The New York Times‘ Ross Douthat has really been bird-dogging President Obama’s speeches and actions with regards to our latest adventure. So much so, that if Libya hadn’t happened, one wonders what he’d be writing about.
Being the Times‘ token conservative voice, he writes in measured, serious tones: In today’s blog-ed entitled, “The President’s Credibility Gap“, there is no talk about impeachment, no call to man the bongo drums or bring the stilt puppets out of the basement. Just thoughtful analysis:
Does it matter that Obama’s words don’t really seem to match his administration’s actions? There’s an argument that it doesn’t, advanced by Stephen Walt and Kevin Drum among others. “In the end,” Drum suggests, “Obama will be judged on whether his approach works,” rather what he says or doesn’t say about it. Likewise Walt: “Because this was clearly a war of choice, what matters is not the justification that he provided for it or the ways he attempted to assuage concerns about possible precedents … What matters is what actually happens in Libya over the next few weeks or months.”
Now in the broad sense it’s true that nothing matters in warmaking as much as the outcome. But if and when things do go wrong in war — or if and when they turn messy and long-running and inconclusive, as seems all too likely in this case — it usually goes harder on politicians if they’ve been less than honest about the nature and scope of the conflict, what the risks might be, and how deeply the United States is willing to commit itself.
This.
As Wretchard (Richard Fernandez) headlined over at Belmont Club
in re ALL of Obama’s actions in Libya in a post “We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges…” Obama is proving once again that “It is Good to be King.” Not only did Obama not go to Congress; he has signaled that he has NO INTENTION of EVER going to Congress on this matter. And don’t talk to me of the Wr Powers Act, because that ONLY applies if the United States or it’s agents are DIRECTLY attacked. No what we have here is a TRUE “Imperial Presidency” that Raoul Berger and all the Dims were so lathered up about during the Nixon Administration. Nixon was a piker. How many Czars did HE have. With Obama I’ve lost count or these appointed supra cabinet-level political fixers, the ones under the Obama Admin with the real power to make departmental policy. As “Cold Fury” noted yesterday at his place, Obama is winning on all fronts both Foreign and domestic. He is doing TOTALLY as he pleases in all dimensions. Go read the 30 Mar Cold Fury post (scroll down) by Mike titled: “Depends on What You Mean by Failure” @
http://coldfury.com/
War of choice, indeed. Since the UN and NATO blessed it, the action in Libya passed that “global test” he mentioned during the debates. Reminds me of decision-making in the 5-sided wind tunnel. Never make a call if you can get a committee to make it for you. If things go well, you can take credit. If they go Tango Uniform, you can blame the stupid committee.