Dumb Diplomacy

Who is the President of France? If you said Nicolas Sarkozy, you may know more than our President appears to. According to Gateway Pundit (via Glenn Reynolds), Obama wrote a lovely letter telling Jacques Chirac how much he was looking forward to the two working together over the next four years. The problem, of course, is that Chirac hasn't been the French President for almost two years.

Frankly, I was skeptical when I saw this story. It sounds a bit too much like something from The Onion. So I did some digging, and the story is true — Obama did write such a letter to Chiraz — but thankfully he does know that Chirac is no longer in charge. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Obama's letter was in response to one in which Chirac was speaking for his foundation and not the French government.

No big deal, right?

Not so fast. The French daily Le Figaro published this bit which last week reported, as translated by Google:

The U.S. President has just sent a letter "very sympathetic" to Jacques Chirac, in the words of the latter. "I am confident that we can over the next four years working together in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world," writes the successor to George W. Bush's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy [sic]. In mentioning the word "peace," Obama makes implicit tribute to the action of the former French president who opposed the war in Iraq. A U.S. intervention against which the future U.S. president had opposed as a senator, in a vote in Congress.

For those inclined to say this is much ado about nothing, consider the indignant reactions from Obama's disciples if Sarkozy were to tell Bush how much he looked forward to working with Bush to address their common global concerns. One might think that was bad diplomacy.

It would have been far more appropriate for Obama to reply to Chirac by wishing him well in his foundation's endeavors, stating the United States' continued friendship with France, and leaving it at that. But that kind of sensible and diplomatic response shouldn't be expected from the amateurs who currently inhabit the White House.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

This is what happens when you let President Obama speak without a teleprompter.

Leno asked the president whether the White House bowling alley had been "burned and closed down" in light of Obama's gutter ball embarrassment on the campaign trail last year.

Obama replied, "No, no. I have been practicing . . . I bowled a 129."

The audience roared with laughter, and the late-night talk show host assured Obama "that's very good, Mr. President." To which Obama interjected, "It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something."

The audience laughed. But the White House didn't let the comment linger without clarification.

"The president made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics," White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters flying aboard Air Force One after the taping of the show, according to a transcript released by the White House. "He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world."

Gee, I can't imagine why anyone would think Obama was disparaging Special Olympics.

Maybe the Prez has been getting off-the-cuff speaking tips from Vice President Joe "Gaffe Attack" Biden.

Fabricating Make-Believe Moderate Extremists

I'm a couple days behind on this one, but really, does this kind of idiocy ever get old?

President Barack Obama says he hopes U.S. troops can identify moderate elements of the Taliban and move them toward reconciliation.

[ . . . ]

There may be opportunities to reach out to moderates in the Taliban, but the situation in Afghanistan is more complicated than the challenges the American military faced in Iraq, Obama said.

U.S. troops were able to persuade Sunni Muslim insurgents in Iraq to cooperate in some instances because they had been alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida terrorists.

What is needed here is a remedial lesson. Let's call it, "Taliban for Dummies."

The Taliban are, by definition, extremists, unlike Sunni Muslims, some (not all) of whom joined an insurgency not of their own making and then realized they had aligned themselves with something they didn't want to be a part of. So the analogy between Taliban and Sunni insurgents is flawed. A better analogy would be between the Taliban and the Nazis. Can you imagine Franklin Roosevelt talking about teaming up with "moderate Nazis?" Of course not, because there was no such thing.

It's almost as if Obama has fabricated a fantasy situation that he can handle, because he hasn't the faintest idea how to handle the situation that actually exists.

This guy needs help, and fast.

Not Only Can He Give Campaign Speeches, He's Really Good at Pointing Fingers Too

There's not other way to put it: Not only is our President a clueless amateur, but he's rude too.

If you’d dialed up the "Additional Issues" portion of the [WhiteHouse.gov] Web site’s "Agenda" section earlier this week, the entry on Hurricane Katrina would have left you with zero doubt about who was to blame for the governmental failure to respond to the storm: the Bush administration. "President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast," the section read...

The irony is that Obama seems intent on breaking as many campaign promises as he can in his first 100 days. Hey, even before the inauguration, he tossed aside the pledge to accept public campaing funds, and it turns out that was a mere taste of what was to come.

But the best part is this:

The economic stimulus signed by President Barack Obama will spread billions of dollars across the country to spruce up aging roads and bridges. But there's not a dime specifically dedicated to fixing leftover damage from Hurricane Katrina.

Barack Obama: Do as he says, not as he does.

Seeing the World through Rose-Colored Glasses (or These People Wouldn't Say "Shit" If They Had a Mouthful)

With the country at war abroad and on the brink of passing a domestic spending bill that big majorities of the public oppose, the Obama Administration is spending its time on a truly important matter: what to rename the war on terror. The main reason to do so in the first place is that George W. Bush coined the phrase, and if Bush said the sky was blue, Obama would avoid using that particular description too. The excuse, though, is that "war on terror" isn't accurate enough.

When asked about the "war on terror" phrase by CNN's Anderson Cooper, Obama said, "Well you know, I think it is very important for us to recognize that we have a battle or a war against some terrorist organizations … Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we're going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds."

This isn't just semantics; it's a shift in the essence of the fight. Obama thinks we're fighting against "some terrorist organizations," which misses the point that terrorists don't have to be very organized to be a threat to our security. But even ignoring that fact, it seems that Obama wants to set the tone for a kinder, gentler war.

"We're trying to come up with a phrase that better articulates a hopeful message," said one administration official involved in the discussions about terror terminology.

Because, you know, if we hope terrorists will stop wanting to kill us, they will.

I seem to recall that the last President who thought that using warmer, fuzzier words would help matters was Jimmy Carter. And for his naivete, he was rewarded with the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

In the wise words of Santayana, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The same fate waits those who remember but choose to ignore.

Do Any of These People Pay Their Taxes?*

It must be considered a form of stupidity for a chief executive to habitually nominate lawbreakers as cabinet officials or other high-level appointees, wouldn't you think?

First there was the curious case of Timothy Geithner, our newly confirmed Treasury Secretary, initially refused to pay self-employment taxes for which he was reimbursed while working for the International Monetary Fund. Only when audited by the Internal Revenue Service did he pay overdue taxes (but no interest or penalties) for 2003 and 2004. He ignored the 2001 and 2002 debt altogether until forced by appearances to pay up (again, sans interest or penalties) after Obama nominated him. (One Politico reader points out that because Geithner didn't pay those years until after the statute of limitations ran out, he may actually get the money back.)

Earlier this afternoon, Nancy Killefer pulled her nomination to be the nation's first "Chief Performance Officer" because of an apparent failure to pay some or all of the required payroll and/or unemployment taxes on her household staff.

Now we have the latest and greatest scandal, that of former Senator Tom Daschle, who was approximately the gazillionth Obama nominee/appointee to have been exposed as a tax cheat for failing to pay taxes on perks provided to him in a prior job. Daschle withdrew his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

You have to hand it to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, nominated to head the Department of Commerce. At least his downfall wasn't precipitated by tax evasion, just a grand jury investigation into his alleged role in a pay-to-play scandal.

But it does add to the questions about whether Obama keeps company with any ethical people at all. Perhaps being from Chicago, he doesn't think ethics are all that necessary.

*Tip of the hat to Glenn Reynolds, who asks this question on almost a daily basis.

Pot Calls Kettle Black

Brand new Vice President Joe Biden, a.k.a. The Gaffe Factory, yesterday poked some probably well-intentioned fun at Chief Justice John Roberts, whose now-famous flub of the Presidential oath of office threw President Barack Obama off stride at Tuesday's inauguration.

Today, after Mr. Obama praised his staffers as "an extraordinary collection of talent" who "inspire great confidence in me," the president asked his Number 2 if he wanted to administer the oath. "Am I doing this again?" Vice President Biden asked. A few minutes before, he had sworn in seven individuals who had been confirmed by the Senate to Cabinet and Cabinet-level posts.

"For the senior staff," Mr. Obama said.

"For the senior staff?" Biden repeated. "Alright."

Biden tried to get a copy of the oath to read to the senior staffers.

"My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts," Biden explained, prompting some laughter and groans from the audience.

The joke might have gone over better if Biden hadn't spent the better part of his political career trying to make verbal screw-ups an art form.