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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Oct.24, 2012/ 8 Mar-Cheshvan, 5773
The pettiness refuge
By
Jay Ambrose
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
President Barack Obama has a problem with foreign policy that's much the same as his problem with economic policy -- the state of things. The economy is in the worst recovery since World War II, the world is likewise a scary mess, and so maybe it wasn't surprising in a debate on foreign issues Monday night that Obama sought refuge in pettiness.
If the topic was something big and large, such as an agenda for peace, the president would snarl at Mitt Romney about something like how this Republican challenger didn't really want to save the American auto industry. Romney would try to correct him, Obama would interrupt, the debate would dissolve into accusations of untruthfulness, and Obama could then breathe easy. After all, can you imagine him answering Romney's remark about Russia walking away from a nuclear disarmament program?
It's true, you know. The Russian government said just this month that it was going to end a 20-year deal under which the United States has been disposing of its nuclear bombs. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has made it repeatedly clear that he longs for a return to the good, old Soviet days, went a step further by later directing a major military exercise in which unarmed missiles were launched.
Maybe Putin suspects growing U.S. weakness, and maybe he suspects it because of a couple of other matters Romney mentioned. One was a tour in which Obama went around parts of the world mentioning U.S. faults, apparently as a means of endearing us to others. Another was Obama telling Poland we would not install a missile defense system there to guard against Iranian or other attacks on Europe. Russia didn't like that proposed system, and the administration said OK, figuring Russia would then be more cooperative with us in the future. What we have gotten ourselves is a Stalin wannabe.
Romney pointed to other ways the world was out of whack these days, such as the seeming rise of jihadist activity, turmoil throughout the Middle East and Iran venturing ever nearer to attainment of nuclear weaponry. He suggested policies that could have worked better, but he did not propose anything more warlike than anything Obama himself stands for, despite leftist jitters that he's anxious to start something somewhere.
Obama was able to say some things are better now than they were when he took office. We are out of Iraq, for instance. He did not say that he pretty much followed the plan of George W. Bush in getting us out and he seemed to have forgotten that he did want to leave some forces there to help the Iraqis, even though the Iraqis wouldn't go along. Our presence could have made it less likely we would lose everything we fought for someday.
Both candidates were right that a strong economy is an important part of our national security, and Obama's problem is a simple one: His policies have been tested and failed. He thought, however, that he had Romney in a tough spot when he said the challenger did not want any government guarantees for the auto industry when it was suffering badly. In fact, Romney had written a New York Times opinion piece in November 2008 saying at the end that the "federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk."
Maybe, some researchers have said, that approach would not have worked, but it is not absolutely clear yet that the Obama-engineered bankruptcy and bailout will work, either. In an online Forbes magazine article, Louis Woodhill writes that General Motors is losing market share and could face bankruptcy again. It may well be that a leaner, meaner GM envisioned by Romney would be doing a lot better right now.
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Jay Ambrose, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard newspapers and the editor of dailies in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, is a columnist living in Colorado.
Previously:
• 10/18/12: An interruption that tells a bigger tale
• 10/17/12: A recovery that wasn't
• 10/12/12: Big Bird squabble points to something real
• 10/11/12: The 'war' you don't hear about --- the one on average Americans
• 08/22/12: Obama leadership: Romney's returns trump road to recovery
• 08/15/12: Saving Medicare the Ryan way
• 08/01/12: Combatting free speech
• 07/25/12: Good and bad reactions to Colorado horror
• 07/18/12: Apology time for Obama
• 07/16/12: Free markets solve climate change threats
• 07/11/12: Humans and particles and those who would order them
• 07/06/12: Why we'll miss Andy Griffith
• 07/05/12: All will feel Affordable Care Act's bite
• 07/02/12: A social solution --- homes with dads
• 06/27/12: Being a 'nation of immigrants' is not an excuse
• 06/20/12: Barack Obama the autocrat
• 06/18/12: Bradbury's lessons for today
• 06/13/12: Should this leaking administration sink?
• 06/11/12: Simpson bashes back on reform
• 06/05/12: Legalize sugary drinks, ban dangerous drugs
• 06/04/12: Keep America from going Greek
• 06/01/12: Don't believe in Obama's fairy tales
• 05/30/12: Writing a book? Beats prison
• 05/23/12: Student loans fail students
• 05/21/12: Europeanizing America into crisis
• 05/16/12: Obama a bully, too
• 05/15/12: Walker recall vote could swing national pension policy
• 05/07/12: Bumbling, fumbling, benighted, old Washington near tipping point where freedom is done for
• 05/02/12: The Communists cannot be happy
• 04/30/12: There's no objective truth, least of all concerning behavior
• 04/25/12: Forgive the extremist?
• 04/23/12: Educational excellence is a game
• 04/18/12: Obama's interventions help a few by the most autocratic, complicated, ineffective means possible, yet hurt many more
• 04/16/12: Overregulation strikes again: The nanny state threatens to turn us into children
• 04/11/12: Obama is not bonkers
• 04/04/12: Will America vote against authoritarianism?
• 04/02/12: 'Tipping point' on federal restraint approaches
• 03/28/12: Obama truth from an open mike
• 03/21/12: The progressive campaign for voter fraud
• 03/19/12: Public pensions will get us if we don't watch out
• 03/14/12: Politics needs reporting, not speculation
• 03/12/12: Home of the free, the brave, the endangered
• 03/07/12: Obama used Limbaugh as scapegoat
• 03/05/12: Campaign substance lost in media melodrama
• 03/01/12: When Big Brother drowns
• 02/24/12: Obama goes gaseous on gas
• 02/22/12: Political tears for trust in personal empowerment --- except in the bedroom
• 02/17/12: Of cut-off ears and silenced mouths
• 02/15/12: Obama is a joke whose antics aren't funny
• 02/10/12: An energy boom looms, despite Obama
• 02/08/12: Obama's assault on faith
• 02/03/12: Can Romney get serious?
• 01/27/12: Obama is like an Italian ship captain
• 01/25/12: Newt Gingrich's first 100 days
• 01/20/12: Obama's Keystone pipeline lies
• 01/18/12: Critics worse than urinating Marines
• 01/13/12: Ron Paul is a cartoonish character
• 01/11/12: Newt Gingrich upset by Mitt Romney's brilliance
• 01/09/12: How about regulating presidents, too?
• 01/04/12: How America smothers itself
• 12/30/11: A tax break that helps break the nation
• 12/28/11: Watch out for the banana peel, Newt
• 12/21/11: A tale of two men
• 12/16/11: Strange happenings in Russia
• 12/14/11: Tim Tebow is a man of character
• 12/09/11: A populist, envy-mongering fraud divisively exacerbating resentment among different groups of Americans
• 12/07/11: Tax games threaten nation
• 12/05/11: Why Wal-Mart serves us better than Barney Frank
• 11/30/11: Not writing off Newt
• 11/28/11: Answers to the Iranian threat
• 11/23/11: Failure of the incumbency investment
• 11/18/11: Occupiers: Chop off their heads!
• 11/16/11: Obama asks jobless to sacrifice
• 11/09/11: Michael Moore's insufferable occupation
• 11/04/11: Political tipping point is coming
• 11/02/11: Idealogues versus 7 billion
• 10/28/11: Obama games on student loans
• 10/26/11: Wit and quick moves v. humanity and thoroughgoing honesty? It's no contest - or at least shouldn't be
• 10/07/11: Baptists, bootleggers and Wall Street protesters
• 10/05/11: Federal law will get you even if you watch out
• 09/28/11: Leftist bugbears on the march
• 09/23/11: Still hope for coal to help us
• 09/21/11: Obama's Madoff ploy
• 09/19/11: U.S. can't afford to wait until it happens
• 09/14/11: Defending -- and strengthening -- gung ho collectivism
• 09/12/11: A pipeline to better times
• 09/08/11: Obama just keeps destroying jobs
• 09/06/11: Ultra-feminists thwarting justice
• 08/31/11: Corporations are people? Yes, Count the ways
• 08/26/11: What an earthquake tells us about debt
• 08/25/11: The tyranny of scientific consensus
• 08/23/11: Fracking hardly a public health threat
• 08/17/11: Why Obamacare won't control births
• 08/15/11: Balanced budget amendment unbalanced idea
• 08/10/11: Kerry's war on citizen speech
• 08/05/11: Upside to the compromise leaving the door open for obnoxious maneuvers
• 08/03/11: The people who may save America
• 07/29/11: On making deals, Obama is no LBJ
• 07/27/11: The threat behind the debt
• 07/23/11: Mean opposition to means-testing
• 07/20/11: Leftist babble makes debt crisis even worse
• 07/18/11: Time to raise demagoguery ceiling
• 07/13/11: Obama treating treaties badly
• 07/08/11: Is decline of U.S. exaggerated?
• 07/05/11: Not math deficiency, but demagoguery
© 2011, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
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