Our Jekyll And Hyde President

National Review: More Radical Than Jimmy Carter Or A Smoother Centrist Than Bill Clinton?

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Victor Davis Hanson.

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In matters of foreign policy during the president’s first 100 days, we have seen two Barack Obamas.

Consider “Obama I.” After taking office, the president gave his first interview to the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV station, and listed various sins of America while praising the Saudi king as courageous.

On trips abroad since then, Obama I has continued to apologize for the U.S. being arrogant and dismissive of Europe. He thinks we have been inconsiderate to Mexico. And, judging by a speech he gave in Prague, we apparently carry a special burden to eliminate nuclear weapons since we ended World War II by using them.

Obama I seems far kinder to our rivals than to the prior Bush administration when he assures various South American thugs and Iranian and Russian strongmen that he represents a sharp break from a recent, unfortunate American past.

Obama I sat quietly for nearly an hour while Nicaragua’s thuggish leader, Daniel Ortega, trashed the U.S. at the recent Summit of the Americas. Instead of defending his country, the president, in his call to move forward, replied that he was only three months old at the time of our alleged misdeeds in Cuba - and therefore not responsible for them.

Most maddening, Obama I released classified memos about past enhanced interrogation techniques - over the objections of former CIA directors from both parties.

But there has been another Obama as well. This more centrist “Obama II” kept Bush appointee Robert Gates as secretary of Defense. He named no-nonsense Gen. James Jones national-security adviser.

Most of the campaign rhetoric about leaving Iraq on a strict timetable has been scrapped. Instead, the Bush-Petraeus plan of withdrawal based on conditions on the ground continues.

Obama sent more combat troops to Afghanistan, while trying in vain to get the Europeans to fulfill their NATO obligations by doing the same. Despite the hostile anti-Bush rhetoric, Obama has kept intact many of his predecessor’s homeland-security measures. There has been little change with the Patriot Act, wiretap and e-mail intercepts of suspected terrorist communications, and renditions of overseas suspects.

Obama II gave the green light to execute suspected Somali pirates who were holding an American hostage. And in the case of our continued Predator drone attacks in Pakistan, such bombings are a little more extreme than waterboarding known terrorists.

There could be several explanations for our split-personality president.

One, Barack Obama has never before had to make tough decisions as an executive. He may be struggling to pacify both radicals in his base who detest past Bush policies and realists who warn him that al-Qaeda is still trying to repeat 9/11.

Or, two, Obama may be sincerely trying to move the country far to the left. His serial apologies may reveal a true post-national Obama. Once he consolidates power in the coming year, we may see the president’s moderate fig leaf blow away.

Or, three, Obama may be a Clinton-style realist, as his selection of Hillary Clinton as his secretary of State would suggest. He may be deliberately saying one thing abroad while pursuing quite another - in the manner of his calibrated campaign flip-flops on everything from campaign financing to NAFTA.

This more Machiavellian Obama in theory could advance roughly the same bipartisan foreign agenda as previous Presidents Clinton and Bush. Both sought to spread capitalism and democracy abroad to lessen the chances of regional conflicts, and were not so averse to using force to remove genocidal tyrants like Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein.

In this scenario, Obama apologizes abroad and trumpets his nontraditional background and Islamic familiarities as clever ways to preempt and nullify third-world cheap shots taken against the U.S. Given his popularity with the global masses, the new, more effective Messenger Obama could send America’s largely unchanged message directly to the people.

So which Obama persona is the real president - Obama I, more radical than Jimmy Carter, or Obama II, a smoother centrist than Bill Clinton? I don’t think Obama himself quite knows - and that’s quite scary, as we don’t know either what to expect next.

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal. © 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

[USA_Constitution]

May 1, 2009

WJR-RADIO, DETROIT ?FRANK BECKMAN INTERVIEWS A LAWYER WHO REPRESENTS A GROUP OF LENDERS THAT OBJECT TO THE CHRYSLER SALE.

Every American should be outraged by what the WHITE HOUSE is doing behind closed doors! What else are they doing to America?

LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW ? CALL AND WRITE TO YOUR STATE REPS AND NEWS MEDIA ? WHY ISN?T THIS STORY BEING COVERED ELSEWHERE?

http://www.wjr.com/Article.asp?id=1301727&spid=6525

[USA_Constitution]

"HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE "REAL OBAMA"...........

May 1, 2009

WJR-RADIO, DETROIT ?FRANK BECKMAN INTERVIEWS A LAWYER WHO REPRESENTS A GROUP OF LENDERS THAT OBJECT TO THE CHRYSLER SALE.

Every American should be outraged by what the WHITE HOUSE is doing behind closed doors! What else are they doing to America?

LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW ? CALL AND WRITE TO YOUR STATE REPS AND NEWS MEDIA ? WHY ISN?T THIS STORY BEING COVERED ELSEWHERE?

http://www.wjr.com/Article.asp?id=1301727&spid=6525

[bigsk8fan]

national review. now that's as unbiased as fox news. why don't they just a neocon rush limbaugh as their 'impartial' review of obama.

[StaxBrix]

Watch it now before it gets censored AGAIN, from Youtube or Google?.. someone?s awful nervous about this truth getting out. Maybe they need to keep the American public in the dark and ignorant about that day which lives in infamy, June 8, 1967.

There?s a straight line from JFK?s murder on November 22, 1963 to the brutal and savage Israeli attack on the USS Liberty to the 1983 attack on that marine compound in Lebanon, to the USS Cole bombing to 9/11. And no amount of Zionist Holocaust? fairy tales or forced worship at the altar of Israel is going to erase that line.
http://waronyou.com/topics/dead-in-the-water-the-sinking-of-the-uss-liberty/

[skeezix06]

I don't know what planet you're living on. Obama is neither left, radical or otherwise, or smooth centrist. The media is still turning a blind eye toward his mistakes and contradictions but he is centrist with heavy rightward leanings.

Obama is someone who always takes the easy way out and if it's prepared by the banks and other corporations he doesn't really care as long as it doesn't cause him to make an effort. Style will be valued over substance in the Obama White House.

Clinton did at least try to buck the establishment on several issues and he paid the price.

[didserve]

NRO take your duel passport holding media people back to your other country!

You have never represented American National Interests!

[maghop]

hey libriodiots!!! are you just waking up from a bush induced fear mongering coma?? 1. unemployment rose due to bush's obsession with iraq. 2. the stock market decreased due to bush's neglect and obsession with iraq. 3. economic growth only with cheny's haliburton friends and bush's obsession with iraq. 4. budget deficits rose due to the needless spending of almost 1 trillion dollars because of bush's obsession with iraq. i think you or anyone would agree that if bush had focused on the real war on terror, and spent time on the problems rising within america, because they started long before obama took office, then may be there wouldn't have been such a collapse in how america is seen around the world. obama, just as other people such as bush1, are cleaning up after the mess bush 2 created. bush 2 has never been good at anything except creating messes for others to fix.huummmm! example, his failed attempt in baseball, his failed attempt in the oil bussiness which his father and saudia arabia bailed him out, his failed leadership as potus. humm i can go on and on but i won't since in you eyes bush is and was a messiah!! NOT!!! WHAT A LOSER! in fact how does one spell loser? G.-W-B-U-S-H

[VultureTX]

Posted by evilbusheviks at 11:50 AM

hmm three posts to the same guy. I suspect you need your medication. based on your name you likely also need a history degree since you have no relevant base line for your accusations.

[renojmc]

Only the ignorant and naive believe the empty platitudes and lies that spew from Obama's mouth. The rest of us see him for who he is -- a neo-socialist bent on destroying America as we know it.

[Stop_the_crying]

Well cry me a river. The GOP can't stand a president that admitts the falurers of our past presidents policys. A president that will listen to any one. Considers our personel rights more important than jailing a few people. Blame, Blame, Blame that's all the red people can do. We can do it twice as good for half the price. That sounds strange comming from the people that could not even utter the word recession with the last president. WA WA WA

[VultureTX]

Posted by curtrock at 4:41 AM : May 2, 2009

well stated

Unfortunately most of the other Obama lovers here think that because Obama won, the GOP MUST disband. They think that it was a referendum for a socialist state with govt. med care, and govt owned business being their employers, and govt programs to make their lives right.

they also like to ignore when they cry out" everything Bush did was wrong", just how much Obama is either continuing or even outright defending in the courts for the previous admins actions.

finally the the shrill tone of the left is meaningful, they won, the DEMs can pass any law in congress, Obama can say any thing (with a teleprompter) and yet they still scream. It's like they can't MoveOn. they just don't know what to do, they won, but their lives still suck evidently.

[curtrock]

An editorial by nature is opinion and being that Mr. Hanson is a well known Bush sympathizer, I can't imagine his commentary can or should be considered un-biased. No matter his credentials, his cronyism precedes him...so anytime Mr. Hanson speaks ill of President Obama or his policies or of anyone that doesn't fit into his version of correctness...it simply cannot be taken seriously...not by me, at least.
That being said, my opinion does not usurp the opinions of Mr. Hansen or anyone else...because even if I disagree, all Bush apologists and others have the right to voice their beliefs...even if they're dead wrong.

[staycalm]

Funny VDH should write this article as I was just today asking myself "Where is the change I can beleive in?". Is Obama turning out to have been the candidate that will continue George W. Bush's third term? He has done absolutely nothing to distinguish his Presidency from the preceding one. He is carrying on all of Bush's policies, both foreign and domestic, regarding both the economy (bailouts) and the war (expanding our presence in the Middle East.). Are we blind or just stupid? He now says he may not even sign the Freedom of Choice Act, something he promised would be the first thing he would do if elected. Excuse me, who is Barack Obama?

[cs4466]

How dare our President man up and apologize for the many mistakes made over the last 8 years by our country in the area of foreign policy?

What nerve of him to try and repair relationships with other countries that had been strong allies for over 100 years, but were dashed in minutes by Mr. "You're either with us or against us" Bush.

And he wants to make the US and world safer by using words and diplomacy, instead of brute force? Unbelieveable!
Posted by rwassel at 8:04 PM : May 1, 2009

Well stated. But you might as well give up on the poor bitter neocons. Facts, figures, none of these things matter to them. Let them be wrong every time. Let them lose every single election. Let them fade into the obscurity they so richly deserve. Until they own up to their mistakes and the mistakes of the Bush Administration, they shall remain an ineffectless, passive force, wallowing in their own securities and self-pity, unable to affect change and powerless to change their own course.

[cs4466]

Posted by jaeger888 at 7:42 PM : May 1, 2009

Bush used a teleprompter, too.
Posted by wogerwabbit at 7:44 PM : May 1, 2009

Unfortunately that didn't provide much benefit with the reading skill level of a fourth grader.

[cs4466]

Forgive me for asking, but what portions of the article do you disagree with? I found it to be factual.
Posted by boosterprez1 at 5:32 PM : May 1, 2009


HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

*sniffle* LOL.... ahem... you were joking - right?

[rwassel]

How dare our President man up and apologize for the many mistakes made over the last 8 years by our country in the area of foreign policy?

What nerve of him to try and repair relationships with other countries that had been strong allies for over 100 years, but were dashed in minutes by Mr. "You're either with us or against us" Bush.

And he wants to make the US and world safer by using words and diplomacy, instead of brute force? Unbelieveable!

[wogerwabbit]

Posted by jaeger888 at 7:42 PM : May 1, 2009

Bush used a teleprompter, too.

[jaeger888]

noloyalisti: You are an idiot. You think a man who cannot speak without a teleprompter is intelligent? Get a grip.

[wogerwabbit]

The paranoia and downright pants pooping hysteria of the right wing is halarious. These guys are like deranged mental patients let loose on society by the faux news hyperventilating talking heads whose puppet strings are pulled by some foreigner named Rupert Murdock. And then we have the drug addled voice of the republican party Rush Limbaugh calling the ever faithful to jump off the cliff to sacrifice themselves for their Cuban Cigar smoking betters. There IS a vast right wing conspiracy after all and it's A Conspiracy of Dunces (read the book!). I read of the newly found right wing outrage over defending the Constitution and fiscal responsibility and wonder where the hell you were the past 8 years. Your protests ring hollow... just like your party and your philosophy of hate and fear. I truly believe you fools would rather destroy our country for your party than to admit you had anything to do with our current situation. My God, I see you idiots still blaming Clinton for today's ills... how lame can you get? What happened the your accountability poop you guys touted with your Compassionate Conservative B.S.? Your philosophy, it turns out, ssucks! You bankrupted our country and weather you believe it or not, you guys are now the 21st Century Lepers (my apology to the true sufferers of this disease for tainting you with these reprobates, but I needed an analogy). Dammmit! I was a Republican with a capital R until you wackos took over... and now the same a$$hole that drove me from the party, Newt Gingrich is the freakin' voice of restraint! I could just s**t!