To Mr. Obama’s critics, the disparity between the president’s previous statements and today’s reality reflects not simply poorly chosen words but a fundamentally misguided view of the world. Rather than clearly see the persistent dangers as the United States approaches the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, they said, Mr. Obama perpetually imagines a world as he wishes it were.Baker dutifully trots out the President's apologists' viewpoints defending what he said, and then debunks their defense.
Journalistic organizations like PolitiFact, Factcheck.org and The Washington Post’s Fact Checker all rejected the contention that Mr. Obama was not referring to ISIS when he made his comment about JV teams.Baker concludes by quoting Aaron David Miller, retired State Department Middle East expert, on the likelihood that the President's speech tomorrow night will quell concerns:
Presidents rarely persuade through speeches, unless the words are rooted in context that seems real and credible. Obama has a problem in this regard because his rhetoric has often gone beyond his capacity to deliver, especially on Syria.Sadly, it's not just on Syria. Obama's announcement that our military was “leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq with a representative government” looks completely lame today. Iraq is demonstrably not sovereign, not stable, not self-reliant, and its government does not represent all Iraqis.
President Reagan would have said of President Obama, "There you go again."
