Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Obama's "Bad Cop" Coup

For a dozen years, Americans have lived in fear of what crazy Middle East terrorists might do. In recent weeks, Barack Obama has turned the tables with seemingly irrational determination to wreak havoc on Syria.

The mild-mannered former law professor/community organizer has morphed into an Osama, bent on bombing the wicked against the wishes of world opinion.

Has the President, consciously or not, been playing the good cop-bad cop game, as the wild-eyed avenger who has to be restrained by more reasonable proponents of law and order? 

Whether or not, he is on the brink of a success no one could have imagined.

The Russian reversal at the UN has handed Obama an unforeseen opportunity to pull back from the posture of intractable avenger to the “Yes We Can” optimist of yore, converting his request of Congress from an imminent attack to provisional approval if Assad backslides on handing over his chemical weapons.

John Kerry may have muffed his good cop role by prematurely blurting that Syria faces an “unbelievably small, limited kind of effort,” but the table is set for the President to revert to reason.

Will the temporary bad cop take yes for an answer?

2 comments:

spodvoll said...

Ah, you're finally getting it, Mr. Stein! It's a shame we have gotten so used to blunderers in the White House that we're shocked to have someone as shrewd as JFK. Caroline and Teddy knew before the rest of us, that Barry could probably have handled "The Missiles of October" with as much aplomb.

Unfortunately, we live in different times. Pundits must knee-jerk and second-guess if they are to compete with Howard Beale.

"As media outlets multiply and it becomes easier to disseminate information on the Web and on cable, the news cycle is getting shorter - to the point that there is no pause... This creates pressure to entertain or perish, which has fed the press' dominant bias; not pro-liberal or pro-conservative, but pro-conflict."
"When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, President Kennedy was on vacation. For six days, no one pressed him for a reaction."
- Michael Beschloss

spodvoll said...
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