BloggeRhythms

Republican presidential hopes gained further ground today. Thanks to two articles exposing the significant error made by the administration in entering an agreement of any kind with untrustworthy Iran.   

John Podhoretz @nypost.com, titled his article yesterday: “White House admits it played us for fools to sell Iran deal”

The text begins: “Congratulations, liberals of the Washington press corps and elite organizations: You’re a bunch of suckers. We all know this because the Obama White House just told us so.

“In an astounding New York Times piece by David Samuels, senior White House officials gleefully confess they use friendly reporters and nonprofits as public relations tools in the selling of President Obama’s foreign policy — and can do it almost at will because these tools are ignorant, will believe what they’re told, will essentially take dictation and are happy to be used just to get the information necessary for a tweet or two.” 

Calling the selling of a misleading narrative about the nuclear deal with Iran the administration’s “greatest triumph,” Samuels claims that the parameters were set a year before the administration claimed and had nothing to do with the fact that a supposedly more accommodating government had risen to power. 

Samuels contends: “The mastermind of the Obama machine is Ben Rhodes, a New Yorker who joined the Obama campaign as a speechwriter in 2007 and has risen to become the most influential foreign-policy hand in the White House. 

“Rhodes drips with contempt for almost everyone but his boss. He consigns all those who do not share every particular of the Obama-Rhodes foreign-policy perspective to a gelatinous mass called “The Blob” — including Hillary Clinton. 

“He thinks as little of them as he does of the journalists he and his team must spoon-feed. “The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns,” Rhodes says. “They literally know nothing.” 

Rhodes assistant, Ned Price, refers to senior reporters and pundits who parrot what they’re told as “force multipliers.” Because if he gives them some “color, (juicy bits of inside-baseball detail) the next thing I know, lots of these guys are in the dot-com publishing space, and have huge Twitter followings, and they’ll be putting this message out on their own.” 

“Why on Earth was such conduct remotely acceptable? Because, Samuels makes clear, Rhodes and Obama believe they’re the only sensible thinkers in America and that there’s no way to get the right things done other than to spin them. “I mean, I’d prefer a sober, reasoned public debate, after which members of Congress reflect and take a vote,” he tells Samuels. “But that’s impossible.” 

“Impossible? There was a sober, reasoned public debate over the Iran deal. Its opponents were deadly serious. In the end, 58 senators voted against it on sober, reasoned grounds. 

“What the Samuels piece shows is that the Obama administration chose to attempt to get its way not by winning an argument but by bringing an almost fathomless cynicism to bear in manipulating its own clueless liberal fan club.” 

Here’s a link to the story: White House admits it played us for fools to sell Iran deal

 

What’s most interesting about the Samuels story is the overwhelming arrogance of the self-absorbed former speechwriter, Rhodes, performing a foreign policy role he obviously knows nothing about whatsoever. As proven, once again, by the horrendous results attained by himself and his boss, the POTUS. 

Just today, as reported by Jennifer Griffin and Lucas Tomlinson @FoxNews.com: “Iran’s leaders voiced outrage this week – and even threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz -- following a Republican congressman’s  proposed legislation seeking a stronger response to Tehran’s recent provocative actions against the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, including the capture of 10 Navy sailors in January. 

“A senior Revolutionary Guard commander threatened to shut down the entrance to the Persian Gulf, where one-third of the world's oil exports passes each day, after learning about Virginia Rep. Randy Forbes’ bill. 

“The bill, coming in response to an incident earlier this year in which the Iranian National Guard captured 10 Navy sailors at gunpoint, requires Congress to respond to Iran's recent provocations and rethink sanctions should the incidents continue.” 

Aside from the hostility against the U.S. demonstrated by Iran’s capture of its sailors, underlying dislike was confirmed by General Hossein Salami, deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, who said: “Americans should learn from historical truths. If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry…Americans cannot make safe any part of the world.”  

Compounding the issue, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, tweeted a cartoon showing Iranian troops kicking the U.S. Navy out of the Gulf, and said: “They come here from the other side of the globe and stage war games. What are you doing here? Go back to the Bay of Pigs. Go and hold exercises there. What are you doing in the Persian Gulf? The Persian Gulf is our home." 

Thus, this genius Rhodes may be able to use his position to dupe the press, of whom he says: “They literally know nothing.” However, in terms of his own job capabilities, he’s much like the guy who sat in a restaurant watching his coat, because that’s what the sign on the wall said to to do. And then someone came along and stole his lunch off the table in front of him.                                             

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

Yesterday, Alexandra Jaffe @nbcnews.com/politics, wrote: “An unrestrained Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton an "unbelievably nasty, mean enabler" who "destroyed" the lives of her husband's mistresses.”

The comments were made during a Friday evening rally in Eugene, Ore., marking “the sharpest tone he's taken against the Democratic frontrunner since becoming his party's presumptive nominee, and the first time he's been so direct in referencing Bill Clinton's affairs in months. 

"She's been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives," Trump said. "She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful." 

“Trump told the crowd "nobody respects women more than me," but in contrast, "nobody in this country, and maybe in the history of the country politically, was worse than Bill Clinton with women." 

"Have you ever read what Hillary Clinton did to the women that Bill Clinton had affairs with? And they're going after me with women?" he added, incredulously, without citing any specific examples or sources.” 

Attacking further, he charged that Bill’s wife would be "sleeping" when national security crises hit at odd hours, tied her to NAFTA, and called her a "tool of Wall Street." He also said he was the "last person she wants to run against…because my attitude is, I don't care." 

“Trump also took sharp aim at Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the liberal darling who's been the subject of vice-presidential chatter in recent weeks, with whom Trump's opened up a feud over social media in recent days. 

“In front of a crowd of thousands on Friday night, Trump unveiled a new nickname for the Massachusetts senator: "Goofus." 

Clinton's "got this goofy friend Elizabeth Warren, she's on a Twitter rant, she's a goofus," he said. 

"This woman, she's a basketcase. By the way, she's done nothing in the United States. She's done nothing." 

So, with neither leading presidential candidate dwelling much on policy or personal capabilities for the office they’re seeking, both seem to feel that mud-slinging has greater appeal to the voters they wish to attract. 

But, sooner or later, the serious issues facing the nation will have to be addressed. And in that regard, neither of the contenders has a whit of personal success to offer as proof of prior accomplishment. Which probably explains why both stick to smears and insults as their only viable weapons.        

It also leads to the ongoing question again: Joe Biden, Mayor Bloomberg, Jerry Brown, and Starbuck’s chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz, are you guys reading this?   

That’s it for today folks.    

 

Adios