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A rant by Maynard

Today I listened to a bit of mainstream political television. I don’t normally do this, but I had no choice. I was visiting the elderly lady down the street, working to revive her computer. She somehow manages to tie her machine in knots every few days. While I was struggling with the tech stuff, she was watching “Hardball”-type shows, and I couldn’t help hearing them.

My gosh, that stuff is toxic! It drones on and on, with pissy little self-important people taking cheap shots at George Bush and fawning over all things Democrat. The topic-de-jour was that Bush, in addressing the Knesset, warned of the dangers of appeasement; a reference to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich Pact, under which Hitler was allowed to take a chunk out of Czechoslovakia in exchange for “peace in our time”. Mr. Obama, deciding this was all about him and taking umbrage, shot back:

“It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel,” Obama said in his statement. “Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what (Presidents) Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power—including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy—to pressure countries like Iran and Syria.”

This always bugs me, the suggestion that George Bush is the worst president ever, and does stupid things that no other president has done, and everything was rosy until Bush ruined it. Bush has simply been doing what every other president has done, which is wrestle with difficult long-term issues. Isn’t it interesting how these guys speak of Reagan and Nixon as role models, when in fact they excoriated Reagan and Nixon back when they were in power? Obama conveniently forgets that America fought in Vietnam while refusing to speak with China; only late in Nixon’s presidency did we finally get around to diplomatic relations. Nor did any of these presidents recognize or dialogue with Castro’s Cuba, in spite of the missile crisis. We talk when we can, we fight when we have to, we apply whatever leverage we have. We change directions when we see things go wrong. Bill Clinton was easygoing and let some problems build up; then along came 9/11 and George Bush decided to be more proactive.

So Obama’s supporters explained that Obama wasn’t “appeasing” Iran the way Chamberlain appeased Hitler. The situations, they told us, weren’t parallel, since Hitler had been taking pieces of other countries, whereas Obama merely wanted to talk to Iran.

It seems to me there actually is a pretty good parallel between Nazi Germany and Iran. True, Iran hasn’t actually annexed foreign lands. But Hamas and Hezbollah are Iran’s surrogate armies, and are illegally controlling Gaza and southern Lebanon. The international community has basically winked and nodded at Iran’s bloody expansionism, much as it once winked and nodded at Hitler.

I’m not going to lay out a strategy on how to handle Iran, because I don’t know what to do. But I do know that Iran has been a long-term problem ever since Jimmy Carter let the mad mullahs take over. If George Bush hasn’t been able to solve it, neither has anybody else. So again, Obama is taking a cheap shot here, and his smooth delivery makes it sound as if he knows what he’s talking about, when in fact he’s got nothing but a slogan.

Of course, all politicians give us slogans. We’ve got to examine their track records, which may give a clue as to what they’ll actually do. Unfortunately, Obama doesn’t have much of a track record, other than his long stint in his hatemongering church under the tutelage of his paranoid “uncle”…an association that should have been damning enough to disqualify any ordinary candidate. And this brings to mind a couple of pictures you’ll recognize from recent months.

On the left, you see Obama wearing Somali tribal robes, taken during his travels in 2006. I don’t regard this pose as necessarily being, in itself, unforgiveable. We can allow a certain leeway for one who, when in Rome, does as the Roman does. But we also expect a presidential candidate to be American in his heart. To love this country above all other countries. It’s nice that Obama pays his respects to foreign hosts. So how about, when in America, you do as the Americans do? That gonad-grabbing move during the National Anthem conveys a message that doesn’t sit right. (For the record, the hand-over-heart is not simply an American Anthem/baseball custom, it’s the law. As a senator, Obama knows this.)

Likewise, Obama told us why he stopped wearing a flag pin:

You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.

So he’s sending a message by not showing the flag. And this is a man whose outspoken wife has never been proud of America, and whose church damns America. Again, these are messages that don’t sit right; especially from a man who is anxious to appease, I mean dialogue with, the biggest murderers and scoundrels on the planet.

Rather weirdly, within the last 24 hours, the lapel flag suddenly appeared on Obama’s collar. Has he had a change of heart? No, I think it’s a trick. My guess is that, the next time Obama forgets how many states there are, he can look down and count the stars before he makes a fool of himself.