Apology Tour

One of Mitt Romney's more powerful ads: 

And it should play well, given the growing public opposition to Obama's policy of appeasement.

Former Obama Advisor: Our Foreign Policy Is A Mess — Especially In The Middle East

Via Hot Air:  

Despite some successes large and small, Obama’s foreign policy has disappointed many who initially supported him. The Middle East initiatives heralded in his 2009 Cairo speech fizzled or never got started at all, and the Middle East today is more volatile than ever. The administration’s response to the escalating violence in Syria has consisted mostly of anxious thumb-twiddling. The Israelis and the Palestinians are both furious at us. In Afghanistan, Obama lost faith in his own strategy: he never fought to fully resource it, and now we’re searching for a way to leave without condemning the Afghans to endless civil war. In Pakistan, years of throwing money in the military’s direction have bought little cooperation and less love.

The Russians want to reset the reset, neither the Chinese nor anyone else can figure out what, if anything, the “pivot to Asia” really means, and Latin America and Africa continue to be mostly ignored, along with global issues such as climate change. Meanwhile, the administration’s expanding drone campaign suggests a counterterrorism strategy that has completely lost its bearings – we no longer seem very clear on who we need to kill or why.

Read the whole thing . . . and then look forward to Monday's foreign policy debate.

Our Feckless First Leader

Thomas Sowell: 

During the same week when the American ambassador to Libya was murdered and his dead body dragged through the streets by celebrating mobs, the president of the United States found time to go on the David Letterman show to demonstrate his sense of humor and how cool he is.

But Barack Obama did not have time to meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of a nation repeatedly threatened with annihilation by Iranian leaders who are working feverishly toward the creation of nuclear bombs.

This was an extraordinary thing in itself, something that probably no other president of the United States could have gotten away with without raising a firestorm of criticisms and denunciations. But much of the media sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil when it comes to Barack Obama — especially during an election year.

Read the whole thing.

Smart Diplomacy

Obama had no time to meet with Netanyahu (apparently he needed a siesta), but Romney will be speaking with him today.

Smart Diplomacy

Via Hot Air:  NYT - Obama overruled Hillary Clinton, foreign-policy advisers on Mubarak.

It goes on - "The tensions between Mr. Obama and the Gulf states, both American and Arab diplomats say, derive from an Obama character trait: he has not built many personal relationships with foreign leaders. 'He’s not good with personal relationships; that’s not what interests him,' said one United States diplomat. 'But in the Middle East, those relationships are essential. The lack of them deprives D.C. of the ability to influence leadership decisions.'"

"Bumps in the Road"

That's how Obama described the attacks on America's embassies and the first killing of an American ambassador since 1979.

Obama Damns Israel With Faint Praise

Obama refers to Israel as "one of our closest allies in the region," which leads Paul Mirengoff to ask, "Who ... are the other countries in the Middle East that Obama considers U.S. allies on a par with Israel?"

Read for still more on Obama's dismissive attitude towards Israel.

Even Obama Can't Be This Weak/Incompetent. Can He?

Pat Dollard:

The U.S. State Department is currently in negotiations with the Egyptian government for the transfer of custody of Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as “the Blind Sheikh,” for humanitarian and health reasons, a source close to the the Obama administration told TheBlaze . . . . The Blind Sheikh is serving a life sentence in American prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His release has been called one of the top priorities of the new Islamist administration in Egypt.

"So, on a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a U.S. ambassador through the streets."

"Then the president flies to Vegas for a fundraiser. No, no, a novelist would say; that's too pat, too neat in its symbolic contrast."

Obama Flashback

Audio via Breitbart.com:

I truly believe that the day I’m inaugurated…the whole world looks at America differently. If I’m reaching out to the Muslim world they understand that I’ve lived in a Muslim country…I understand their point of view….And that will ultimately make us safer.”

 

—Barack Obama, November 21, 2007

He understands their opposition to free speech.

Why Barack Obama Should Resign

Glenn Reynolds:  This is what it looked like for a man who made a film that made the Obama Administration uncomfortable:

 

 

 

Read the whole thing.  I repeat. Read the whole thing.  This is not what freedom looks like.

Thanks to Google . . .

a corporation, with stronger free-speech values than the United States government is willing to support.

Why We Need The First Amendment

Michael Totten:  Why can't the President of the United States bring himself to defend free speech in front of a murderous mob? Because apparently he doesn't respect it.

This past week has proven that to be true of many on the left.

Flashback: Presidential Candidate Uses War Deaths To Score Political Points

Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Remember that time when a major-party presidential nominee went on television immediately after the deaths of several Americans abroad to attack the policies of the current administration and his opponent? Remember how the media repeatedly demanded to know whether he regretted the timing of that criticism, and whether he was ashamed at not providing a united political front in the face of tragedy?

Yeah, neither do I … and neither does Andrew Kaczynski at BuzzFeed. This CNN interview took place in July 2008, immediately after the deaths of nine US troops in Afghanistan.

Mitt Romney Hates Naked People!

Michael Ramirez

Pro-Obama media — so far beyond bad it’s almost indescribable.

Jacobson: 

An American Ambassador and three American security guards were butchered, anti-American riots broke out across the Middle East, a U.S. Embassy both before and after being stormed issued apologies for the exercise of our constitutional rights, our Secretary of State practically prostrated herself, the President had a good night’s sleep through it all and then went to Vegas for a fundraiser, and Mitt Romney commented intelligently on the absurdity of it all.

So on whom did the media collectively and in unison lash out? Mitt Romney.

Read the whole thing.  Every time I think the legacy media can sink no lower, they manage to exceed my expectations.

America "Was Warned of Embassy Attack But Did Nothing"

The latest headline from Drudge:  "According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and "lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted."

Maybe if the President actually attended his intel briefings?

Perhaps, If We Had A Independent, Non-Biased Media

Shouldn’t the president’s failure to attend intelligence briefings be getting more media coverage?

Media Attack Dogs Working As a Pack

Media caught on open mic coordinating Romney questions.

Plus:  Administration officials confirm Romney was right, that statement from the Cairo embassy was awful

Update:  "How the media turned Obama's foreign policy bungle into a Romney gaffe."  A key point -

In 2004, John Kerry routinely attacked President Bush's handling of Iraq when things weren't going well in the country. And the media dutifully reported on Bush's foreign policy blunders in Iraq. But now, instead of scrutinizing Obama's handling of a foreign policy crisis, the media has decided that the real story in Egypt and Libya is a Mitt Romney gaffe.

 

Messaging

While the Obama White House sought to disavow the apologetic stance taken by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Hillary Clinton reaffirmed it, stating: 

"The U.S. deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.  Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation."

Unless you are a "bitter clinger."