02\/21\/17<\/p>\n
Victor David Hanson\u2019s latest rant, \u201cObama\u00a0left the president with monstrous mess (2\/17),\u201d is in its unmitigated slam at our\u00a0\u201clast president\u201d\u00a0not the least bit surprising, both in its orientation as well as in its patent bias.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While it\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand to try to defend much of Obama\u2019s efforts in foreign affairs, the notion that the present mess is Obama\u2019s work alone is absurd.\u00a0\u00a0It is widely recognized that the work of a dud named Bush, in his less than honest war making policies had a good bit to do with today\u2019s mess.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, Hanson recognizes as much, but waits till his\u00a0very last sentence\u00a0<\/em>(contrary to the title)\u00a0to do so.\u00a0\u00a0In the meantime, should Victor tire of Obama bashing, he might do a column on the domestic economy under O.\u00a0\u00a0While it would be foolish to suggest that all\u2019s super well on the domestic front, it is the case that Obama inherited a serious recession with an unemployment rate reaching 10% shortly after his inauguration, and which to today is significantly below 5 percent.\u00a0\u00a0Alas, in keeping with his obvious right wing bias, I\u2019m sure that Hanson will soon join Trump himself in claiming credit for the present state of the domestic economy.\u00a0\u00a0Alas, it\u2019s the blatant bias of folks like Hanson that helps create the deep hostility in so much of our politics.\u00a0 Sad.<\/p>\n As ever, and in not surprising contempt,\u00a0David E. Kaun<\/p>\n Dear Angry Reader David E. Kaun,<\/strong><\/p>\n Much of what you write is not just emotional ranting, but simply factually incorrect (Davis not David) and logically incoherent (e.g., much of Obama\u2019s efforts in foreign affairs are not defensible, but the present mess is not his alone). When Obama entered office in January 2008, Iraq was quiet\u2014so much so that Vice President Joe Biden termed it the administration\u2019s likely greatest achievement and Obama boasted that he was leaving behind a \u201cstable\u201d and self-reliant\u201d Iraq. Thus the administration apparently felt the nascent consensual government in Iraq was not the source but the antidote <\/em>to Middle East instability\u2014which magnified by the abrupt 2011 Obama pullout, the destruction of Libya, the fake redlines in Syria, the promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the rise of \u201cjayvee\u201d ISIS, the \u201cdaylight\u201d between Israel and the US, the failed \u201cspecial relationship\u201d with Turkey, the invitation to Putin to reinsert Russia into the Middle East, the Iran deal, and on and on.<\/p>\n I have written on Obama and the economy: sadly, he is the first president since Herbert Hoover not to achieve 3% per annum GDP growth; he doubled the debt to $20 trillion in just eight years, and left a near record labor non-participation rate. The recession he inherited from George W. Bush ended in June 2009, suggesting that had he not enacted his agenda, the economy would likely have naturally recovered and robustly in a way it did not for the next eight years.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think Trump or anyone wishes to \u201cclaim credit\u201d for the present economy: despite near record deficits, near zero-interest rates, and massive new federal spending, the economy was never primed\u2014largely because of new regulations, the ACA health mandates, higher taxes, and constant \u201cyou didn\u2019t build that\u201d attacks on private enterprise. I assume that explains why the Democratic \u201cblue wall\u201d crumbled in 2016 due to dissatisfaction among Democrats with the status quo.<\/p>\n Trump will either fail or succeed, but we will have to wait at least 4 years for the verdict. If Trump is culpable, I will write just that.<\/p>\n Again, the letter\u2019s venom (\u201ccontempt\u201d) is once again thematic of the leftist inability to debate without slurs. Very<\/em> sad.<\/p>\n Sincerely, VDH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 02\/21\/17 From an Angry Reader: Victor David Hanson\u2019s latest rant, \u201cObama\u00a0left the president with monstrous mess (2\/17),\u201d is in its unmitigated slam at our\u00a0\u201clast president\u201d\u00a0not the least bit surprising, both in its orientation as well as in its patent bias.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While it\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand to try to defend much of Obama\u2019s efforts in foreign affairs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2zq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9671,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9671-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9884,"position":0},"title":"From an Angry Reader: Re:\u2026","author":"Megan Ring","date":"December 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"From an Angry Reader: Re: Obama's initiatives What a horrible president and yet, 57% approval rating! Wow! How is that possible! I think he did quite well considering that Republicans vowed on the first day not to work with him and never did! \u00a0Connie Knapp Victor Davis Hanson's Reply: Dear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10151,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-12\/","url_meta":{"origin":9884,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From an Angry Reader: Mr. Hanson, I don\u2019t know anything about Stanley Baldwin, but I\u2019ll assume your description of him is accurate. In that case, you have to stretch quite a bit to make Obama into Baldwin. For instance: You call Baldwin a pacifist. Obama is decidedly not a pacifist.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9736,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9736-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9884,"position":2},"title":"01\/12\/16 From an Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"01\/12\/16 From an Angry Reader: Dear Mr Hanson: I would like to comment on your Room for Debate in the Daily Southtown regarding treatment of Israel. Where does the Prime Minister of Israel, with a population of 8 million, get off slamming President Obama of the United States with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9679,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9679-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9884,"position":3},"title":"From An Angry Reader: Victor\u2026","author":"Megan Ring","date":"December 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Victor \u00a0Your gloating and myopic column pillorying President Obama's foreign policy legacy was simple minded and juvenile. Why write something so stupidly one sided????? \u00a0When Obama came into office we were losing 100 service people per month in a stupid war and as he leaves office,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6431,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-fundamental-absence-of-seriousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":9884,"position":4},"title":"A Fundamental Absence of Seriousness","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner \u00a0 We are told hypocrisies are Obama\u2019s problem: Republicans who are usually pro-war don\u2019t support this war only because of Obama; Democrats who are usually anti-war can\u2019t support this war for Obama without being shown up as sudden pro-war hypocrites. Some of that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2736,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/reelecting-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":9884,"position":5},"title":"Reelecting Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online We are beginning to see the contours of the upcoming 2012 reelection campaign of Barack Obama. Whether always officially sanctioned or not, Obama\u2019s campaign will focus on three general themes: a) the 2008 meltdown of the economy on Bush\u2019s watch; b) conservative heartlessness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/campaign-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884"}],"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=9884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9885,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884\/revisions\/9885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h3>\n
Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:<\/h3>\n