Obama's Speech Tranquilizes Millions

As an Independent man, I have prided myself on not jumping on the "beat up on Obama" bandwagon. Tonight, I watched his speech and found myself brewing a pot of coffee. We're suppose to be inspired by that? Is there a test afterwords? I usually think Obama makes a pretty good speech, but to me this was one of the most boring, predictable speeches I've heard him make. It felt like a college lecture in an American Government class. The whole thing came off as a condescending lesson in world politics. He even felt the need to draw a comparison to a Libyan city as being as "big as Charlotte"... uh, ok.

I found it boring because it is so obvious he isn't happy with this situation he has found himself. Through the entire speech he was trying to connect the dots to his logic behind applying American pressure in Libya. I don't see the difference between Iraq and Libya (except I see more reasons to go into Iraq than Libya). To be honest, I would be more impressed if he had refused to commit American military action because at least then he'd be standing up for his well defined principles. He sure is singing a different tune now that he's calling the shots. That's what bugs me, he's saying "I'm opposed to this unless I'm cornered into it, and then I'm going to work up some logic that backs up my actions." The cart before horse, so to speak.

I think it may have helped if he had announced this strategy sooner than 1 week after our involvement started. The whole thing began and he decided to run down to Brazil and some other Latin American countries. I guess he needed to get away and clear his head (?). While down there, Mr. Obama FAILED to even get Brazil's approval for the Libyan air strikes and..... he's right there, in Brazil. All they had to do was mouth some bland approval and be done with it, but they didn't feel the need to make even that gesture. I mean, Brazil ? That's humiliating.

I've already written in a previous blog that I think we should be involved in this situation in Libya. I just think it's amusing that Obama is now making this argument when he had the exact opposite argument about Iraq.


In my humble opinion, Chuck Marshall