote to Limit Unions’ Collective Bargaining
The first time, it was the “Scott heard around the world.” Back then, it might have been a fluke–like a snowstorm in July. This time, however, it is almost unbelievable when Massachusetts’ liberal, Democrat-controlled legislature votes overwhelmingly to strip unions of most of their right to bargain collectively over health care, striking their union benefactors in a Wisconsin-style smack down.
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5. Shuffling the Deck Chairs, Yet Again
In the most recent Obama administration shake up, Bob Gates will be leaving the Department of Defense, Leon Pannetta will move from the CIA to DoD, General David Petraeus will move from Afghanistan to the CIA and Ryan Crocker will move from Texas A&M (from whence came Bob Gates) to Afghanistan. As in the previous major changes in the White House staff and the economic team, competent, experienced hands are being replaced by…competent experienced hands. And so as Rahm Emanuel became Bill Daley and Larry Summers became Gene Sperling, we witness another changing of the guard designed to right the course of this haphazardly lurching administration that cannot seem to find its footing either at home or abroad.
The problem is that the root of the issue may not lie with the staff, but rather with the person doing the staffing.
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Sincerely yours,
Erick Erickson
Editor, RedState.com
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