On Setting Politics Aside
Over at The Weekly Standard, Stephen Hayes has an excellent piece demolishing the media's conventional wisdom that Governor Romney appeared "political" even as President Obama appeared "presidential" in the hours after the attacks on the American embassy in Cairo and the consulate in Benghazi.
For the sake of irony, Hayes includes a comment that Obama made in an interview with CBS on September 12 shortly before flying out for a campaign event: “I think most Americans, Democrats or Republicans, understand that there are times where we set politics aside, and one of those is when we've got a direct threat to American personnel who are overseas.”
What makes the quotation from Obama even more ironic is what the president told the CBS interviewer immediately afterward. Obama accused Romney of not having "his facts right" and added that the Republican nominee "seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later." In other words, right after calling for putting "politics aside," Obama picked them up again.
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Apr '11
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
And that was with a full night's sleep even though he went to bed and didn't know where the missing ambassador was. Guess he made this comment fully rested so it must make more sense then Romney's.
Oct '10
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
Obama has become so accustomed to media treatment which embodies a double standard favoring him, he can't see his behavior as contradictory. Having the media in your pocket over a long period of time distorts your comprehension of reality. Like welfare, the gift becomes an entitlement over time. The Romney team needs to get better at exploiting Obama's fun-house mirror view of reality.
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
Obama called it "senseless violence," I also find that a naive hippie thing to say. Unfortunately it makes sense to the extremists - planned and plotted and evil to the core. It makes sense to me, too. They want to kill us.
Jul '11
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
Jonathan Horn:
For the sake of irony, Hayes includes a comment that Obama made in an interview with CBS on September 12 shortly before flying out for a campaign event: “I think most Americans, Democrats or Republicans, understand that there are times where we set politics aside, and one of those is when we've got a direct threat to American personnel who are overseas.”
Really, so Obama did not criticize President Bush for the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars, while those wars were being conducted and soldiers were in harm’s way? That is not how I remember it.
Aug '10
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
What HVTs said.
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
Fake John Galt
Jonathan Horn:
For the sake of irony, Hayes includes a comment that Obama made in an interview with CBS on September 12 shortly before flying out for a campaign event: “I think most Americans, Democrats or Republicans, understand that there are times where we set politics aside, and one of those is when we've got a direct threat to American personnel who are overseas.”
Really, so Obama did not criticize President Bush for the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars, while those wars were being conducted and soldiers were in harm’s way? That is not how I remember it. · 4 hours ago
Candidate Obama also sharply criticized a number of other war-on-terror policies ... many of which, of course, he ended up adopting as president.
Edited on September 14, 2012 at 6:48pmMar '11
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
Non-political question prompted merely by incidental historical interest: when, exactly, did US embassies cease being the sovereign territory of the United States?
Jun '12
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
But the President is right, so he doesn't need to be consistent in this. His comments weren't political, he was just criticizing that evil Romney fellow who keeps bothering him about this governing thing. He just wants to play another round of golf, let the underlings handle this messy stuff. He's busy you know, there is fundraising to take care of too, other people's money is the best money you know.
Jul '10
Re: On Setting Politics Aside
The problem with Hayes' piece is that it misses the point of the critique against Romney. The examples he cites are Democratic political attacks about other issues, abortion, taxes, etc. The brief against Romney here isn't that he criticized the President during a crisis, but that he criticized the President during a crisis about the crisis.
And that he got some basic facts wrong, like suggesting the Cairo embassy's groveling tweet was a response after the attack, when it preceded it by several hours, a frustrating and unforced error.