The Riddle of an Enigma
By Richard CohenIt can seem that at the heart of Barack Obama's foreign policy is no heart at all. It consists instead of a series of challenges -- of problems that need fixing, not wrongs that need to be righted. As Winston Churchill once said of a certain pudding, Obama's approach to foreign affairs lacks theme. So it seems does the man himself.
For instance, it's not clear that Obama is appalled by China's appalling human rights record. He seems hardly stirred about continued repression in Russia. He treats the Israelis and their various enemies as pests of equal moral standing. The president seems to stand foursquare for nothing much.
This, of course, is the Obama enigma: Who is this guy? What are his core beliefs? The president himself is no help on this score. When it comes to his own image, he has a tin ear. He hugely misunderstood what some people were saying when they demanded that he get angry over the Gulf oil catastrophe and the insult-to-injury statements of BP chief executive Tony Hayward. (Wayward Hayward, he should be called.)
By the way, Richard, here is what he is:
An elite academic leftist radical who is questioning his own ability to carry out what he wants, and whether his ideas placed in the framework of objective reality - WORK. Unfortunately he cares about this only to the extent that it affects him and his place in history. Add those together and you get - radical uncomprehending incompetence
5 comments:
For about a year, Cohen has been showing signs of souring on Obama.
Epa,
Have you taken a look at the comments at the WaPo article?
No but I will now, on RCP or the WaPo?
Okay I (mildly for me) put my .02 in at WaPo
Epa,
At the WaPo.
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