This morning I made the big mistake of watching Morning Joe. My teeth-grinding began with Scarborough saying, in that “I am never wrong” voice, that Obama was weak and rudderless when he stayed in Cuba to watch a baseball game instead of cancelling everything, rushing back to Washington and calling an emergency meeting of all appropriate officials to discuss the strategy against ISIS
Then with sorrow in her voice, Mika Brezinski said she had to agree with Joe. Obama should have left Cuba immediately. But for a different perspective, let’s ask the opinion of — Nicole Wallace. Bush’s former spokesperson agreed with Joe and Mika. Obama clearly had no idea how to reassure the American people. She likened it to the optics of Bush reading My Pet Goat on 9/11.
As I tried to grapple with the idea that for an American president, an attack on New York City might conceivably be the same as an attack on Brussels, Joe turned the camera to get yet another perspective on Obama’s decision, this time from …. Rudolph Giuliani. Who said the exact same thing as everyone else.
Good job, MSNBC, in getting a variety of opinions.
But that’s not even the point. The point is, they’re all taking a point of view which would essentially hand our country over to the jihadis.
Think of that old saying “If you owe the bank $1 million, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank $100 million, you own the bank.” That is the essence of the difference between the shallow thinkers like Scarborough, et. al., and our President. They say Obama should drop everything, and here’s what Obama said:
Asked whether it was inappropriate for him to attend a baseball game in Havana on Tuesday between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays, Obama said that the goal of terrorists, in addition to killing people, is to strike fear into society and disrupt people’s routines.
“It is very important for us to not respond with fear,” Obama said. “A lot of it is also going to be to say: ‘You do not have power over us. We are strong. Our values are right. You offer nothing except death.’ ”
Think about what power we give ISIS if by bombing any city in Europe they can stop everything the President is doing. He’s in Cuba with ground-breaking meetings with a country we haven’t had diplomatic relations with in 60 years — but if there’s a bombing in Brussels, the Scarboroughs of the country say he has to cancel it to go back to the White House. And what about next time? The President is in Zurich working on an economic summit? Bomb London. The President is in Rome meeting with the Pope? Bomb Madrid.
If the president has to drop everything and return to Washington each time there is a terrible bombing, then make no mistake: ISIS would own the president’s calendar, and they could stop what he does and where he goes. They would own the bank.
Obama gets this. He understands that the worst decision he could make is to let ISIS or any terror organization pull the strings of a puppet president. That would give them power over us.
Actually, all you shallow Scarborough types, it’s really pretty obvious.