Finally, The First Duffer Is Dragged to the Mike to Inform America He’ll Deal With “Alleged” Terrorism. Or Something.
I didn’t get to hear President Obama’s reluctant statement on the SpeedoBomber, but I read it here (via memeorandum) and I entirely agree with Dan Riehl. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more uninspired, bored, “Oh God how fast can I read this so I can go back outside and play” statement from this President ever. Here’s what Dan had to say.
This has to be the most perfunctory speech the orator in chief has ever given. It’s as if he resents being pulled away from his vacation to make it. Where’s the energy? The personal connection? It isn’t there. He’s literally reading a press release and it shows. Where is all that charisma we’ve heard so much about? It’s as if the issue doesn’t even interest him at all.
The issue really doesn’t interest him. You need look no farther for proof than how he reacted to the news compared to how he reacted to a minor injury from a friend’s daughter. In the latter case, he stopped his game and raced to the scene even though there wasn’t a darned thing he could have done to help the situation. In the case of this attack, he waited three days to drop this apathetic pile of lukewarm nothingness on us even though there should have been just a touch of fire in his words. After all, his own homeland security personnel did as good a job stopping this attack as they would have if they had strapped on a set of pads and faces a few slap shots from Alexander Ovechkin. If nothing else, he should have been ticked that Janet Napolitano made him look like a fool for picking her.
But no. He played the incident with as much energy as Ben Stein calling attendance in Ferrris Bueller’s Day Off.
Or a public defender, called on to take a case he really doesn’t want. That’s how I read his statement and Jonah Goldberg sniffed out the stench of legalistic language as well. First, my observations, then a little from Goldberg:
1) Abdulmutallab is only a “suspect” if you believe he committed a criminal violation and not an act of aggression against the United States.
2) He did not carry out an “attempted terrorist attack” but an actual attack that was thwarted before it could be completed. Again, you only use the modifier “attempted” if you’re talking about the act in legal terms.
3) He did not “allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device”. He actually tried to ignite the device. This is also a circumlocution a lawyer has to use because of the particular rules of the legal system. There’s no need for the Presient to use it unless, well, I’d better get to Goldberg on this one.
If we know it, how “allegedly” can it be? And we do know it, right? I mean there are lots of witnesses, we have identified the device and the explosive and the guy has reportedly admitted what he was trying to do. And al Qaeda has admitted they were behind the plot (or at least an al Qaeda website says so). But the commander-in-chief still says “allegedly.”
If an army of enemy soldiers attacked American troops in a combat theater, we wouldn’t say “We know that the Germans allegedy attacked our forces in Holland.” But when a terrorist aligned with an avowed US enemy attacks on a civilian plane, the criminal law-enforcement paradigm requires we give this guy the benefit of the doubt.
That’s three instances of delicate legal tiptoeing in three short paragraphs, which tells me everything I need to know about how why the President didn’t treat this with any real sense of urgency. Barack Obama’s statement is pretty much exactly how you’d expect a beleaguered public defender to sound about ten minutes after he’s been handed an absolute loser of a case that he doesn’t want and doesn’t have time to handle. If that’s really the way he sees it, and I’ve seen no indication to believe otherwise, then it means our national security is in the hands of a man who acts like keeping Islamists from killing us by the thousands is a tedious obligation. God help us all.
UPDATE: Linked by Pundette and Scared Monkeys. Thanks, guys!
Other Posts of Interest:
- Guilt by Association Only Works in One Direction These Days
- The Right Needs to Step Back from the Navy SEALs Trial
- Dick Cheney Calls Out the President
Category: Our New Democratic Overlords, The Long War Here At Home
Great post. The speech is worse on video. His affect couldn't be flatter. Linked to you.
I didn't see it until later and only for a few seconds since the thought of sitting and listening to this doofus is more than I can handle. But he could not have been MORE disconnected. This man just doesn't care and that's what should be bothering all of us more than anything.
I chose not to listen to it because I couldn't imagine how he could give it any life at all.
[...] I: Obama finally drags himself away from the golf course to make a statement on the terrorist bombing attempt aboard [...]