The Great Mediator
[Guest post by DRJ]
Picking up where I started off this morning … with this post about President Obama and General Stanley McChrystal. There are a lot of good points here but I want to focus on President Obama. Clearly he will be unhappy that this makes him and his Administration look bad, but what President enjoys looking inept? The key is whether this will prompt him to change things and I don’t think it will.
Why? Because President Obama wants to be the Great Mediator. He may fire McChrystal but he won’t change his management style, which is to portray various views as extreme and claim the middle ground between those points for himself. He thrives on being the calm voice of reason floating above conflict but, as he did in the campaign, he sometimes takes this approach with Americans just because they disagree with him.
Moments like this show the downside of that approach.
— DRJ
The good General will be made road kill for Propeller Head and his Acolytes. All Hail Propeller Head and his vast intellect and even greater the goodness, dare say GODLINESS, of his intentions.
Good luck in the Private Sector General.
HeavenSent (a9126d) — 6/22/2010 @ 4:47 pmMeghan’s daddy didn’t waste any time before throwing the general under the bus. It was in the WSJ article Drudge linked *. Hima and Princess Lindsey both.
I cannot say the words.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 6/22/2010 @ 5:44 pm*Him* and Princess Lindsey both I mean.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 6/22/2010 @ 5:45 pmFeets: When you wrote *Hima*, I knew exactly who you meant. In fact, I shall evermore call the senior senator from AZ, Senator Hima.
Thanks
GaleH (4fbede) — 6/22/2010 @ 6:27 pmClearly he will be unhappy that this makes him and his Administration look bad
The irony is thick because the guy in the Oval Office is being snagged by one of his own—ie, a person apparently of left-leaning sentiments!
At least based on certain telling passages in the Rolling Stone article on McChrystal — eg, the guy’s non-conformist, anti-establishment mindset as a young man, his ho-hum reaction to his son’s “FU” non-conformity, his kum-bah-wah approach to military tactics — I’m not sure if it’s McChrystal or his boss (ie, the commander-in-chief — HA!) who is ticked off at the other for not being more “progressive” or not making “progressives” look better to both civilians and folks in the military.
Mark (411533) — 6/22/2010 @ 8:39 pmMcChrystal did nothing wrong. The most critical comments in the Rolling Stone article were made by others–and even those comments are mild, under the circumstances. How many lives will now be lost because the general is taking his eye off the mission, and flying across the world, to be lectured by that smarmy, incompetent community organizer who hasn’t served a day in uniform? Obama is a continuing embarrassment and disgrace. The idea that he is commanding brave and decent soldiers like McChrystal is stomach-churning.
Kevin Stafford (abdb87) — 6/23/2010 @ 4:52 amDRJ: “…what President enjoys looking inept?”
This one seems to. Can anybody show one thing Obama has done while President that a majority of the public expresses approval for? One thing?
Fred Beloit (8a1366) — 6/23/2010 @ 6:01 amHe’ll punt. It what he does.
Frank Drebbin (8096f2) — 6/23/2010 @ 8:08 am