Greasing the doorways

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on July 23, 2008

Occasionally I'll come across someone who's boasting about this or that and I'll say, jokingly, that I'm going to go and grease the doorway so we can get their ego out the door.

I'm not sure there's enough grease in the world for Sen. Barack Obama. From an interview with CBS News' Lara Logan:

Logan: "Okay, last question: There is a perception that you lack experience in world affairs."

Obama: "Right."

Logan: "Is this trip partly aimed at overcoming that concern, that, you know, there are doubts among some Americans that you could lead the country at war as commander in chief from day one?"

Obama: "You know, the interesting thing is that the people who are very experienced in foreign affairs, I don't think have those thoughts. The troops that I've been meeting with over the last several days, they don't seem to have those doubts. The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years.

"It's important for me to have a relationship with them early, that I start listening to them now, getting a sense of what their interests and concerns are, because one of the shifts in foreign policy that I want to execute as president is giving the world a clear message that America intends to continue to show leadership, but our style of leadership is going to be less unilateral, that we're going to see our role as building partnerships around the world that are of mutual interest to the parties involved. And I think this gives me a head start in that process."

Logan: "Do you have any doubts?"

Obama: "Never."

Never?

And liberals yell and scream about how George W. Bush is so sure of himself and he never admits he's wrong... Bush is a piker compared to Obama -- who has even less experience than Bush had before running for office.

And about never admitting you are wrong, here's Obama with ABC News' Terry Moran:

So far this month, five U.S. troops have been killed in combat, compared with 78 U.S. deaths last July. Attacks across the country are down more than 80 percent. Still, when asked if knowing what he knows now, he would support the surge, the senator said no.

"These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult," he said. "Hindsight is 20/20. But I think that what I am absolutely convinced of is, at that time, we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with, and one that I continue to disagree with -- is to look narrowly at Iraq and not focus on these broader issues."

Of course, if hindsight is 20/20, then in hindsight you change your position. For Obama, hindsight isn't 20/20. Once again, if stubbornness is one of President George W. Bush's flaws, then Obama has the same thing in spades.

How ideologically blinkered do you have to be to answer this question the way Obama did?

0 comments on “Greasing the doorways”

  1. The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years.

    8-10 years? Even if you count the fact that IF

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