{"id":7920,"date":"2014-10-14T08:10:58","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T15:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7920"},"modified":"2021-07-27T04:40:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T11:40:07","slug":"small-and-petty-from-small-and-petty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/small-and-petty-from-small-and-petty\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Small and Petty\u2019 from Small and Petty"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO- The Corner<\/a><\/p>\n

Deconstruct former Obama flack Bill Burton\u2019s hit on Leon Panetta:<\/p>\n

On Secretary Panetta, he is a guy who has had a long and storied career in Washington and has really served his country well. And it is kind of sad that in its twilight he\u2019s done such a dishonorable thing by \u2014 at a time \u2014 by going after the president that he served at a time of a lot of different instabilities around the world.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I think if you ask the question, Do you think that Leon Panetta\u2019s book helps or harms our interest, does it help or harm the credibility of this administration as the president is conducting the job of foreign policy and keeping our nation safe? It\u2019s hard to say yes.<\/p>\n

On the substance, this president has shown his leadership time and again. He\u2019s made some tough calls. He has advanced our interest in very real ways. He got Osama bin Laden. He got our troops out of Afghanistan. He has moved this country in the right direction. And to attack his leadership I think is small and petty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It may or may not be dishonorable for former high administration officials like Panetta and Gates to hype their books by dropping tidbits of sensational criticism of their former boss while he\u2019s still in office (I think it might well be wrong for a variety of reasons), but Burton was absolutely quiet when Paul O\u2019Neill and Scott McClellan became liberal heartthrobs for the minute of fame they got for trashing the president who appointed them, while he was still in office. And if Burton is worried about criticism of a sitting president by high officials during times of crisis, did he say much when Senator Barack Obama demagogued the surge by declaring that it was a failure and bound to make Iraq worse while thousands were in the field fighting for their lives? Or did Burton object to Hillary Clinton\u2019s accusation that General David Petraeus, who was in charge of tens of thousands of Americans fighting Islamists in Iraq, was a veritable liar (her \u201csuspension of disbelief\u201d comment)? Not so much.<\/p>\n

Burton then becomes laughable when he details Obama\u2019s achievements. The Navy Seals, not Barack Obama \u201cgot Osama bin Laden.\u201d (I don\u2019t recall Burton or any others claiming that George Bush \u201cgot\u201d Saddam Hussein or his sons, instead of the brave Special Forces who in fact did \u201cget\u201d them.<\/p>\n

As for his assertion that President Obama \u201d got our troops out of Afghanistan\u201d: as of now that is simply false. They are still there and so far only scheduled to leave this year, with a real sense of collective foreboding should they actually be gone by January 2015.<\/p>\n

But note why Burton chose not to reference something that is<\/em>absolutely true \u2014 the often repeated 2012 campaign talking point, \u201cHe got our troops out of Iraq.\u201d Burton ignores that truth because it set off a chain of events that ruined Iraq and nurtured the Islamic State, and was the worst strategic decision of the last decade.<\/p>\n

As for Burton\u2019s claim that \u201che has moved this country in the right direction,\u201d more than 55 percent of the public disapprove of the president\u2019s leadership; 65 percent believe the country is in fact headed in the wrong<\/em> direction. And as for Burton\u2019s \u201cto attack his leadership I think is small and petty.\u201d I suppose he means Leon Panetta\u2019s book, but that angst about party members and team players not supporting a president in extremis <\/em>could equally apply to the majority of Democratic House and Senate candidates vying for election this year who most certainly do not wish to appear on the stump with Barack Obama. That seems sort of \u201csmall and petty\u201d given the fact that Obama is currently \u201cconducting foreign policy and keeping our nation safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO- The Corner Deconstruct former Obama flack Bill Burton\u2019s hit on Leon Panetta: On Secretary Panetta, he is a guy who has had a long and storied career in Washington and has really served his country well. And it is kind of sad that in its twilight he\u2019s done such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[844,977],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-23K","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1336,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/panettas-failure-of-imagination-the-defense-secretary-gives-israel-a-turn-of-the-screw\/","url_meta":{"origin":7920,"position":0},"title":"Panetta’s Failure of Imagination: The Defense Secretary Gives Israel a ‘Turn of the Screw’","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thronton FrontPage Magazine Defense Secretary Leon Panetta\u2019s \u201cchiding\u201d of Israel, as the\u00a0Washington Postput it, was a strange performance, so muddled in its ignorance of fact and logic that one wonders if the Secretary was attempting some rhetorical misdirection to lull our enemies into complacency. Unfortunately, the more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Israel"","block_context":{"text":"Israel","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/israel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8266,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/riding-the-pollercoaster\/","url_meta":{"origin":7920,"position":1},"title":"Riding the Pollercoaster","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ NRO- The Corner Though polls employ different scientific methodologies, as a whole they are more often right than wrong. Everyone assumes that sampling public opinion remains an art, and is not immune from the biases of the pollster. Still, how does one explain not just discrepancies,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8080,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/america-continues-to-thrive\/","url_meta":{"origin":7920,"position":2},"title":"America Continues to Thrive","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Even in its current malaise, the U.S. still soars above the global competition. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Germany\u2019s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, supposedly once said that there was \u201ca special providence for drunkards, fools, and the United States of America.\u201d Apparently, late 19th-century observers could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via NRO","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/pic_giant_121114_SM_Flags_0-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8667,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-utterly-hypocritical-response-to-trumps-criticisms-of-his-record\/","url_meta":{"origin":7920,"position":3},"title":"Obama\u2019s Utterly Hypocritical Response to Trump\u2019s Criticisms of His Record","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO - The Corner President Obama just said this about Donald Trump\u2019s disparagement of the last seven years: \u201cIn the echo chamber that is presidential politics, everything is dark and everything is terrible.\u201d Presidential candidates \u201cdon\u2019t seem to offer many solutions for the disasters that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NRO The Corner"","block_context":{"text":"NRO The Corner","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/nro-the-corner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Obama-Budget-Plan-jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Obama-Budget-Plan-jpg-500x281.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":984,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-final-countdown-israel-vs-iran\/","url_meta":{"origin":7920,"position":4},"title":"The Final Countdown: Israel vs. Iran","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The 33-year farce of Western appeasement of Iran may be reaching its denouement. For the last few months, the pace of events have quickened as the West sanctions and threatens, and Iran blusters about closing the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off oil to Europe,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Israel"","block_context":{"text":"Israel","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/israel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8241,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-derangement-syndrome-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":7920,"position":5},"title":"Obama Derangement Syndrome?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO- The Corner Some, like Ezra Klein, have posited that Rudy Giuliani\u2019s suggestion that Obama may not be patriotic and Scott Walker\u2019s hesitation to assert that Obama is a Christian illustrate a sort of unhinged Obama Derangement Syndrome. Aside from the fact that Obama himself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NRO The Corner"","block_context":{"text":"NRO The Corner","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/nro-the-corner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920"}],"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=7920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13811,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920\/revisions\/13811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}