Claudia Rosett Thinks the Pot is Calling the Kettle Black

The President’s isolation and lack of leadership over the holidays — particularly as events played out following the almost-detonation in the airspace over Detroit — point to a larger problem, according to her.

In an online essay in Forbes, Ms Rosett takes Obama to task for his use of the term “isolated extremist” to describe the Nigerian who damaged his family jewels in a botched attempt to make it to Paradise. As more and more information has come out about this story, Obama has stayed hunkered down in Hawaii, determined not to let the recent unpleasantness get in the way of serious recreation.

Never mind that important CIA agents in Afghanistan bought the farm while he swam and played. Their demise was good enough for a written statement, but not enough for a personal appearance to say the words of condolence out loud.

Even before that, never mind that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s daddy attempted to inform everyone of the dangers in letting his son on a plane. And, please, ignore al Qaeda’s taking the credit for Abdulmutallab’s training and provision of the underwear explosives.

Obama is stuck on boilerplate. It appears to be all he knows, which may be a function of the fact that mostly what he’s done is campaign. His legislative and executive experience are limited. He’s never supervised a crew, run a business, or…well, lived a normal life.

Thus, if a white policeman arrests a loud-mouth, aggressive black man, it’s racism. We know because Obama’s knee jerked when he heard about it and he pronounced upon the situation sans information. The man sticks his foot in his mouth and continues to pontificate around his impediment.

If an obviously Muslim Jihad US Army major goes on a killing binge for Allah, it’s just an “isolated incident”. The cure? More Muslims in the military, of course. Which would indeed make the terror attacks less “isolated”, wouldn’t it? How many do we have to experience before Obama & Co. come up with a new, less shopworn phrase?

Here's an idea: we could perhaps look at each previous month or quarter and, based on those numbers, guesstimate the chances in the following quarter for possible “isolated extremist incidents”. It could be become like the weather report, with national map charts and all. A slick announcer with a pointer could intone, “given the numbers last month, the chances of isolated extremists” is about thirty percent in Oklahoma. Texas has a moving front of rocket launchers, which increases the chances there to forty percent. Meanwhile, New York City can expect heavy showers of body parts once the KSM trial gets going”. Yep, a regular part of the nightly news. It could be called, say, the “Isolated Extremists’ Forecast”…
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As for visiting the wounded and the families of the dead at Fort Hood, how long did it take Obama to show up? And why did it take that long? Where is the leadership? It’s galling to think how often the Left hit replay on Bush’s continuing to read to some children for a few moments after he received the stunning news of September 11th, yet they studiously ignore our Fearless Leader when he repeatedly pulls no-shows, or does the right things while so obviously reluctant to perform them. His midnight show at Andrews Air Force base with the soldiers’ caskets (and a gaggle of press to catch the historic moment) is another example of being out-of-synch.

Ms. Rosett points out that there are about 400,000 people on a list of “likely affiliated terrorists”. The now self-neutered Abdulmutallab was on that list, but his actions are not part of a pattern, he’s just one isolated “extremist” with 399,999 friends. As she points out, it is Obama himself who is beginning to look isolated. She points out his contradictions:

For three days after the terrorist attack, Obama carried on with his Hawaii holiday, “monitoring” the situation while leaving his staff to deal with the public. When Obama finally appeared on Monday to make a statement, he gave a boilerplate nod to the potential terror connections of the “suspect,” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: “We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable.” But in the same statement he went on to say that “This incident, like several that have preceded it, demonstrates that an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist.”

In making her point about the terrorism attacks we’ve experienced this year (twelve), Ms. Rosett suggests that President Obama look at his falling poll numbers. People don’t feel they have a leader when incidents like this happen and Obama parties on, or golfs on when he’s back at the White House. The odd thing is, while he doesn’t appear to show strong leadership qualities (in fact, has rather a tin ear for them), he’s definitely not a follower either. Frankly, our President is a blamer. He stands aside whenever possible and points to the bad guys. No mud on his shoes. Ever.

If the villain is not George Bush, then it’s some lower level administration appointee. We’ve seen them get thrown under the bus during the last year. What was the fellow’s name who had to take the fall for an empty Air Force One buzzing New York City for some good photography? Do you really think a functionary would dare authorize the use of the President’s plane (“It’s mine. I won”) for something so trivial? The Fickle Finger of Blame points where it will.

You can bet your paycheck (should you still have one) that lots of heads at CIA are going to roll over the deaths in Afghanistan. Morale will be driven even lower. Our president has already shown obvious disdain for the human intelligence gathering necessary in this protracted conflict. He and Attorney General Holder are going to expose many of our covert agents during the Gitmo trial in New York, making them not just useless for further work, but possible targets for lawsuits or assassinations. Don't hold your breath for solid candidates to rush in to replace them.

Given that the Gitmo defendants had already confessed and were willing to face execution, it is mind-numbing to realize how perfidious this administration is in its determination to do anything necessary to besmirch George Bush’s administration. If Bush could be retroactively impeached, Holder wouldn’t mind trying. If lots of lives are ruined in the process, well that’s politics for you. Next?

Ms. Rosett has some interesting spin from Time magazine on the number of terrorist incidents in the US - all isolated, of course - for 2009. There were twelve this year, the highest number since 2001. The magazine denies any trend, as would the President if anyone could get near enough to ask him. Twelve, though. That works out to one a month.

Get rid of our human intelligence resources, build Jamie Gorelick’s wall even higher, and you’ll see lots more of these “isolated” incidents every month. The people who are supposed to keep us safe aren’t permitted to talk to one another, and in many cases, not to Congress. So far, we’ve had some good work by the FBI in Chicago and Detroit. And the anti-terrorist New York City police will no doubt avert any number of “isolated incidents” while the circus trial goes on under the ghost shadow of where the Twin Towers used to be. We may not hear about all of the thwarted attempts, but we sure will hear the ones that explode.

These particular “isolated incidents” will be directly traceable to Attorney General Holder and you, Mr. President. Bear that in mind if you’re looking for anyone to blame.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind if they moved the winter White House to Hawaii, though the people there wouldn’t be too happy with security crawling everywhere. However, if he stays away, perhaps Congress could calm itself down sufficiently so as to stop acting like an organism which has overdosed on speed and sees spending lots of imaginary money as its only cure.

Oh, and while we’re on the “isolated incidents” of terrorism in our country, is anyone taking bets on how many Lone Rangers, all fitted out by al Qaida, are going to descend on poor Thomson, Illinois? The naïve residents think they’re going to see lots of jobs in the move of Gitmo prisoners to Thomson’s maximum security prison. The prison was built but the state ran out of funds for personnel to staff it. Sounds like Illinois politics, unfortunately. However, the main thing is that this place will be like Gitmo: staffed by professional military prisoner-minders. They will rotate in and out of Gitmo North with nary a bob for a Thomson resident.

More on that sad situation later…


Hat tip: Heroyalwhyness