I love the sensibility offered by the origins of the term ‘pyrrhic victory’ - probably because it connects with my own hyper-developed sense of irony. From the Greek literary tradition, I also like how it tangentially connects to the eastern concept of ‘Karma’ – that is, what one does today sets in motion unseen ripple effects in one’s future.
BHO has created some really bad Karma this week, for the only thing he really cares about all, his re-election in 2012.
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For starters, after making the ‘gutsy’ decision almost no one would criticize, the week of celebrations exposed total incompetence in the most basic executive function – telling a consistent story.
On Wednesday, the Daily Caller gave us a thorough roundup of the inconsistencies to that date and a commentary with the perfect turn of phrase – victory lap in a clown car.
The follies continued, and on Saturday we had this wrap up from Michelle Malkin.
I mean, really, how hard is it to hold the internal meeting that ends with “that’s our story and we’re sticking to it”?
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Also damaging to BHO’s re-election prospects in the immediate aftermath of History’s Most Obvious ‘Gutsy’ Decision is what it revealed about his character, and the character of his Leftist fellow travelers.
Even the liberal operative Lanny Davis noted this character defect. It is the Left’s absolute unwillingness to give President Bush any credit whatsoever for putting into place the very policy framework that made BHO’s victory lap possible.
In the spirit of my humble little blog project - which might be summarized as “returning fire in kind” – I have created the following little graphic to more accurately summarize the reality. Earlier this week I had it in my “Snark U.” space with the caption ‘Giving Credit Where Credit is Due.’
The Powerline Blog performed a deeper examination of the ungracious ingratitude demonstrated by BHO and the Progressives.
The character defect of the Left that prevents them from acknowledging President Bush's contribution is: for them all things are political. This mindset leads them easily into fits of intellectual dishonesty that are sometimes tortuous, and often humorous, to watch. In this particular case, acknowledging the now obviously established fact the intelligence trail that led to UBL started with enhanced interrogation would run counter to one of their central political narratives of the past ten years – therefore it cannot be acknowledged and must be whitewashed. The hemming and hawing they are now forced into will have negative political effects for them that are perfectly captured by this Eric Allie cartoon.
BHO himself displayed this very character defect when unexpectedly confronted with the plain fact his administration is engaged in making life a living hell for the very CIA interrogators who made his Sunday night I-Me-My speech possible. When 9-11 family member Debra Burlingame asked him politely to consider dropping the politically motivated charges on these men, Barry petulantly dismissed her.
Taking on his Leftist base by ensuring this case gets dropped immediately – now that would be real political courage. Which is why you won’t see it from BHO.
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Also exposed in the discussions opened by Barry’s unseemly victory lap is the plain fact his administration has no idea what to do with enemy combatants captured in the War on Terror. This is why every mission is a kill mission – even for American citizens. (I love the line “[t]his week is the week we settle all family business” in the linked Hot Air article.)
The law enforcement centric policy they came into office with has been an abysmal failure, and they can’t fall back on it now for political reasons. They aren’t willing to use the interrogation or detention tools they inherited from the previous administration for political reasons. This means the loss of a vitally important intelligence capability. It also means this administration’s only option for every high value target is assassination. Including American citizens such as Anwar al-Awlaki – and I fault both the Bush and Obama administrations for failing to produce a due process for convicting this pig for treason.
Forthright discussion of these national security issues during the campaign will redound to the benefit of any candidate running against BHO that chooses to raise them.
Let’s hope the early reports that BHO and the Progressives plan to do just that are accurate.
Update 5/10/11
Speaking of bad Karma - the Agitator-In-Chief steps on his crank again while trawling for undocumented Democrat votes.
Update #2 5/10/2011
Just noticed the Karma thing connects to the family business thing because both connect to Michael Corleone. Man I'm Good, Just Ask Me (MIGJAM).
