Am I Really Going to Have to Agree with Sarah Palin?

Turns out pigs are flying.   I never thought I would see the day when I would be agreeing with Sarah Palin on geopolitics.  Turns out she's actually right on Egypt and Libya.

Apparently President Obama can’t see Egypt and Libya from his house. On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks ever perpetrated on America, our embassy in Cairo and our consulate in Benghazi were attacked by violent Islamic mobs. In Cairo, they scaled the walls of our embassy, destroyed our flag, and replaced it with a black Islamic banner. In Benghazi, the armed gunmen set fire to our consulate and killed an American staff member. The Islamic radicals claim that these attacks are in protest to some film criticizing Islam. In response to this, the U.S. embassy in Cairo issued a statement that was so outrageous many of us thought it must be a satire. The embassy actually apologized to the violent mob attacking us, and it even went so far as to chastise those who use free speech to “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.” (Funny, the current administration has no problem hurting the “religious feelings” of Catholics.) 

But where is the president’s statement about this? These countries represent his much touted “Arab Spring.” How’s that Arab Spring working out for us now? Have we received an apology yet from our “friends” in the Muslim Brotherhood for the assault on our embassy? 

It’s about time our president stood up for America and condemned these Islamic extremists. I realize there must be a lot on his mind these days – what with our economy’s abysmal jobless numbers and Moody’s new warning about yet another downgrade to our nation’s credit rating due to the current administration’s failure to come up with a credible deficit reduction plan. And, of course, he has a busy schedule – with all those rounds of golf, softball interviews with the “Pimp with the Limp,” and fundraising dinners with his corporate cronies. But our nation’s security should be of utmost importance to our Commander-in-chief. America can’t afford any more “leading from behind” in such a dangerous world. We already know that President Obama likes to “speak softly” to our enemies. If he doesn’t have a “big stick” to carry, maybe it’s time for him to grow one.

While I'm sure Sarah Palin wouldn't find a whole lot of friends among Catholics considering her religious views, she is absolutely on point with her foreign policy views.  We know it's election season, so it's probably not a good time for the administration to start making enemies.  That said, no reasonable person of any political affiliation would disagree that President Obama should have immediately condemned the embassy bombing.  But there wasn't even a written statement from him.  Another lost opportunity, and I'm not surprised.  Speaking of a lack of surprises, I'm not surprised about the Muslim reaction either, considering I didn't hear a whole lot of condemnation from them about 9/11 either.

That said I take issue with her clap-trap.  Firstly, we can do without the talking points of Obama's "failure to come up with a credible deficit reduction plan" despite facts showing the deficit has actually risen at a much slower rate than any other administration since Eisenhower (Ike.)  Furthermore Ms. Palin's misunderstanding of the financial system is betrayed by her comments about Moody's on their lowering of the US's credit worthiness rating.  She should have taken the opportunity to call them out too on that spectacular irony, considering their specific responsibility in the credit crisis.  After all, they offered investors overly optimistic ratings of CDO tranches that led to much of the economic crunch we are feeling.

Again, though her foreign policy sentiment is flawless.  I love that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR) famous line, "speak softly and carry a big stick."  FDR was a Democrat with vision, something the party has been lacking for many years now.