MORE SNARKY, CONDESCENDING, PEEVISH & SMALL: Obama’s arrogant, small ball behavior continues. As I stated in an earlier post, this ain’t a law firm name, it’s the theme of Obama’s entire campaign. If you can’t go big, go small and distract, I suppose. Here are examples from tonight’s 3d presidential debate:
OBAMA: “Governor Romney, I’m glad that you recognize that Al Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not Al Qaida; you said Russia, in the 1980s, they’re now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
Romney’s full remark was, as he pointed out: “Well, I’m saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation [Russia] that lines up with the world’s worst actors. Of course, the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran.”
ROMNEY: “Our Navy is old — excuse me, our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We’re now at under 285. We’re headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That’s unacceptable to me.”
OBAMA: “You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we’re counting ships. ”
Translated: Mitt, you’re an idiot for counting ships. You apparently don’t realize that technology doesn’t require ships anymore (even though the Navy says they require 313, apparently Obama knows better).
ROMNEY: “And I will not cut our military budget by a trillion dollars, which is a combination of the budget cuts the president has, as well as the sequestration cuts. That, in my view, is making — is making our future less certain and less secure.”
OBAMA: “First of all, the sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.” Obama replied, “First of all, the sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.”
This impending reality clearly angered Obama. His remarks suggested, “I am in charge here and I won’t allow sequestration to happen.” It’s as though he thinks he gets to decide this question, which he doesn’t. Sequestration will happen unless a miracle occurs and Congress passes a budget– which, by the way, it hasn’t been able to during the entire Obama presidency.
ROMNEY: “And I say that because from the very beginning, the president in his campaign four years ago, said he would meet with all the world’s worst actors in his first year, he’d sit down with Chavez and Kim Jong-il, with Castro and President Ahmadinejad of Iran. And I think they looked and thought, well, that’s an unusual honor to receive from the President of the United States. And then the president began what I have called an apology tour, of going to various nations in the Middle East and criticizing America. I think they looked at that and saw weakness.”
OBAMA: “Nothing Governor Romney just said is true, starting with this notion of me apologizing. This has been probably the biggest whopper that’s been told during the course of this campaign. And every fact checker and every reporter who’s looked at it, Governor, has said this is not true.”
Wrong again, Mr. President. Your apologies are well documented.
And Small: OBAMA: “Well, Governor Romney’s right, you are familiar with jobs being shipped overseas because you invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas.” Huh?
OBAMA: “Both at home and abroad, he has proposed wrong and reckless policies. He’s praised George Bush as a good economic steward and Dick Cheney as somebody who’s — who shows great wisdom and judgment. And taking us back to those kinds of strategies that got us into this mess are not the way that we are going to maintain leadership in the 21st century.” Blah, blah, blah.
ROMNEY: “Number two, Mr. President, the reason I call it an apology tour is because you went to the Middle East and you flew to Egypt and to Saudi Arabia and to Turkey and Iraq. And by the way, you skipped Israel, our closest friend in the region, but you went to the other nations.”
OBAMA: ” If we’re going to talk about trips that we’ve taken — when I was a candidate for office, first trip I took was to visit our troops. And when I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn’t take donors. I didn’t attend fundraisers. I went to Yad Beshef (ph), the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable.”
Uh, was Romney talking about “trips”? Of course he wasn’t. He was talking about the fact that, shortly after being elected in 2009, Obama visited many Muslim countries to apologize and appease. He skipped Israel. Obama’s lame response to this was “let me talk about a trip I took to Israel in 2008, before I was even elected President.” Asinine.