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Bumblefutzing Through Foreign Policy

Pete Wehner is agog at how badly the president has handled the Syria crisis. Wehner sees Obama’s last-minute reversal and plan to seek Congressional support for his planned attack on Syria — support he doesn’t believe he needs as a legal matter — as a desperate political move: The president of the United States is […]

Pete Wehner is agog at how badly the president has handled the Syria crisis. Wehner sees Obama’s last-minute reversal and plan to seek Congressional support for his planned attack on Syria — support he doesn’t believe he needs as a legal matter — as a desperate political move:

The president of the United States is preparing in advance to shift the blame if his strike on Syria proves to be unpopular and ineffective. He’s furious about the box he’s placed himself in, he hates the ridicule he’s (rightly) incurring, but he doesn’t see any way out.

What he does see is a political (and geopolitical) disaster in the making. And so what is emerging is what comes most naturally to Mr. Obama: Blame shifting and blame sharing. Remember: the president doesn’t believe he needs congressional authorization to act. He’s ignored it before. He wants it now. For reasons of political survival. To put it another way: He wants the fingerprints of others on the failure in Syria.

Rarely has an American president joined so much cynicism with so much ineptitude.

 

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