>>>>>>Yeah right...
>>>>>
>>>>>IMO he handles disengagement from Iraq while droning on the Taliban nicely balanced.
>>>>>Also he did not fumble Osama - and actually I like the way he presents that.
>>>>>Not basking in glory that Osama was found during his tenure but having guts and luck for the operation.
>>>>
>>>>Luckily he had old Hillary to force him into actually getting Osama.
>>>
>>>Where did you get that from? IAC the President is the one who gives that order, not the Sec. of State.
>>
>>Just as a point of clarification, I think both Obama's disciples and the Neocon Hawk Right are choosing to be ignorant of Obama's actual national security policies and the record ( each for their own, very different, reasons.)
>>
>>The key players are John Brennan - deputy NSA and Gen James Cartright as well as some folks off the books. Obama is very much involved in the planning and approval of an extremely effective - and incredibly ruthless - targeted killing program that as a candidate he would have exploited shamelessly as political fodder ( and did in similar cases in 2008 ) throwing red meat to his base had it been the work of Bush or Cheney.
>>
>>Obama is not what he appears to be in so many ways - and that is definitely both to his credit and his discredit. Like most people, he's very complex. Both his followers and his harshest critics are much more ... simple.
>>
>>He is perhaps the most cynical opportunist to be President since Richard Nixon ( though if Romney wins he could take a shot at the title. )
>
>That's a pretty strong statement. Maybe I just have blinders on and am unwilling to see that part of him. What you call cynicism, I prefer to view as realism. I do believe he possesses a genuine desire to do the right thing.
>
>Re actual national security policies and key players, I am more than happy to concede you know a lot more about that than I do.

Actually I think you are correct about his being a realist and wanting to do the right thing. But I think that realism cannot help but cause him to be cynical about both politics and the cult of celebrity that worked so much to his benefit. I never believed he was in any way influenced by a clown like the Rev Wright - but his very attendance at that church and his suffering of fools gladly is further evidence of cynical opportunism.

And I don't cite that as evidence of bad character or evil, just further realism that he is no different from millions of the ambitious that have preceded him .

His approach to national security has been refreshingly realistic while his public rhetoric has been typically cynical, meant to appease a constituency that has the luxury of idealism without responsibility.

I didn't mean to compare him with Nixon, by the way, except in that they are both examples of complex, cynical and ambitious men who know how to manipulate those around them while maintaining a personal disdain for both the process and the gullibility of the most devoted. Of the two I think Obama is the brighter and less conflicted, but the playing field is very different both domestically and geo-politically so I is hard to tell about which had the better grasp of big picture issues.

I think Obama is a lot closer, in so many ways, to Woodrow Wilson. A pop-history analysis could probably draw quick parallels and they would be exactly the wrong ones, but a deeper view of both of them would show parallels that are more telling and far more interesting.

As to the national security stuff, I just like to read that kind of thing and besides "Obama's Wars", of course a must-read, I recommend to anyone who cares beyond bumper stickers "Kill or Capture" by Danial Klaidman at Newsweek.