There is nothing like a leader who is decisive in his strategy for dealing with a national threat. And Barack Obama is nothing like a leader who is decisive, etc. Ari Fleischer, who served as Press Secretary under Pres. George W. Bush, picked up on Obama’s abrupt about-face last night during his remarks on the murder of American journalist Steven Sotloff and the need to address the threat of ISIS.
Fleischer tweeted:
Pres O at 8:00 – ISIS must be “destroyed”. Pres O at 8:05 – ISIS must be a “manageable problem”. Always – Pres. O doesn’t know how to lead.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 3, 2014
Here is what the president said at 8:00:
The bottom line is this: our objective is clear. That is to degrade and destroy ISIL so that it is no longer a threat not just to Iraq but also to the region and to the United States. In order for us to accomplish that, the first phase has been to make sure we’ve got an Iraqi government in place and that we are blunting the momentum that ISIL was carrying out. And the airstrikes have done that. But now what we need to do is make sure we’ve got the regional strategy in place that can support an ongoing effort not just in the air but on the ground to move that forward. [Emphasis added]
And here is approximately five minutes later:
And to go back to what I said earlier to Ann, we know that if we are joined by the international community, we can continue to shrink ISIL’s sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing, its military capabilities to the point where it is a manageable problem. And the question is going to be making sure we’ve got the right strategy, but also making sure that we’ve got the international will to do it. [Emphasis added]
Now, I grant you, it was nighttime, but if he were true to form, Obama would have been out on the golf links ten minutes later.
(h/t Weasel Zippers)
