From Copenhagen To Kabul - Rove Joins In

First it was Bill Kristol predicting a surprise visit by Obama to Afghnistan after the drive-by beating of the IOC in Copenhagen.  Now Karl Rove, writing in the WSJ, joins in.  His penultimate paragraph:

It was easy in 2008 to criticize Mr. Bush's war leadership. But winning a shooting war requires a commander in chief's constant, direct and deep involvement. Mr. Obama could show he understands this if he uses his trip to Denmark this week (where he will serve as pitchman for Chicago to get the 2016 Olympics) to make a surprise visit to Afghanistan.

I smell something.  A rat? Or does that smell like team spirit?

Neither of Messrs. Kristol and Rove address a key point - October 3 is Michelle and Obama's anniversary and a cutsie Saturday night photo-op seems to be de rigeur.  Or maybe they are prepared to sacrifice for the war effort.

There is also the possibility that Obama wil succeed in bringing the Olympics to Chicago, in which case he wil be stepping on his own headlines by popping up in Afghanistan.  Of course, popping up in Afghanistan is a great idea if Chicago loses. 

In any case, a guy who can hit five talk shows in one Sunday is surely not afraid of a bit of "this guy does it all" coverage of his weekend.  (Hmm, maybe Michele and Obama can hit a trifecta by managing a romantic date night in Afghanistan? The imagination is beggared.)

As to the Rove and Kristol effort - I'l say it is pre-emptive bar-raising intended to steal a bit of the President's thunder.  Yup, its a new President but Rove is still calling the shots.

KILL ME NOW:  After Obama goes to Afghanistan (Yes, it will happen) we will be treated to a spate of stories by awed journalists who essentially experienced a mock rendition.  The mere thought of reading about how they endured the separation from their Blackberries and the skill with which Team Obama gathered up their cell phones is already turning my stomach.

I THOUGHT I WAS KIDDING:  First Hero Michelle seems to think her glad-handing trip to Copenhagen is a "sacrifice"; wait 'til she gets a load of Kabul.

Oh well - when Michelle runs for President one day down the road she can recount her vast foreign policy experience, including the time she was shot at while leaving her airplane in Copehagen.  Such sacrifices...

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

Where is McChrystal? If he is still in DC then Obama looks stupid (well, more stupid than normal) if he goes to Afghanistan without the Commander being there to meet him.

Also, the voting takes place on the 2nd and why wouldn't he and Michelle stay on for that so they can accept the results in person (I still say it is Chicago else he would not have risked looking like a loser). LUN

The problem here is not McChrystal v. Obama but McChrystal, Gates, Jones and company V. Chicago style politics and focus groups organized by Axelrod. This is looking more and more like an LBJ type political decision on war issues. That is not the way to go.

[clarice]

I never saw you as someone who underneath it all still believed people were basically good, TM, so your cynical take is no surprise.

I think both guys do not expect him to go to Kabul.(And if MO goes, can you picture her selling pomegranates at a farmers' market alongside the burka stalls?)

As for more media time, yesterday Ras had President 5 talk shows at -11 again.
We're all cnics now.

[And all in the pursuit of the chimera of CO2. Oh, yes, world domination, too.]

I wonder if he's planning to make a big splash at the Copenhagen climate conference in December. He may not, because it's going to be a bloodletting, Congress won't have passed Cap and Trade, and the US is likely to be some sort of bogeyman there.
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[Jack is Back!]

Just when you go and buy your Rio 2016 T-shirt and start planning your trip to Brazil, these guys show up and make you root for Chicago. LUN

[bishop]

You can never be cynical enough with this crew, and he has no effective check on authority, that in part inspired the
wrong headed musings of Mr. Perry. This stupid roundrobin with the Iranians, today,
will likely provoke more such ill tempered
thoughts of a deus ex machina in the future.

Go Rio! in part that's my preference for the tropics, or I'll take Tokyo again, for the bloc, Alex.

[hit and run]

Clarice:
And if MO goes, can you picture her selling pomegranates at a farmers' market alongside the burka stalls?

"Plow your poppies into pomegranites" is the new "Beat your swords into plowshares"

[centralcal]

And, if MO does go - I can picture her getting to wear her Vatican outfit again, since the possibilities for the veil would comport very well with the region.

[MayBee]

MO has not yet stepped foot in a Muslim country, and did not attend the Eid dinner.
I think she is avoiding wearing the head covering, and I can't really say I blame her.

[Extraneus]

If anyone hasn't read her comments about what a sacrifice it is to go to Europe with Oprah, please indulge.

Just a taste...

"I’ve spent much of my first nine months trying to open the doors to the White House to kids who might not otherwise see themselves having access to these institutions, because that’s where I came from – communities like that where kids never dreamed that they could set foot in the White House, let alone live there…"

[ROA]

Organic pomegranates?

[SWarren]

Speaking 0f the Perry article, it hasn’t completely disappeared. TPM has the full text at LUN.
While it may seem over the top, he does lay out how Ogabe is destroying the country.

Perry’s Points:

#Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.

# They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.

# They can see that the economy -- ravaged by deficits, taxes, unemployment, and impending inflation -- is financially reliant on foreign lender governments.

# They can see this president waging undeclared war on the intelligence community, without whose rigorous and independent functions the armed services are rendered blind in an ever-more hostile world overseas and at home.

# They can see the dismantling of defenses against missiles targeted at this nation by avowed enemies, even as America's troop strength is allowed to sag.

# They can see the horror of major warfare erupting simultaneously in two, and possibly three, far-flung theaters before America can react in time.

# They can see the nation's safety and their own military establishments and honor placed in jeopardy as never before.

I would add that Obama has already indicated disdain for the Constitution, sees it as flawed -“negative rights”
AND he wants a ‘civilian security force’ equal to the military in arms and funding.

Perry suggests a sit-down ‘intervention’ with the president may be in order.
Heh! Just tell him he has to leave and he will go quietly into the night.

[bishop]

I think you put forth my reservations, rather elegantly and justified, on that score. Now the folks at TPM will use it
as a red flag, despite it has been repudiated widely, just as they concur
silently and not so silently about Vidal's
diagnosis.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I think Karl is being subtle. "He could show he understands"... and so if O doesn't go, he shows he didn't understand.

Which is still the way I'd bet.

[Jack is Back!]

SWarren,

Regardless of what Perry's opinion's are, the American military is not the conservative monolith people think it is. I have commented on this previously and won't repeat myself but as an ex-officer, I believe any recourse as dramatic as suggested would be undoable since you have 3 distinct branches plus the Marines and 50 state guard units that you would have to organize. I can't see it happening.

Geez, we can't even organize an augmentation of forces for Afghanistan. How the heck could we get the whole on board to do a coup? All it would take is one Air Force unit to spoil the plot or a naval submarine task force, etc. Not saying it is impossible but very highly improbable and in my opinion undoable. We're a lot different than Uganda or Venezuela.

[Joseph Brown]

Contrary to popular belief the won is not all that well liked by military people, active duty or veterans. I'm a member of a few military sites and what I read says so.
So, I wonder if he really does want to surround himself with a lot of people with weapons?
He'll have his secret service protection, but there aren't that many of them.

[Pofarmer]

AND he wants a ‘civilian security force’ equal to the military in arms and funding.

The new Waffen SS. You know, we went to a local historical presentation here in town, that covers from Colonial to WWII. One of the presentations was a group of German soldiers. I don't think of myself as historically illiterate, but, I never realized that the SS were the Democratic Socialists private army. Now, that puts this "civilian defense corps", in a totally different light.

He'll have his secret service protection, but there aren't that many of them.

Aside from being extremely professional, can't imagine the Secret Service is all that enthusiastic.

[Pofarmer]

Oh, what I originally wanted to post.

I just heard a Hardees commercial on Glen Beck. They are doing a limited time Fried Bologna Biscuit "In honor of our politicans who are full of it."

[Dave (in the People's Banana Republic of MA)]

Maybe Worf can show the Afghanis how to plant Belgian endive instead of poppies.

[SWarren]

JiB,
I agree that there would not be a military coup. I did say Perry was over the topand his scenario is heh!
But I like that he concisely laid out how Obama is single-handedly destroying our safety both in diminishing our defense systems and intelligence, and making us a debtor nation beholden to foreigners holding our debt.

[bishop]

True, but there is no viable solution, Someone in the Green Room at Hot Air, the only really solid part of the site, might
be Dab N Hugh (sic) Dr. Zero, pointed out
that the alternative to this kind of thinking in the LUN, is the likes of Chuck
Hagel

[maryrose]

Bad is back!
Not having served in the military Obama fails to understand the urgency of the troops in the war theater and continues to promote himself in Copenhagen. Axelrod was at the military meeting yesterday to reference the political danger to the Once. Disgusting..

[Fresh Air]

I think she is avoiding wearing the head covering...

With a skull shaped like that, it's a virtual certainty that, with a headscarf on, someone would mistake her for a beekeeper.

[willem]

LUN. Maybe BHO needs to go back to Chicago. After a decade or two of exercising his highly touted community skills, the work product of his philosophical and community leadership needs a reality check.

How many must die before the Obamas of our world become an honest, competent steward of what is entrusted to them?

I'm beginning to think BHO's worse than Kofi Annan.

[Ever again.]

Take their bread and give them circuses.
=======================

[The tactics are war crimes, though.]

The military may well see a master strategist in Axelrod.
===================================

[willem]

"The American Police Force Security Agency?"

Apparently, substantial federal funding of domestic police privatization may have already occurred, along with federal legislation passed to facilitate it.

I had heard rumblings last week but ignored them; then this week, read a post quoting some the typical bogus fluff from WND. Then I ran across LUN.

Looks like the money and federal authorization for something expanding de facto federalization of local law enforcement is out there and flowing into private pockets. They've had privatization in the prisons for years. Are we now in the early stages of pushing the privatization of "domestic police function" into our local streets and neighborhoods?

Given what Bohica Obama has long pronounced "necessary" some might think it prudent to keep one eye open, especially after the recent public displays of police militarization in San Diego and Pittsburgh. Whose posse is it?

The criminal history of the executive of record linked at the LUN certainly raised an eyebrow as well.

No doubt he's well connected with Democrat Party insiders. Interesting too is the number of foreign nationals in paramilitary roles in this privatization.

At least they won't have to show their ID to get health care.

[Jane]

Where is bad Maryrose? I missed her.

[willem]

Yikes! A coup would be as crazy as it would be wrong.

OTOH, there's Quo Warranto and the matter of BHO's birth status as a British Citizen being reconciled against the POTUS eligibility requirements under Article II.

Due to apparent blunders by the AG and DoH, it looks like Hawaii's stonewalling is about crack open wide and allow the production of the birth records, thus (for those like me who think he was indeed born in Hawaii) bringing the miserably idiotic "birther" paranoia to an end.

More importantly, the all important smokescreen created thereby will evaporate with it, revealing the elephant in the room.

Curiouser and curiouser at LUN.

[SWarren]

"The American Police Force Security Agency?"

Sheesh, Willem. This group originated about 6 months ago with an initial $30 million in financing? About the time Stimulus funds were doled out?

[LTC John]

Wow, such a sacrifice flying on Air Force One to a pleasant European city... And to think I felt I had it rough wearing 100 lbs of armor, weapons, radios and kit and being stuffed into the back of a C-130 somewhere in the CENTCOM AOR in mid-summer. Shame on me!

[Joseph Brown]

Col John, be glad that a prop sync didn't go south. You woulda been all over that flight deck!

Hitler had the SA as personal bodyguards until he got scared of them. He instructed the SS to do them in, especially that limp wrist who led them. Behold, the Night of the Long Knives.

[Joseph Brown]

Of course I forgot that Hitler had the SA and SS and the won has the SEIU and ACORN!
Six of one half a dozen of another.

[Katie]

Well ya know, there is no lock box for Schwinns and it is getting harder to ride a bike since funds have dried up...say whaaattt??

[Extraneus]

I liked that part about the bike riding, too.

[clarice]

Sunny Day hasn't been around much either.

[By secret law. Get used to 'em.]

Yep, willem, he's a natchul born citizen, alright.
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