WILL HILLARY DEFEND THIS? – AT 10:33 A.M. ET: Hillary has many serious obstacles to overcome in her race for the White House. One of the most serious is that she was a secretary of state who oversaw a foreign policy increasingly seen as a disaster. Ed Rogers, in the Washington Post, states well the extent of the disaster and its impact on the American electorate. How will Hillary explain this away?
Over the next 20 months, how many enemies of the United States can President Obama outright lose to or accommodate? He has embraced Cuba, acquiesced to Iran and gone silent on Syria and continues to be ignored by Russia; he has done much to embolden our adversaries. Meanwhile, our allies — from Britain and Canada to Japan, Egypt and Israel — are at best bewildered and at worst disgusted with how this administration has conducted foreign policy over the past six years.
And the disillusionment doesn’t end there. The current RealClearPolitics average of the president’s foreign policy job approval is dismal, with 53 percent of Americans expressing disapproval of Obama’s handling of foreign policy and only 37 percent approving of the job he is doing. It doesn’t appear there is anything about a “more of the same” message on foreign policy that will sell during the 2016 campaign. In fact, things are so bad that foreign policy has broken through the American consciousness in a way that it seldom does. In the annual Pew Research survey on the public’s policy priorities, “For the first time in five years, as many Americans cite defending the U.S. against terrorism (76%) as a top policy priority as say that about strengthening the nation’s economy (75%).” Voters are worried and they want a wholesale change and a new direction.
To make matters worse, the rolling train wreck of Obama’s foreign policy could be the gift that keeps on giving. Our adversaries know they only have about 20 months left under Obama before they potentially face a more formidable opponent. The pace of their challenges to the United States might be quickening. Just in the past week, we saw Russian President Vladimir Putin approve the sale of missiles to Iran and Iran’s supreme leader publicly lecture Obama on what is and is not in the Iran nuclear framework agreement, while eager-to-please Obama gave a wet kiss to Cuba even as Raúl Castro looked bored sitting next to him.
COMMENT: What does Hillary say? Barack, I hardly knew ye? Any Republican presidential candidate is going to roll the clips of her as secretary state, failing and failing. And the failures appear to be continuing.
And yet, if Hillary distances himself from Obama, he could retaliate, especially if there's competition for the Dem nomination. I really don't know how she can navigate this with any credibility. Maybe she can just say, "Credibility is overrated." She probably believes it.
April 14, 2015 |