OBAMA’S PROBLEMS WITH WORDS

DATELINE: Naiveville, Mar 26 –  President Obama is on a foreign tour this week trying to sell the efficacy of a unified U.S. – European front against Russian aggression in Ukraine. His speeches are flowery and the reception warm and enthusiastic, at least from the handpicked audiences.

None of this is surprising. After all, our President won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for public speaking, which beats, by far, any other medal offered for stump oratory. In foresight, the award was very unfortunate for two reasons. It demeaned the Prize for all who have received, and who will receive, it. Arguably worse for Americans, the award reinforced a confused belief held by Mr. Obama that his words are accomplishment.

Obama’s conviction that his rhetoric is realization is often on display. It’s seen in more than just foreign policy miscalculations such as the Russian invasion, the Syrian redline and the unfortunate Iran Agreement. It’s visible on the home front as well. The largest example is Obamacare, which has been the joke of the day for the last six months. Almost all of Obama’s federal support programs over the past five years have fizzled despite his laudatory claims, leaving the economy rutted in the doldrums.

Then there’s Obama’s open-mouth-speak-nonsensically problem. This most often occurs during spontaneous remarks, but not exclusively. In response to a question posed at the International Nuclear Summit at The Hague this week, Obama announced his greatestsecurity fear. It was not Russia, a country that Obama characterizes merely as a “regional” problem. Obama’s big concern is a nuclear bomb going off in Manhattan.

Really? First, dismissing Russia’s importance to the U.S. probably took the bloom off Obama’s rose of support to Ukraine and other countries fearful of Putin. Second, to some, his remarks seemed like an invitation to bomb NYC.

Not that Obama had that intent, of course. But, those with a twisted view, which describes just about every terrorist, would see it that way. So, his remarks were doubly dumb. Worse, it appears that his motivation may have been to avoid giving credence to Romney’s 2012 assessment of the Russian threat.

Downplaying Russian importance also put an unfortunate context around all of Obama’s remarks this week. He claims that the U.S. and Europe are punishing Russia together. But, in fact, only a paltry number of individual sanctions have been imposed. And there will be no joint suffering. Europe will bear adverse economic repercussions alone. Against those realities Obama’s less than tepid view of the Russian threat cannot be assuring.

None of this is to say that words can’t work. But, it takes a more clever use of them than Mr. Obama has mastered so far. Teddy Roosevelf advised to talk softly and carry a big stick, which Obama collapsed into talk big. And then there are the Chinese. They have developed a three-pronged political strategy to excise the U.S. military from their part of the world.

Talk is a major part of the strategy. However, the Chinese do not confuse words with accomplishment. So, the three prongs, psychological, media manipulation and legal maneuvering, include action as well.

Whether the strategy works is a long run question. The Chinese have two huge advantages in that regard. The first is immunity to political discord, stemming mostly from the fact that they do not permit any. The second is that they have the luxury of developing long-term strategies while our politicians think in election cycles.

Still, the overarching infrastructure of the departments and agencies in the Executive Branch is supposed to supply us with the long view. But, this continuity depends on the credentials and abilities of political appointees who run them for the short-term.

Our system’s built-in expectation is that the Chief Executive is, if not a competent manager himself, smart enough to surround himself/herself with proficient staffers. But, Obama is neither adept himself nor smart enough to realize it. His staffers cannot make up for the yawning vacuum in the Oval Office.

It will be hard for him to talk his way out of it, too, especially since there’s no air in there.