Henninger: The Laurel and Hardy Presidency After writing in the London Telegraph that Monday was "the worst day for U.S. and wider Western diplomacy since records began," former British ambassador Charles Crawford asked simply: "How has this happened?" On the answer, opinions might differ. Or maybe not. A consensus assessment of the past week's events could easily form around Oliver Hardy's famous lament to the compulsive bumbler Stan Laurel: "Here's another nice mess you've gotten us into!" In the interplay between Barack Obama and John Kerry, it's not obvious which one is Laurel and which one is Hardy. But diplomatic slapstick is not funny. No one wants to live in a Laurel and Hardy presidency. In a Laurel and Hardy presidency, red lines vanish, shots across the bow are word balloons, and a display of U.S. power with the whole world watching is going to be "unbelievably small." The past week was a perfect storm of American malfunction. Colliding at the center of a serious foreign-policy crisis was Barack Obama's manifest skills deficit, conservative animosity toward Mr. Obama, Republican distrust of his leadership, and the reflexive opportunism of politicians from Washington to Moscow. It is Barack Obama's impulse to make himself and whatever is in his head the center of attention. By now, we are used to it. But this week he turned himself, the presidency and the United States into a spectacle. We were alternately shocked and agog at these events. Now the sobering-up has to begin. The world has effectively lost its nominal leader, the U.S. president....
that is all bs ladies & gents. the truth is americans pulled back because realised this time will not be walk in the park (or maybe need more time to regroup) Obama/putin is just for masses to look wrong direction.
Obamaâs âunbelievably smallâ presidency By Marc A. Thiessen, Monday, September 16, 10:16 AM If you have any doubts that President Obamaâs handling of Syria is an utter debacle, witness the embarrassing spectacle this morning as his top aides scramble to place blame for it at their bossâs feet. In todayâs Wall Street Journal, senior officials leak how they desperately tried to talk Obama out of his âhead-spinning reversalâ on airstrikes and his decision to go to Congress. âHe received swift â and negative â responses from his staff,â the Journal reports. National security adviser Susan Rice, we learn, warned that âhe risked undermining his powers as commander in chief.â Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel âalso raised concerns.â But Obama ignored their advice and âtook the gamble anyway.â... http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...1838ca-1ed3-11e3-94a2-6c66b668ea55_story.html