Are you kidding me (tip to Instapundit)?
As his reasonably successful Asia trip came to an end, The New York Times noted that President Obama sounded edgy and frustrated when defending his foreign policy against pointed questioning from reporters:
On a day in which he announced new sanctions against Russia for its continued threats to Ukraine, Mr. Obama said his foreign policy was based on a workmanlike tending to American priorities that might lack the high drama of a wartime presidency but also avoided ruinous mistakes.
“You hit singles, you hit doubles; every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference with Mr. Aquino. “But we steadily advance the interests of the American people and our partnership with folks around the world.”
It’s clear that the White House is beginning to understand that even American liberals have to work hard these days to continue to believe that the President is doing a good job in foreign affairs. Unforutnately, it is less clear that the White House knows what to do about the situation.
Well, we do have diplomatic theater to pretend we are responding to the greatest threat to peace in Europe since the Cold War:
The U.S. sanctions strategy is therefore not designed to change Russian policies; it is designed to make it look like the United States is trying to change Russian policy.
I will concede that effective sanctions are difficult. That's not my field and I have focused more on helping Ukraine survive this crisis while making Russia pay a price for attacking Ukraine and bolstering NATO military deployments to reassure our allies in NATO and elsewhere looking at NATO.
But the notion that President Obama thinks he is up there swinging and getting on base is ludicrous. At best he is standing their trying to get on base on balls (or getting hit by a pitch) in a global version of "voting present."
I think he is most upset that the press corps in no longer as eager to go along with his tales of hitting glory.
Which is understandable frustration given that the media has been reliably loyal in praising the president since before he was elected in 2008. Getting a Nobel Peace Prize before he even knew where all the restrooms in the White House were located surely added to the president's feeling that he's hitting triples at will.
To adapt a charge popularized by Ann Richards, President Obama was elected on third base and thought he hit a triple.
Oh, and as an aside, I think it is pretty damning that President Obama contrasts his style to that of a "wartime presidency's" drama.
We are at war!
If not, what are we doing with over thirty thousand troops still dying in Afghanistan and why are we launching drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen? If we aren't at war, the president has some explaining to do, no?
