Barack Obama, the first president shaped by the celebratory culture in which every child who plays soccer gets a trophy and the first whose campaign speeches were his qualification for the office, perhaps should not be blamed for thinking that saying things is tantamount to accomplishing things, and that good intentions are good deeds. So, his presidency is useful after all, because it illustrates the perils of government run by believers in magic words and numbers.
Candidate Obama challenged his critics by quoting great speeches and indignantly rebuking his critics, "Don't tell me that words don't matter."
Will told President Obama exactly that. Words don't matter if they are divorced from action to back them up.
Indeed, Victoria Nuland, who famously said "eff the European Union" in a private conversation that Russia publicized, was only saying that words don't matter (tip to Instapundit):
Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State whose intemperate remark about the European Union were secretly recorded and released on YouTube (allegedly by the Russians), probably wouldn’t have received high marks from Emily Post. But if Nuland’s wording is crude, her analysis is essentially correct, as yet another secretly recorded conversation reveals—this one between Helga Schmid, a representative of EU High Commissioner Catherine Ashton, and the EU Ambassador in Ukraine:
HS: “I just wanted to tell you one more thing in confidence. The Americans are going around and saying we’re too soft, while they’re moving more firmly toward sanctions. […] Well, we’re not soft! We’re about to issue a very strongly worded statement about Bulatov!“
Newsflash to the EU: A very strongly worded statement rarely accomplishes much in the realm of international diplomacy, and it certainly is not going to persuade Russia to abandon its quest to become a great power.
If words truly mattered, we should be saluting the EU for their planned strongly worded statement, not dismissing them over their lack of action.
But our ASS4EAEA (with all due homage to Keith Laumer's many humorous acronyms in this series) looks like James Retief schooling the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne (CDT) on how to deal with foes.
Five years into his presidency, our enemies abroad have figured out what our president still does not get. You can mail them in. Or you can phone them in. But words alone really don't matter.
