tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915905970671706170.post1077559901540105753..comments2023-10-26T03:19:55.482-07:00Comments on multum non multa: Walt & ObamafChhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08007305273044171670noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915905970671706170.post-36836613328087497502010-09-13T13:08:59.837-07:002010-09-13T13:08:59.837-07:00DON BACON
Trapped? Oh, boo hoo
How about if Obama...DON BACON<br />Trapped? Oh, boo hoo<br /><br />How about if Obama had at least TRIED.<br />Reminds me of the old line from West Side Story, spoken by a gang member:<br />"We're not depraved, we're deprived."<br />It's not my fault -- just an excuse for wilting in the face of opposition.<br />I mean, he did want the job, nobody forced him into it.<br />Also, memories of Harry "Give 'em hell" Truman, who in 1948 beat the Congress, beat the media, beat a shortage of funds, and beat the favorite Thomas E. Dewey.<br />It can often (not always) be done if one just tries.<br />There is no excuse for not trying.<br />I have a sticker on the back of my pickup: Die Trying<br />I'm 73 years old and I just backpacked 163 miles of the John Muir Trail in the California Sierras.<br />I bet some of you have done things beyond expectations too.<br />Obama hasn't.<br /><br /><br />NORWEGIAN SHOOTER<br />Walt falling into a trap, too.<br /><br />I agree with Don completely, DFH's are enraged at Obama not trying, rather than actual results.<br /><br />Walt's line "(and I'm not at all sure that he does)" is the most telling in the entire piece. All of the evidence says, no, he doesn't want to "to chart a fundamentally different course". There is no question about this. If you need factual specifics, read Greenwald.<br /><br />So Walt's trap is to back-handedly acknowledge this, but stay on the right (as in "might makes") side of the VSP line. As you say "even experienced pillars of the establishment are not immune from this same tendency". That is, even though Walt has virtually nothing to gain, he feels it necessary to absolve Obama of all fault.<br /><br />Let me posit some armchair psychology to speculate why: pure safety in numbers, part of a group, and road of least resistance. As Walt is clearly at the end of the limb on Israel policy (even though he's right), he subconsciously still wants to be part of the establishment on something - even as inconsequential as whether Obama or inertia is to blame for inaction. In fact, the inconsequentiality of this exercise makes it more likely to embrace the conventional wisdom.from the horse's mouthhttp://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/13/trappednoreply@blogger.com