"He needs to get some sleep and shut the hell up." Gov. Chris Christie, regarding Secretary of State Kerry's Comments in Paris, November, 2015
November 18, 2015
By: Linda Case Gibbons
You can always tell how much trouble our country is in, by how far away our president is.
This past week, Obama was in Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia.
I think we're in big trouble.
Every time the president hot-foots it out of the country, he does what he always does: Bash America in front of perfect strangers. This time was no exception.
As the world watched, stunned and saddened by events in Paris, the president and his secretary of state were as tactless as a couple of ingénues.
Obama's description of the tragedy was that it was, a "setback." Later he told fearful Americans, "Calm down," warning them about the dangers of giving in to fear.
It might well be that "All we have to fear is fear itself," but there are times when fear is appropriate.
After Paris and Mali, it looks like that time is now.
As for Kerry, he appeared at the U.S. embassy in Paris to comfort embassy staff and their families, then proceeded to clumsily think out loud.
He thought, he said, there was a kind of legitimacy to the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo in January, which made the latest attack on Paris "different."
"There was a rationale that you could attach yourself to, somehow, and say, okay, they're really angry because of this and that."
"This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate," Kerry said. "It wasn't to aggrieve one particular sense of wrong. It was to terrorize people."
Next day, as usual, he had to walk back his comments.
To Americans who were agonizing about the president's senseless determination to allow Syrian refugees into our country; to the more than thirty state governors who announced they would not take any of those refugees for reasons of national security, Obama's lack of leadership was front and center.
During a press conference in Turkey, it was painfully clear to the world who our president isn't, and whose side he isn't on.
Even his doting reporters had had enough. Uncharacteristically they pressed him for answers about ISIS.
Had he failed the U.S. on terrorism, mistakenly calling ISIS the "J.V." team?
Did he have a plan to defeat ISIS?
What about his duty to protect us?
Was what he was doing deliberate? Siding with Muslims, downplaying ISIS? Doing nothing is a plan, after all.
And finally, did he even care?
Characteristically, Obama snapped, in front of the world, and reverted to his petulant and snarky self, like the thin-skinned politico he is.
We can see why Putin mockingly called him "a child."
The ISIS attack in Paris called for swift action, and that's exactly what Putin and French President Hollande did, both leaders immediately sending planes to bomb ISIS' oil supplies.
Obama did nothing.
Much later, when Obama did send planes to bomb waiting oil trucks, he issued a 45-minute warning to ISIS, to save civilian lives, once again, getting the word "compassion" all wrong.
Was Obama furious this week? Yes. Not at ISIS, but at the press who dared ask him questions about what the heck he's doing.
Same story when he spoke in the Philippines and Malaysia.
This time he aimed his fury at Republicans and Democrats, who dared to challenge him about granting Syrian refugees entry into the U.S., and who dared to pass a bill to that end.
But no, he wasn't that mad at ISIS.
Even though reports surfaced that the Paris terrorists had used refugee status to infiltrate France, Obama doubled down on his plan to accept Syrian refugees, chiding the 55 percent of Americans who vehemently disapproved of the plan.
He chose to publicly ridicule Republicans, saying they were afraid of "widows and orphans," ignoring the fact that the suicide bomber who blew herself up in Paris was a woman, and a CNN documentary which showed three-year-olds ISIS children brandishing rifles.
Thinking he knew who we are, he told Americans, "That's not who we are."
Americans weren't buying it.
They been listening, and they heard the FBI, CIA and military leaders all agree that Obama is dead wrong about ISIS and refugees.
So, since Americans figured they were pretty much on their own, they came up with a half-serious solution: To memorize portions of the Koran, just in case, before heading out to the mall to do their Christmas shopping.
Plan B? They hoped that the head of the Gambino family, who offered help with ISIS, would come through, to assist America in the fight against Islamic terrorists, since their president will not.
Hold the line, America.