Obama's Ship is Sinking
By Michael Goodwin
NYPost.com
The rising clamor over the
beheading of two Americans, and rapidly sinking
polls, forced President Obama to reassure the nation
last week he had a plan to deal with the Islamic
State. He did some of what he had to do, but only
some, and so most military analysts believe the
expanded airstrikes will not be a sufficient match
for the size and weaponry of the terrorist army.
They miss the point. The disjointed speech wasn’t
really about terrorism and launching a new war. It
was about saving Obama’s presidency.
He is sinking fast and could soon pass the point of
no return. In fact, it may already be too late to
save the SS Obama.
The whole second term has been a string of
disasters, with the toxic brew of his ObamaCare
lies, middling economic growth and violent global
breakdown casting doubt on the president’s
stewardship. Six years into his tenure, nothing is
going as promised.
Earlier on, he could have trotted out his
teleprompters and turned public opinion his way, or
at least stopped the damage. But the magic of his
rhetoric is long gone, and not just because the
public has tuned him out.
They’ve tuned him out because they’ve made up their
minds about him. They no longer trust him and don’t
think he’s a good leader.
Most ominously, they feel less safe now than they
did when he took office. Americans know the war on
terror isn’t over, no matter what their president
claims.
Those findings turned up in a tsunami of recent
polls that amount to a public vote of no confidence.
They shook up the White House so much that the plan
to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants
was put on hold to try to protect Democratic
candidates from voter wrath in November.
That was a necessary tactical retreat, but it
doesn’t change the basic calculation. The
president’s problem is that he has been wrong about
virtually every major issue.
His worldview, his politics, his prejudices, his
habits — they’ve been a mismatch for the country and
its needs. He has been a dud even in the one area
where he seemed a lock to make things better, racial
relations. Only 10 percent believe race relations
have improved under him, while 35 percent said they
are worse, according to a New York Times survey. The
remainder said there wasn’t much change either way.
That’s shocking — but not surprising. Barack Obama
was not ready to be president, and still isn’t. It
is a fantasy to believe he’ll master the art in his
final two years.
The lasting image will be his yukking it up on the
golf course minutes after giving a perfunctory
speech on the beheading of James Foley. It revealed
him as hollow, both to America and the world, and
there is no way to un-see the emptiness.
That means, I fear, we are on the cusp of tragedy.
It is reasonable to assume the worst-case scenarios
about national security are growing increasingly
likely to occur.
Obama’s fecklessness is so unique that our
adversaries and enemies surely realize they will
never face a weaker president. They must assume the
next commander-in-chief will take a more muscular
approach to America’s interests and be more
determined to forge alliances than the estranged man
who occupies the Oval Office now.
So Vladimir Putin, Iran, China, the Islamic State,
al Qaeda and any number of other despots and
terrorists know they have two years to make their
moves and advance their interests, and that
resistance will be token, if there is any at all.
Throw in the fact that Europe largely has scrapped
its military might to pay for its welfare states,
and the entire West is a diminished, confused
opponent, ripe for the taking. Redrawn maps and
expanded spheres of influence could last for
generations.
Of course, there is a possibility that America could
rally around the president in a crisis, and there
would be many voices demanding just that. But a
national consensus requires a president who is able
to tap into a reservoir of good will and have his
leadership trusted.
That’s not the president we have.
Cuomo forced to turn and fight
News flash: Politicians are people, too. They change
direction when they feel pain.
Take Andrew Cuomo. His promise to join
general-election debates marks a change of behavior.
Pain made him do it.
Cuomo avoided talking to primary rival Zephyr
Teachout, and voters punished him. The turnout was
under 10 percent, of which he got 62 percent,
meaning he won the nomination with the backing of
just 6 percent of those eligible to vote.
Landslide? No! He won but emerged weaker, which
explains why the governor says he will debate
Republican Rob Astorino. He even promises “debates”
— plural.
The promise comes with an asterisk. Unclear is
whether Cuomo will agree to one-on-one showdowns
with Astorino, or insist on a Noah’s Ark of
minor-party candidates.
He’ll do the minimum he thinks he can get away with.
That’s where pain comes in, again.
If you want real, substantive debates about the
critical issues facing the Empire State, tell him.
Until it hurts.
Democrats’ praise for ‘the enemy’
Shhhh, don’t tell Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, but
New York Democrats are saying nice things about
David Koch.
Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler and a
sprinkling of city and state lawmakers joined Koch
to praise him for funding the renovation of the
plaza in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As Maloney made clear, she was endorsing Koch’s
philanthropy, not his conservative politics. “This
beautiful addition to the Met Museum exists because
of one man’s generosity,” she said.
The gift brings to about $1.3 billion what Koch has
given to charities, including Lincoln Center, the
American Museum of Natural History and medical
institutions New York-Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan
Kettering and the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Yet Senate Democrats, led by Reid and Schumer, have
called Koch and his brother Charles un-American and
accused them of trying to buy elections. The Koches’
great sin is to spend some of their money opposing
the Democratic agenda.
Reid, supported by Schumer, even tried to silence
them and curb their First Amendment rights by giving
government more power to limit political speech.
Fortunately, the effort failed.
As for the Dems who showed up to praise Koch, it
shouldn’t be noteworthy when pols put New York ahead
of their party. But it is, and that’s the real
disgrace.
Islamophobic? Try anti-Semitic
Liberals love to seize on any perceived anti-Muslim
bias to claim New York suffers from severe
Islamophobia, but official statistics show that Jews
suffer far more attacks.
The Post reports that anti-Semitic incidents jumped
35 percent so far this year, with 85 incidents
compared to 63 last year. The number of anti-Muslim
hate crimes was 15, compared to seven last year.
Some things never change.