FrontPage Magazine - Why Obama Blinked
.../... FP: You referred earlier to Jimmy Carter’s “oblivion route.” Tell us a bit about it
Hanson: Well, Obama shares some of Carter's self-righteousness and messianic sense of self, and may really think, as did Carter, that his superior intellect and moral sense will inevitably be appreciated by hoi polloi--and therefore he will persist in the sermonizing, ramming down our throats the pie-in-the-sky therapeutic agendas, and then playing the wounded fawn when the rest of us don't appreciate the genius of our President.
So if he does all that, he just won't adjust--and we will probably get Carter stagflation at home, and a series of provocative challenges abroad. One cannot reinvent physics and say there is no consequence to running up annual $2 trillion deficits, or think that apologizing and appeasing rather creepy fellows like Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Ortega, Putin, and the rest will not have consequences down the line.
FP: So what is the overall good news regarding this retreat? What are the positive signs it gives off? What does it tell us and what hope does it give? .../...
