During a combination campaign and tax subsidized golf trip to California, Mr. Obama took time off to announce funding of $173 million in federal aid. Visiting a farm in Los Banos on February 14, 2014, he spoke of weather-related disasters that affected agricultural areas in Southern California. While he emphasized changing weather that is becoming more destructive, the President didn’t mention State and Federal policies that favor and enforce diverted water flows for the benefit of the Delta smelt.
In a speech in Upper Marlboro, Maryland on Tuesday February 18, announcing new fuel –economy rules, President Obama said, “Because what it means is, you’ve got to fill up every two weeks instead of one week, and that saves the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time.” Note that the saving is ‘over time’ not per year or any other period. The reason is that the $8,000 in fuel savings is as elusive as the $2,500 we were to save by the introduction of the misnamed Affordable Care Act. The President and his underlings have no vague idea how the average family is going to obtain $8,000 in fuel savings. The comment is simply a brain burp that attracts attention and elicits applause for appealing words now in hopes of notable results later.
In a White House speech to the press on August 20, 2012, the President put his foot down when he said, “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.” Speaking at a Swedish press conference two days later he recalled, “I didn’t set a red line, the world set a red line.”
As a reminder, Russian President Putin stepped in and agreed to dispose of the chemical weapons amid the conflict between Assad and rebel Syrian forces. One year and a day after Obama’s ‘red line’ speech in Washington, the Assad regime released deadly fumes in the Damascus suburbs resulting in the deaths of between 500 and 1,300 people of all ages.
. Recently in Munich, Secretary of State Kerry asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to speed up the removal of the chemical weapons in accord with prior agreements. Last reports suggest that about 4% of the chemical weapons had been removed.
Recently, Russia has been warming up the engines of its combat vehicles and testing the rotor blades on their attack helicopters in the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine. After surrounding airports and setting up armed checkpoints on important roads in the area, leaders in the free world became alarmed. German Chancellor Angela Merkle and British Prime Minister David Cameron contacted Moscow for explanations. President Obama said publicly that, “there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.”
The problem here, as Matt Spetalnick recounted in a Reuters report on February 20, 2014, “Obama’s choice of words evoked comparisons to the chemical weapons “red line” he established for Syrian President Bashar al Assad and then failed to enforce with military action last year, something critics say undermined U.S. credibility.”
Of course at the time Obama was speaking Russia had ALREADY invaded Ukraine. As Morgan Griffith is wont to say: “You can’t make this stuff up.”
The spin machines are running full tilt in the halls of government. But according to reports from around the country and around the world, our present leaders are becoming less respected and more suspect of spreading empty words and hollow promises in critical areas of domestic policy and international conflicts like Syria, Egypt and Ukraine.
It is becoming clear that the President believes that the clever use of trite words, false promises with handouts and a light sprinkling of resolve will beguile listeners into joining his chorus of concurrence. Words, actions and results must be linked. Distinguished political leaders are those who are clear, concise and committed in all things including foreign affairs as well as domestic policy.
– Dick Baynton
