Ed Driscoll

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National “Unity” — Then And Now

February 8, 2010 - 9:52 pm - by Ed Driscoll

As Orrin Judd notes, Fred Kaplan’s latest piece at Slate, “Raises an Obvious Question…”

Sarah Palin’s Storm at the Tea Party: Why haven’t responsible Republicans spoken out against her? (Fred Kaplan, Feb. 8, 2010, Slate)

If there is a terrorist attack on the United States in the next few years, we could deal with it more confidently, and respond more effectively, if the president were able to rally a spirit of national unity. George W. Bush was given a chance to do this after Sept. 11 and, despite some initial fumbling, rose well to the occasion, at least for a few months.But if the Republican Party’s most popular aspirant declares that the sitting president doesn’t know we’re at war, isn’t even a commander-in-chief (and crowds roar at this charge with approval), then Obama would have a much harder time repairing a wounded nation.

Clinton: Obama government to drop ‘war on terror’ from lexicon (Reuters, 3/31/09)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday the Obama administration had dropped “war on terror” from its lexicon, rhetoric former President George W. Bush used to justify many of his actions.”The [Obama] administration has stopped using the phrase and I think that speaks for itself. Obviously,” Clinton told reporters…

…if Mr. Obama’s own administration claims we are not in a war and Mr. Kaplan thinks that will make it harder for him to respond after the next time we’re attacked, then why is he attacking Ms Palin instead of the President?

And Kaplan’s piece raises another obvious question: why is Kaplan only now calling for national unity during a time of war, in sharp contradistinction to so many of his articles prior to November of 2008?

Related: Jim Geraghty squares the circle: “Obama’s Latest Gallup Numbers Seem Somewhat Late Bushian.”

And the Dow is headed back in that direction as well, as what Tom Blumer has dubbed the POR economy (for Pelosi-Obama-Reid) trundles on. 

Filed under: Oh, That Liberal Media!, The Memory Hole, War And Anti-War

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1 Comments, 1 Threads

  1. 1. John

    The well has been poisoned to the point that if any new attack or series of attacks did occur under the Obama Administration, odds are better than 50-50 one of the first reactions by the White House would be a major CYA effort to make sure everyone knows they’re not responsible and the blame belongs on the former administration. And it would also be better than even money that the big media punditry’s attacks on the terrorists’ actions would come with a big ‘but monkey’ decrying the atmosphere created by Republicans, that are the real root causes behind the attacks.

    February 8, 2010 - 11:38 pm   Link to this Comment