Inexplicable

Joe Klein has been a long time and ardent admirer of Barack Obama. But the recent Syrian debacle and the incoherent and unrealistic Middle Eastern policies of this president have him, along with a growing number of left-leaning pundits (Maureen Dowd, prominent among them) in a bit of a snit. Klein writes about Syria:

He [Obama] willingly jumped into a bear trap of his own creation. In the process, he has damaged his presidency and weakened the nation’s standing in the world. It has been one of the more stunning and inexplicable displays of presidential incompetence that I’ve ever witnessed.

Inexplicable? Seriously?

Those of us who took a realistic, fact-based look at Barack Obama in 2007 and again in 2011 would argue that the president's guard-rail to guard-rail actions of late coupled with an incoherent lose-lose "plan," are hardly inexplicable.

Barack Obama never had the background, the experience, the practical intelligence, or even a modicum of leadership ability to be President of the United States. But that didn't matter, as Americans got swept up in emotion, in 'hope and change,' in ... well ... the idea of the man. Sadly, the idea of the man never coincided with the reality of the man. And even worse, Barack Obama's hubris and narcissism do not allow him to learn from his mistakes. Even worse than that, his left-wing ideology blinds him to hard geopolitical facts and lead him to rely on fantasy (e.g., the Arab spring would lead to the liberal democratization of the Middle East).

To quote a commenter ("ETAB") at the Belmont Club Blog:

Think about it; people living in a fictional world are isolated in their words of 'If Only We Make Everyone Behave the Same, Then, we'll conquer reality. No. It has never been that way, no matter how much we hope and preach and tell our stories. Facts always trump fiction.

And the facts that we've all witnessed over the past decade, coupled with the harsh reality of Syria today, tell us that Barack Obama doesn't seem to have a clue. It embarrassing. It's also dangerous. It has "weakened the nation’s standing in the world." We have three more years of this. Elections do indeed have consequences.

Update
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And this comment from Jay Carney, the president's press secretary:

“[The American people] appreciate a president who doesn’t celebrate decisiveness for decisiveness’ sake.”

He then went on to tell the assembled press that Barack Obama is open to "new information" adapting his actions accordingly. Obama's trained hamsters in the press did not question the comment.

Hmmm. There an old Chris Rock riff in which he comments on men who say "I take care of my children"—as if that's something exceptional. Rock was not kind to people who make that statement.

I'd say the same holds for Carney's truly ridiculous comment. A leader is SUPPOSED to be decisive and he/she is SUPPOSED to adjust his/her actions based on new information. Suggesting that this is somehow an exceptional attribute for this president is embarrassingly laughable.