Obama is NO Harry Truman!
Posted by papundits on 07/28/2008
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| Barack Hussein Obama: He’s no Harry S. Truman |
THE FOUNDATION: AMERICA
“We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.” -Thomas Jefferson
INSIGHT
“I don’t pass the buck, nor do I alibi out of any decision I make.” -Harry S. Truman
FOR THE RECORD
“Barack Obama had ample reason to recall the Berlin Airlift of 1948 during his dramatic speech in the German capital last week. The airlift was an early and critical success for the West in the Cold War, with clear relevance to our own time, the war in Iraq, and the free world’s conflict with radical Islam.
But having reached back 60 years to that pivotal hour of American leadership, Obama proceeded to draw from it exactly the wrong lessons.
The Soviet Union had blockaded western Berlin on June 24, 1948, choking off access to the city by land and water and threatening 2.5 million people with starvation. Moscow was determined to force the United States and its allies out of Berlin. To capitulate to Soviet pressure, as Obama rightly noted, ‘would have allowed Communism to march across Europe.’ Yet many in the West advocated retreat, fearing that the only way to keep the city open was to use the atomic bomb-and launch World War III.
For President Truman, retreat was unthinkable. ‘We stay in Berlin, period,’ he decreed. Overriding the doubts of senior advisers… Truman ordered the Armed Forces to begin supplying Berlin by air. Military planners initially thought that with a ‘very big operation,’ they might be able to get 700 tons of food to Berlin. Within weeks, the Air Force was flying in twice that amount every day, as well as supplies of coal. … It would take nearly a year and more than 277,000 flights. But in the end it was the Soviets who backed down.
On May 12, 1949, the blockade ended-a triumph of American prowess and perseverance, and a momentous vindication for Truman.
But not once in his Berlin speech did Obama acknowledge Truman’s fortitude, or even mention his name.
Nor did he mention the US Air Force, or the 31 American pilots who died during the airlift. Indeed, Obama seemed to go out of his way not to say plainly that what saved Berlin in that dark time was America’s military might.
Save for a solitary reference to ‘the first American plane,’ he never described one of the greatest American operations of the postwar period as an American operation at all.
He spoke only of ‘the airlift,’ ‘the planes,’ ‘those pilots.’ Perhaps their American identity wasn’t something he cared to stress amid all his ‘people of the world’ salutations and talk of ‘global citizenship.’…
Sixty years later, it is a very different kind of Democrat who is running for president. Obama may have wowed ‘em in Berlin, but he’s no Harry Truman.” -Jeff Jacoby
CAMPAIGN WATCH
“The early precincts are in, and it looks like a landslide. Unfortunately for Barack Obama, these are only the early precincts. America votes later. The public-opinion polls show the American idol winning by extraordinary margins in the precincts of the fantasists: by 51 percent in France, 49 percent in Germany, and 30 percent even in Britain, where voters speak English and understand American politics a little better than in the rest of Europe or, for that matter, the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Here at home, where there are early, tentative signs that Americans are beginning to come off a roaring drunk, he’s effectively tied with John McCain.” -Wesley Pruden
LIBERTY
“A view of the world means you might like London and I might prefer Paris, but each preference can be equally valid because it is a matter of individual taste. A correct worldview is a way of not just looking at other countries and people, but having an intellectual and moral center that allows one to distinguish between good and evil; right and wrong; sound economic, social and political policies and bad ones. There is a reason America is what it is. The economic power and military might are effects, not causes of America’s greatness. It is because we offer the lives of our young and much of our fortune to defend liberty for ourselves and promote it for others that we are blessed with liberty. Too many other countries-especially European countries-receive liberty as America’s gift, but contribute little to it.” -Cal Thomas
SELECT READER COMMENTS
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“Once again, in his essay, ‘The Obama-philes: Barack’s Leftmedia Sycophants,’ Mark Alexander clearly exposed Barack Hussein Obama as the most expert flim-flam man we have ever witnessed-a master of deceit. Unless the MSM begins to recognize the evil, simple people whose image of Obama is full of glamorous promises of hope for change will select the Hollywood candidate. He will be president. God bless the USA, and God have mercy upon those poor souls duped into Obamania.” -St. Charles, Missouri
“Barack Obama’s speech in Germany was downright chilling-a frightening combination of Neville Chamberlain, Karl Marx and Jimmy Carter. Obama apologized for America’s existence, our abilities and our hard-earned wealth. One line that got the Germans cheering was that there ought not be any nuclear weapons in the world. He said we all have to trust each other, and we must be more equitable. Never has so much world socialism been promised in a single hour. If you heard or read that speech, you can’t say you don’t know who Barack Hussein Obama is anymore.” -Rock Rapids, Iowa
THE LAST WORD
“John McCain has figured out that one way to build enthusiasm among conservatives is to confront his former best friends in the liberal media. As the media glorify Barack Obama the ‘statesman’ on his trip abroad, with the three network anchors lining up for interviews like a gaggle of smitten fan-club presidents, the McCain campaign suddenly acquired a surprising ‘Annoy The Media’ flavor… McCain’s campaign is now running Internet ads mocking Chris Matthews for his ‘thrill up the leg’ comments about Obama and other assorted media goo, complete with Frankie Valli crooning ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ in the background. It’s quite clear that the media are hypersensitive about any mockery of Obama. So mocking his pitter-patter valentines in the media may be the best hardball [McCain] can throw.” -Brent Bozell
Veritas vos Liberabit-Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families-especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)
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