BloggeRhythms

It’s amazing that at a time when communication is virtually instant when needed, access exists to unlimited sources of information, and the sources and quality of U.S. education is supposedly among the best in the world, a significant number of people in responsible positions either aren’t aware of what goes on around them, or purposefully don’t care. 

 

Evidence of intentional, or ingrained, ignorance can be seen in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article by Peter Nicholas who writes that, “Many U.S. Jewish leaders are unnerved both by the new Iran nuclear agreement and the public falling out between President Barack Obama and his Israeli counterpart, developments that are creating a rift in the durable alliance between Jews and the Democratic Party in the run-up to the 2016 elections.”

 

These “leaders" are: “Worried that Iran might still develop a nuclear weapon despite the accord announced Thursday.” They say “they feel torn between an Obama administration that has pressed hard for a deal and an Israeli government that has repeatedly warned that Iran is a grave threat to the Jewish state and can’t be trusted to abandon its nuclear ambitions.”

 

And then, in an incredibly unbelievable response to Iran’s almost certain development of nuclear weaponry, “A group of Jewish Democratic House members met with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough in his office last week and cautioned that for them to help “sell a very unpopular [Iran nuclear] deal to our constituents,” Mr. Obama must “increase his popularity with our constituents,” said a Democratic congressman involved in the meeting.”

 

On the other hand, “Republicans have begun making moves to try to capitalize on this unease, hoping to peel away Jewish votes and campaign contributions that have historically skewed Democratic.” 

 

However, one truly has to wonder why this is just beginning to happen now when the president not only made it crystal clear from his first campaign that he was anti-Netanyahu and anti-Israel, but did his level best to ignore and degrade both from the start.

 

And what the Iranian “deal” and its handling point out is that, for this administration, political spin and self-serving aggrandizing are far more important than competent, effective implementation of ability and expertise. Both of which are generally absent. Another example of which follows.    

 

Greg Jaffe on washingtonpost.com writes: “President Obama has cited the battle against al-Shabab militants in Somalia as a model of success for his relatively low-investment, light-footprint approach to counterterrorism.

 

“But this week’s massacre of 148 people at Garissa University College, the deadliest terrorist attack on Kenyan soil in two decades, demonstrates the limits of the administration’s approach and the difficulty of producing lasting victories over resilient enemies.

 

“Only last fall, Obama was touting his counterterrorism strategy in the region as one that “we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”

 

Thus, it’s news like this that makes one wonder why a guy supposedly as smart as the president’s supposed to be, doesn't just do the job he was hired for and simply keep his mouth shut. Especially because most of the time, he consistently fails to get things done right at all. 

 

Which brings us to today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife.

 

According to Amy Chozik on nytimes.com, Kristina Schake, a former aide to the first lady, Michelle Obama, has been hired by Bill’s wife’s 2016 communications team “to try to tackle an issue that dogged the 2008 Clinton campaign.”

 

“A person familiar with Clinton camp discussions who could not go on the record before the campaign’s official start said Mrs. Clinton does not need a “life coach,” and that Ms. Schake’s value will be to figure out new ways to spread the former Secretary of State’s central message of lifting the middle class.”

 

So, what will be quite interesting is to follow up to see how Ms Schake performs. Because it has to be one of the most challenging tasks on the planet to try to convince potential voters that a woman who was married to a president, travelled the world at taxpayers expense meeting with dignitaries in countless nations, and then doing personal appearances at two hundred thousand dollars a pop has any “central message” the “middle class” would care an iota about. 

 

Unless of course she can teach them to become multi-millionaires in Chappaqua and then a presidential candidate due to her marriage to Bill like she did.

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios