SPEAKING TRUTH TO NO POWER – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  Lindsey Graham is one of the GOP's leading spokesmen on national defense.  His bluntness on the current situation is to be admired.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Sen. Lindsey Graham said President Obama’s plan in Syria “won’t even come close to defeating" the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

"It’s delusional," the South Carolina Republican said.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday" just after Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough, Graham said that “when the president and the president’s chief of staff says ‘we mean what we do and we do what we say,' no one believes that anymore.

“There is no way in hell you can form an army on the ground in Syria to kill [the Islamic State] without a substantial American component ...

At least Graham has the guts to say it. 

“They’re pushing a master religion, not a master race like the Nazis … this president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back home.”

COMMENT:  Rather direct, not smooth, entirely true.  One of the striking facts about reaction to Obama's Wednesday night speech is the lack of support and enthusiasm.  The man's credibility is shattered.  He is our Jimmy Carter sundae, with a generous topping of George McGovern.  It is hard to take seriously a man whose first instinct in a crisis is to tell our enemies exactly what he won't do. 

It's also hard to take seriously a man who won't tell the truth about what we face.  FDR, in his first inaugural address, told us that "the only thing we have to fear it fear itself."  He then proceeded to give a blunt, stark picture of the condition of the United States.  It was painful to hear, but Americans knew that at least the man was living in the real world.  Obama is resting in the faculty lounge.

Churchill told England:  "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."  Obama tells America, hey, I can offer Obamacare, withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, lower defense budgets, and cash for clunkers.  I guess men lead in different ways.

September 14, 2014