{"id":6457,"date":"2013-09-12T09:28:46","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T16:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6457"},"modified":"2013-09-30T11:25:12","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T18:25:12","slug":"predictably-misleading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/predictably-misleading\/","title":{"rendered":"Predictably Misleading"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The one requisite in a presidential speech is honesty. Without it, nothing else matters. The president\u2019s speech last night was incoherent in its call to be ready at some future day to use force that he just recently insisted must be used immediately.<\/p>\n

But more disturbing, aside from the true nature of the Putin gambit, Obama simply did not tell the truth about the role of Congress in his self-created debacle.<\/p>\n

In fact, not long ago, Obama said that he did not \u201cbelieve it was right . . . to take this debate to Congress.\u201d In truth, he was forced to, after resisting such a move, because public opinion was not in his favor. Or, in the words of his own cynical political guru, David Axelrod, he wished the congressional dog to catch the car and share some responsibility for the self-induced mess.<\/p>\n

Moreover, last decade was not characterized by a president who engaged in \u201csidelining the people\u2019s representatives from the critical decisions about when we use force.\u201d In truth, George W. Bush obtained authorizations from both Houses of Congress before using force in both Afghanistan and Iraq. In contrast, Barack Obama bypassed Congress \u2014 but not the Arab League \u2014 in bombing Libya.<\/p>\n

Nor did the president simply ask the leaders of Congress to postpone the vote. Congressional officials came to him, hence last night\u2019s address, to warn him that, in a historical first, he would be rebuffed by both houses of Congress.<\/p>\n

As in the case of the Libyan bombing, Obama initially sought to bypass Congress, could not given sinking public opinion, reversed course and went to Congress, then was faced with a rebuke, and finally ended up doing nothing. This leaves the country with the precedent of a president going to Congress when desperate, then announcing that he will not necessarily abide by the vote should it be negative, and then postponing a vote that he knows will be negative \u2014 taking the country in a futile 360-degree path back to where he started.<\/p>\n

Again, Obama warns about those who bypass Congress and leave a mess after taking out dictators \u2014 with no mention that he alone in the last decade has done both.<\/p>\n

Finally, there were the usual Obama-speech bullet points that ensure it is a presidential speech:<\/p>\n

The tired usual emphatics?\u00a0<\/strong>Check: \u201cLet me make something clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Straw men on the edges with sober and judicious Obama in the middle?<\/strong>Check: \u201cfriends on the right\u201d and \u201cfriends on the left.\u201d<\/p>\n

First person overload?<\/strong>\u00a0Check: \u201cespecially me,\u201d \u201cmy judgment,\u201d \u201cI determined,\u201d \u201cI possess,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m also,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n

Bush did it?\u00a0<\/strong>Check: \u201c. . . after a decade that put more and more war making power in the hands of the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iraq ad nauseam?<\/strong>\u00a0Check: \u201cwe learned from Iraq,\u201d \u201can open-ended action like Iraq,\u201d \u201cterrible toll of Iraq and Afghanistan,\u201d \u201cour troops are out of Iraq,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n

Growing the (now shrinking) middle class?<\/strong>\u00a0Check: \u201cgrowing our middle class.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner\u00a0 The one requisite in a presidential speech is honesty. Without it, nothing else matters. The president\u2019s speech last night was incoherent in its call to be ready at some future day to use force that he just recently insisted must be used immediately.<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[536],"tags":[12,210,74,726,1016],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1G9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1511,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-new-take-on-partisanship\/","url_meta":{"origin":6457,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s New Take on Partisanship","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One of President Obama\u2019s strangest complaints is that there are too many in Congress who act, well, like former senator Obama. In his recent speech on the question of comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama once again blasted Republican political opportunism that opposes his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1853,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-usual-straw-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":6457,"position":1},"title":"The Usual Straw Men","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Cap-and-trade, statist healthcare, and an end to \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d for thee. And for thou, Obama the tax cutter, Obama the gas-and-oil driller, Obama the budget freezer, Obama the anti-lobbyist reformer, Obama the bipartisan healer? This half-hearted pivoting was quite transparent: Obama made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2010"","block_context":{"text":"February 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/february-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8598,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-tougher-on-congress-than-on-khamenei-read-more-at-httpwww-nationalreview-comarticle422339obamas-unpresidential-iran-speechtargetauthortid900280\/","url_meta":{"origin":6457,"position":2},"title":"Obama: Tougher on Congress than on Khamenei","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama's Unpresidential Iran Speech:\u00a0The speech was mean-spirited and dishonest \u2500 and may have been counterproductive. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online President Obama\u2019s speech last week advocating congressional approval of the Iran deal was mostly made-up history mixed with invective. Indeed, he talked far more roughly about his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iran"","block_context":{"text":"Iran","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Pool Image\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/pic_giant_010615_SM_Barack-Obama-G-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3400,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-still-murky-on-libya\/","url_meta":{"origin":6457,"position":3},"title":"Obama Still Murky on Libya","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner President Obama just gave a weird speech. Part George W. Bush, part trademark Obama \u2014 filled with his characteristic split-the-difference, straw-man (\u201csome say, others say\u201d), false-choice tropes. His support for those \u201cyearning for freedom all around the world\u201d was the sort of interventionist foreign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2250,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bitter-harvests-to-come\/","url_meta":{"origin":6457,"position":4},"title":"Bitter Harvests to Come","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Reflections on the Speech to Congress If one were to sum up the Obama speech to the joint session of Congress, it is the same old, same old formula: \"I am a uniquely post-American fresh start; the era of Bush and our dreadful past\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2009"","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8052,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/for-obama-inconvenient-law-is-irrelevant-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":6457,"position":5},"title":"For Obama, Inconvenient Law Is Irrelevant Law","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The president dismantles immigration law that he finds incompatible with his own larger agenda. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online There is a humane, transparent, truthful \u2014 and constitutional \u2014 way to address illegal immigration. Unfortunately, President Obama\u2019s unilateral plan to exempt millions of residents from federal immigration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(John Gress\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/pic_giant_112714_SM_Barack-Obama-G-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6458,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6457\/revisions\/6458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}