Obama Waffles on Global Security

Obama Global Security Building Blocks

Along with opposing views from former President Jimmy Carter's meeting to show support of Hamas officials and Senator Hillary Clinton's tough talk to a new level in an ABC News interview, saying she would destroy Iran if it ever launched a nuclear attack against Israel saying, "We would be able to totally obliterate them," Obama's testy reaction to a reporter's breakfast interruption on the 2008 Presidential campaign trail exposed a raw sore spot in the future President's world view of Hamas and Islamic terrorism. 

Marking the final day of campaigning before the April, 2008 Pennsylvania primary Sen. Barack Obama was meeting with voters at Glider's Diner, in Scranton, Pa., Obama would not let a reporter's question come between him and his breakfast plate.

Asked to offer comments on the former President Jimmy Carter meeting with Hamas officials, the senator replied sternly, "Why can't I just eat my waffle?"

The reporter repeated the question. Obama took a bite into a butter-smothered oversize Belgian waffle, and said - this time with a wink - "Just let me eat my waffle."

I think anyone listening could hear that Obama had 'waffled' by not answering that very telling question. By leaving conjecture open about what would be his real world view of combating Hamas and Islamic terrorism, Obama was side-stepping that issue not to mention his own radical strategic views favoring Muslim slants which could cost him votes too. 

Senator Obama during the campaign off-handedly mentioned his true views saying, “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a [flag] pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest…” A firestorm erupted and Obama doing an immediate about-face began wearing his U.S. flag pin again! [You think 'lost votes' came to his mind?]

Editorials loudly voiced similar comments like "The premise of the senator’s explanation is, however, a familiar one: that speaking out, as he has done against the war, is “true patriotism.” Certainly dissent is important, and it’s both the right and the privilege of all Americans. However, equating it [dissent] with true patriotism is like comparing dating with a good marriage." [I guess there is no substitute for the real thing for a meaningful, lasting relationship.]

As President for nearly six years, Barack Obama and his top aides believe they are putting in place a new global security structure that will frame international relations for decades. However, every day brings a narrative questioning their own White House's confidence in its long-term strategy with the daily chaos playing out from the Ukraine to the Middle East. This Obama presidential disconnect is reflected in his declining poll ratings too. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on August 4, 2014 shows American approval of the Obama foreign-policy record is at a new low of 36%. Sad. Over two thirds of Americans disapprove of it now. 

"Mr. Obama appears increasingly frustrated with his inability to tamp down the notion that American influence has waned on his watch, which some critics of his foreign policy say is evidenced by the confluence of crises."