The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I feel sorry for Obama,” I said. As my wife looked at me in disbelief, I quickly added a correction. “Well, almost.”
Beset by failures at home and abroad, the president cuts a lonely and sad figure these days. His aura of grief reflects his profound loss.
His worldview crashed headlong into reality, and reality won. Obamaism is dead, may it rest in peace.
That’s sad for him, but hold the tears — his loss is mankind’s hope. If Obama wakes from his utopian visions and faces the truth, there is a fighting chance to reverse America’s slide and keep the peace.
But first, he must come to grips with the historic dimensions of what has happened, and I’m not sure he’s capable of it. The signs aren’t encouraging.
In many ways, Vladimir Putin’s grab of Crimea is as significant as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 35 years ago.
Then-President Jimmy Carter quickly understood he had been wrong to trust the Soviets, and shifted to offense. His January 1980, speech was defiant and bold. Compared to Obama’s timid rebukes of Putin, Carter sounded like Churchill rousing Great Britain against Hitler.
Obama is still stuck in the belief that Putin is either crazy, or secretly looking for a way to save face and end the confrontation. He hasn’t accepted Putin for what he is because to do so would mean acknowledging that Obama’s whole approach to international relations has been a mistake.
The world, meaning friend and foe alike, already knows the president is uncomfortable with American power. The result is that his once-magical ability to inspire with words is now an international punch line because they are just words. He promised change and delivered disaster.
From Syria and Iran to North Africa and North Korea, the abdication of American leadership is proving calamitous. And now Putin’s move in Europe demolishes once and for all any illusion that Obama’s election would herald a turning point for mankind. Instead of people the world over beating their swords into plowshares, the 21st century is turning out to be a chaotic and bloody mess.
“The tide of war is receding,” Obama insisted.
Like so many of his pronouncements, he was confusing the ideas in his head with reality. It is not clear if he knows the difference.
The world looks to America, and America looks away. “It it is time to focus on nation-building here at home,” he declared, as though the Earth would take care of itself in a one-big-happy-family kind of way.
It turns out that the committee system is no better at running the global order than it is at running a corner grocery.
Somebody has to take the lead and assume responsibility for success. Somebody has to set the rules and enforce them.
That somebody used to be America, and it is no accident that when America led, the Earth became a better place for more people. The seven decades after World War II marked a historic era of peace and stability around the globe.
As Robert Kagan wrote in “The World America Made,” his 2012 book, “The most important features of today’s world — the great spread of democracy, the prosperity, the prolonged great-power peace — have depended directly and indirectly on power and influence exercised by the United States.”
But the reverse is also true, and that is what we are witnessing today. As Kagan put it, “when American power declines, the institutions and norms American power supports will decline too.”
All is not lost — yet. But Obama must take off his rose-colored glasses and face the facts.
Putin is his most immediate test. The president’s wrist-slap sanctions at a few functionaries were predictably dismissed, and widely regarded as a sign of weakness. That can only embolden the would-be czar.
Even worse was the timing, with talks on Iran’s nuclear program starting again. Bet the farm the mullahs will take their cue from whether Putin pays a serious price for carving up a country.
If he gets away with it, the Iranians won’t even bother to pretend to care what Obama says. Why should they?
Mayor simply failing NY kids
Lily Tomlin said it best: “No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.” She might have been thinking of the city’s Department of Education.
The educrats’ response to the civil-rights lawsuit filed by parents whose kids were blocked from a charter-school expansion in Harlem was a classic of misinformation. “We remain deeply committed to the rights of all students, and ensuring every child has access to a great education,” a department aide claimed.
Look at the facts. The middle-school charter the kids planned to attend, Success Academy IV, was one of the best-performing schools in the city. Its fifth-graders had a 96 percent pass rate on the state math test and 53 percent in English.
By comparison, four other middle schools the students could be assigned to had scores ranging from dismal to disgraceful. The highest was 17 percent passing in math in one school. The three others had rates below 10 percent in both subjects.
But that apparently qualifies as a “great education” by City Hall standards.
The contrast captures the incoherence not just of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s attack on charters, but also of his overall education policy. He refuses to consider closing failing schools, and is missing in action on other mainstream reforms, such as teacher accountability and merit pay.
Add the fact that the charter kids he wants to block are black and Hispanic, and it becomes impossible to reconcile the mayor’s actions with his rhetoric.
Then again, at least the kids involved are learning something. Now they know what “cynical” means.
Flight MH370 ifs, ands, bots
The recent South by Southwest tech conference was filled with dazzling gadgets, including one with special relevance. Cloud robotics connect robots’ “brains” through wireless networks, The Wall Street Journal reports, saying, “This would allow robots to be smarter, more powerful and cheaper.”
OK, smarty bots, go find Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Pols’ new marching orders
To judge from the headlines, it was a borderline tragedy that Mayor de Blasio and other pols refused to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Nonsense.
New Yorkers don’t need politicians to enjoy a parade and celebrate a holiday. The idea that they do just shows how everything is needlessly politicized. Surely, the pols have work to do and the tradition of marching mayors should die a dignified death.
Here’s a modest suggestion: Next year, parade organizers ought to turn the tables and ban all elected officials. That would be a relief from the annual strife and give St. Patrick his day in peace.
Mayor’s one good call
Finally, something I like about de Blasio. He’s not returning Charlie Rangel’s phone calls. Good move.