Sen. John Kerry’s attempt to block Sen. Jim DeMint from going to Honduras to get a bird’s-eye view of the results of Obama pro-Zelaya policy (and to bully DeMint into lifting his hold on two State Department nominees) shows just how defensive the Democrats have become. Kerry’s scheme didn’t work (DeMint is going anyway) and DeMint made his point: the Obama policy is in utter disarray.

On the Olympics humiliation, Ben Smith figured it out: “There’s a reason the president is rarely dispatched to a summit whose outcome is uncertain.” There was no one in the White House who did in this case, however.

The David Axelrod whines about “politics” at the IOC. Hmm. Is he saying the president lacks political skills or that the whole thing was rigged (and therefore the president risked his prestige for nothing)? Sometimes, in a first-class political train wreck, it’s better to keep quiet.

Newt Gingrich piles on.

Josh Gerstein asks, “What was he thinking?” It’s the incompetency that’s really jaw-dropping: “Many political pros said they wouldn’t even consider letting Obama put his prestige, popularity and time on the line to go to Copenhagen unless he thought Chicago was a lock, or a near-lock.”

Larry J. Sabato has a point: Shouldn’t someone important get fired over the Olympics debacle? “Let me get this straight. The White House puts a new President’s prestige on the line, flies POTUS, the First Lady, and half of the administration to Europe to underline the importance of the gambit—and then Chicago finishes fourth—dead last—in the Olympics voting? Will anyone’s head roll for causing Obama this acute embarrassment on the international stage?”

Fred Barnes thinks the mainstream media is on the spot, too: “The thriller in Copenhagen was not just a test of Obama. It’s a test of the media’s willingness to cover the president professionally and honestly when he stumbles. A love affair with a president should have its limits.”

The Foreign Policy Initiative generates an impressive list of signatories (including some noteworthy Democrats) for a letter to the president urging him to cushion the blow to our Central European allies delivered by his decision to yank certain missile-defense facilities. They suggest placing land-based SM-3 missile-defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, leaving “the door open to deploying Ground Based Interceptors should a long-range missile threat from Iran materialize sooner than you anticipate,” and moving ahead promptly with the planned deployment of a U.S. Patriot battery in Poland. They write: “Though the signatories of this bipartisan letter have varying views on the merits of your administration’s proposed missile defense architecture for Europe, we are united in our concern about the effect that even the perception of U.S. disengagement from Central Europe could have on our allies in the region.”

Obama calls the unemployment numbers a “sobering reminder.” Yes, it is. And here’s a handy and sobering chart to help remind us of what Obama promised.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 7:15 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.