by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n Contrast Recent Media Coverage<\/strong><\/p>\n The furor over Dick Cheney\u2019s past severed involvement with Halliburton \u2014 the meowing over Bush-critic, liberal icon, ex-diplomat Peter Galbraith\u2019s present, ongoing conflict-of-interest as profiteer and pundit\/advisor involving a multimillion-dollar oil scam in Kurdistan.<\/em><\/p>\n The son of share-the-wealth John K. Galbraith, Galbraith Minor barnstormed the air waves in the dark days of Iraq, in solemn tones predicting the end of Iraq, why Iraq must be trisected (e.g., giving the Kurds an independent country), and in general (in two books) predicting the end of constitutional Iraq. He ritually was slamming Bush, predicting ruin \u2014 all at a time when the U.S. was trying to reassure the Iraqis we supported the territorial integrity of their country and would not abandon them. Ok, fine, well and good, it\u2019s a free country, and pessimism is sometimes warranted.<\/p>\n But now we learn that a possible pay-off for opposing U.S. policy of Iraqi unity was a stake in a Kurdish oil field worth, according to some reports, a potential $100 million. (When did stone-faced diplomats and finger-in-the-wind pundits turn into Texas-style oil tycoons or Russian oilocrats?) Why did not Galbraith from the very beginning disclose his financial interests so that his readers, other diplomats, and those who consulted him might factor his profits into his prognoses?<\/p>\n (And what is it with these liberal utopians and money? Do they think their sniff\/sniff, aristocratic disdain for a dirty coin allows them to pile them away in the basement \u2014 couldn\u2019t Al Gore have made, to use a liberal trope, $10 million rather than a $100 million out of scaring the daylights out of Western suburban society? I think we are in the age of the solely symbolic: you buy the gas-guzzling Volvo SUV, but put an \u201cImpeach Bush!\u201d sticker on the back, or put a few solar panels on the roof tiles over the 10,000 square foot addition).<\/p>\n For all of Galbraith\u2019s sermonizing about the Bush disaster, the hopelessness in Iraq, etc. I think the only major politician to buy into his \u201cdivide Iraq into threes, give Kurdistan its autonomy, and me an interest in an oilfield\u201d line was, yes, Joe Biden.<\/p>\n Remember, after Biden was swearing that we should trisect Iraq, Obama inexplicably sent the VP over there to reassure the Iraqis of our commitment to their unity, sovereignty, and future (sort of like having Timothy Geithner oversee tax policy at Treasury or a Charles Rangel at Ways and Means).<\/p>\n The furor over the inept federal response to Katrina \u2014 the quiet about the current mess with the federal government\u2019s current swine flu vaccine.<\/em><\/p>\n I don\u2019t quite know to what degree, if at all, yet the federal government is culpable for the vaccine shortage, or why it was solely culpable for the Katrina mess, given that Mississippi\u2019s local and state response averted the sort of social chaos we saw in New Orleans under its mayor and the Louisiana governor.<\/p>\n I do know that had Bush been President during the current vaccine furor, and had Obama presided during Katrina \u2014 well, you can again fill in the blanks. (I just talked to two doctors who said the inability to get swine flu vaccine for staff, pregnant women, etc. was quite astounding, given the promised delivery dates).<\/p>\n The hysteria over the decisive decision to surge in 2006-7 \u2014 the \u2018reasoned\u2019 debate over the dithering over the Afghan surge.<\/em><\/p>\n Where are the \u201cGeneral Betray Us\u201d ads, offered at a reduced rate in the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>? Are we going to see an entire subculture \u2014 Michael Moore, novels, docu-dramas, comedians, etc. \u2014 slamming Obama on the war? Or, in contrast, an entire populist, in-the-streets, protest over Obama voting \u201cpresent\u201d while he goes to Copenhagen instead of meeting with Gen. McChrystal? Cannot the media see that the surge in Iraq \u2014 little public support, defections in Bush\u2019s own party, a hostile media, demagoguery from the left, campaign distortions by the likes of Obama himself \u2014 was the far harder call than granting a troop request in Afghanistan? Why was Bush\u2019s tough call \u201cdoomed\u201d in a \u201clost\u201d war, while Obama \u201cpresent\u201d vote seen as sober and judicious?<\/p>\n The hype about the false story that Palin faked her pregnancy \u2014 the enforced quiet about the real story of John Edwards\u2019 illegitimate child.<\/em><\/p>\n Did Edwards\u2019 get a pass for fathering a child while criss-crossing the country, relating his familial solidarity stories about his cancer-stricken wife, tugging on our heart-strings as the dutiful husband in crisis, while diverting campaign monies to a gold-digger?<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in that general media silence, the lunatic leftwing blogosphere trafficked in rumors that Palin faked her pregnancy; and today it has turned huckster and Playgirl pin-up Levi Johnson into some sort of unimpeachable Nostradamus, dispensing inside truth about the intimacies of the Palin family. How odd that the\u00a0National Inquirer<\/em>\u00a0got the story right on Edwards, while the left turned into a poor imitation of the\u00a0National Inquirer<\/em>\u00a0on Palin\u2019s pregnancy.<\/p>\n Silence about crudity?<\/em><\/p>\n This week both President Obama (according to sources from his pep talks to congressional leaders) and Bill Clinton (publicly) invoked the slur \u201ctea-bagger\u201d to deprecate the Town-haller\/tea-party protestors. But given that the smear started on liberal cable television to conflate a graphic sex practice with a legitimate protest, why would a President and ex-President keep playing along with the crude pun. (I know \u2014 the same reason a President would make fun of the Special Olympics, or do a \u2018yell out\u2019 (confusing the Medal of Honor with the Medal of Freedom) as a prelude to \u201cserious\u201d initial statement on Fort Hood.) My question is this \u2014 does Obama inadvertently conflate tea-party and tea-bagger, or is this slur a reminder of his past sort of stealthy middle finger rub on his nose, to the cheers of the crowd?<\/p>\n Cato vs. Nero<\/strong><\/p>\n I visited the Reagan ranch yesterday \u2014 for the first time. In my 20s and 30s I remember the media mantra about the ex-governor\u2019s getaway: Reagan\u2019s wealthy cronies had supposedly secretly bought him in a sweet-heart-deal a Hearst Castle-like estate where he looked down at\u00a0hoi polloi<\/em>\u00a0below and did photo-ops chopping wood. I half expected \u201cthe ranch\u201d to be comparable to Oprah\u2019s nearby estate.<\/p>\n But I was struck by the array of simple farm tools in the garage, the do-it-yourself trails and fences, the unadorned home of about 1700 sq. ft of rustic simplicity and ad-ons with basic old GE appliances, no insulation, wiring conduited onto the whitewashed walls, low ceilings, basic, unevenly settled tile floors. In terms of comfort or frills, the Western White House \u201cranch\u201d was probably not comparable to \u201cJohn\u2019s room\u201d inside the Edwards\u2019 \u201cTwo Americas\u201d estate, or the garage at one of John Kerry\u2019s mansions, or Al Gore\u2019s boathouse.<\/p>\n How odd that the supposed plutocratic Reagan lived like the proverbial Philemon and Baucis, while today\u2019s populists \u2014 Gore, Kerry, Kennedy, Edwards, Rev. Wright, etc., fill in the blanks \u2014 seek to emulate Nero\u2019s Golden House.<\/p>\n The Great Disconnect<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the oddest things is President Obama\u2019s continuing surprise at the rising unemployment rate. Indeed, we now have a new Orwellianism of \u201cjobs saved\u201d: as jobs are lost, we are told that some of those who do have them were \u201csaved\u201d by President Obama (note the logic: you ignore the stats that quantify reality, but hype fantasy).<\/p>\n If you were a contractor, a car dealer, a dentist, or an accountant, and if you heard that we may\/will\/sorta raise federal income taxes, lift the tax caps off FICA, think about a VAT tax, impose a healthcare surcharge on the \u201cwealthy,\u201d have new mandatory fees for forced medical plans and green energy, and had you just got hit with new raised sales and state income taxes, why would you feel secure about the future and gamble on it by hiring more employees?<\/p>\n And if you were to read daily that gold is rising, the dollar crashing, the debt and deficit exploding, the trade imbalance surging, and if you collated all that depression with cheap slurs about doctors, the Chamber of Commerce, the insurance industry, etc. as grasping and greedy, and if you were caricatured as a Nazi, astro-turfer, tea-bagger, or racist if you protested, and if you saw the federal government taking over banks and car companies, and shutting down some dealerships, but mysteriously not others, and if you heard of vast new entitlements and programs to come, from a take-over of the student loan program to cap and trade, why would you then conclude \u2014 \u201cWow, we have a serious sober President who supports the business climate, and will lead us out of recession, so by golly, I am going to go out and hire 2-3 more people to ride the coming wave of increased business!\u201d<\/p>\n Or would you instead conclude, \u201cHmm, our commander in chief likes neither me nor what I represent. He will take much of my profits and divert them to his own favored constituencies. So I better slow down, retrench, cut back, squirrel away some money to pay for new fees on power and health insurance, and find a smart accountant to advise on curbing my income so I don\u2019t end up giving 70% to the state and federal governments\u201d?<\/p>\n At some point, Obama may conclude that the vast President jet, the opulence of the Presidency, the power and influence at his fingertips, all that national wealth and more were not created by Acorn, community organizing, Michelle\u2019s legal brilliance, Axelrod\u2019s savvy advice, or Emanuel\u2019s crassness, or by claiming that doctors needlessly take out tonsils and amputate limbs, or in general by sonorous tones promising to give someone vast amounts of someone else\u2019s money,\u00a0but<\/strong>\u00a0rather through preserving a climate of freedom, respect for continuity and tradition, and government non-intrusion into the market place that encourage people to try to go into business and retain some of their profits \u2014 as recompense for getting up on Saturday morning at 6AM to get down to open the dry cleaning store, or borrowing one\u2019s net worth to open a new stationary outlet, or staying late till 7PM to do a crown, or gambling that the new $500,000 crane will pay for itself in 5 years, or going under someone\u2019s house on a Sunday to unclog the toilet when the employee doesn\u2019t show up.<\/p>\n I expect him soon either to continue as is and face a historic rebuke in 2010, or begin scrambling to talk about the debt, fiscal sobriety, and American exceptionalism \u2014 his Carter or Clinton call.<\/p>\n These are the most interesting of times: we are witnessing nothing less than an attempt in just 10 months to reinvent the United States at home and abroad into something it never was, led by someone who, the more soothing, comforting, and melodic his speech-making, the more bruising, cut-throat, and ruthless the act that follows.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s like we\u2019re living in the late Roman Republic\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Contrast Recent Media Coverage The furor over Dick Cheney\u2019s past severed involvement with Halliburton \u2014 the meowing over Bush-critic, liberal icon, ex-diplomat Peter Galbraith\u2019s present, ongoing conflict-of-interest as profiteer and pundit\/advisor involving a multimillion-dollar oil scam in Kurdistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[647],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-yI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4633,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hedging-on-iraq-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":0},"title":"Hedging on Iraq","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Which side will Americans choose to be on? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online What exactly do we think is going on in Iraq? The Democratic platform hedges on the war, suggesting that reasonable people can argue over the need for last year's intervention \u2014 as if Dennis Kucinich\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2004"","block_context":{"text":"July 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/july-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2066,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-flip-flopping-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":1},"title":"Our Flip-Flopping Wars","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We don't hear all that much about Iraq these days, do we? The war at one point almost tore apart this country. Public anger sent George W. Bush's approval ratings plummeting. And the outrage over our losses helped elect vocal anti-Iraq-war candidate Barack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1348,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-tale-of-two-surges\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":2},"title":"A Tale of Two Surges","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services From 2007 to 2009, a surge of 20,000 troops under the generalship of David Petraeus saved a mostly lost war in Iraq. Petraeus\u2019s counterinsurgency doctrine helped win over the population, as the surge in troops gave greater security to Iraq\u2019s government and military.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":543,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/iraqi-irony\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":3},"title":"Iraqi Irony","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Amid all the stories about the ongoing violence in Syria, the most disturbing is the possibility that President Bashar Assad could either deploy the arsenal of chemical and biological weapons that his government claims it has, or provide it to terrorists. There are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3794,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-did-we-invade-iraq\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":4},"title":"Why Did We Invade Iraq?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online On the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the back-and-forth recriminations continue, but in all the \u201cnot me\u201d defenses, we have forgotten, over the ensuing decade, the climate of 2003 and why we invaded in the first place. The war was predicated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3673,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/memory-and-conflict-in-iraq\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":5},"title":"Memory and Conflict in Iraq","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Given all of this country's past wars involving intelligence failures, tactical and strategic blunders, congressional fights and popular anger at the president, Iraq and the rising furor over it are hardly unusual. 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