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That Didn't Take Long
Ross Douthat —
Me, last week: Obama already made fans of Niall Ferguson and Eli Lake; by 2012, I wouldn't be surprised if he's converted Max Boot as well. Max Boot, today: As someone who was skeptical of Obama's moderate posturing during the
campaign, I have to admit that I am gobsmacked by these appointments ,
most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain ... Only churlish partisans of both the left and the right can be unhappy with the emerging tenor of our nation's new leadership. ...
Churlish
Power Line —
Max Boot surveys Obama"> Max Boot surveys Obama's national security team and writes, "only churlish partisans of both the left and the right can be unhappy with the emerging tenor of our nation's new leadership." I guess that makes me a churlish partisan.
It's been clear to me since before Obama named anyone to his national security team that the incoming administration would not, in the short run, rock the boat on foreign policy and national security matters. As I have written, our foreign policy is on fairly solid ground now, and it would be foolish ...
Sober Up on Hillary
The Corner on National Review Online —
... , Paul Mirengoff bursts the balloon Max Boot has gone up in over Obama's foreign policy team: Boot thinks Clinton will be a powerful voice for "neo-liberalism" which, he adds, is not so different in many respects from "neo-conservativism". Both, Boot notes, "support humanitarian interventions in places like Darfur and Bosnia." Yet for most conservatives I know, including neo-conservatives, Darfur and Bosnia are not issues the handling of which makes us happy or unhappy with the general course of U.S. foreign policy. And labeling Hillary Clinton a "neo-liberal" provides litte ...
DC Physics
N/A —
... Gates must be happy to announce the Obama admin is joining him in the fight. When you crave inertia in policy, inertia is what you get. What is in motion stays in motion, what is in place stays in place. Certain rules apply in politics as much as physics. Change in policy again is sacrificed on the altar of bipartisanship politics.
Equal and opposite reactions! Yay! Now everybody chant “pragmatic!” and “realist!” on cue.
When Doves Cry
JustOneMinute —
When Doves Cry Gates at Defense and retired Marine Corps General Jones as National Security Adviser? Max Boot is "gobsmacked". In a good way. But Paul Mirengoff at Powerline delivers a bracing bucket of coldwater with a reminder that, although Hillary at State may not be strumming the guitar she knows all the words to "Kumbaya". The WaPo profiles Jones but omits his campaign appearance with McCain and his "no deadlines" testimony on Iraq in Sept 2007. Libs may moan now but when Obama delivers the glorious middle-class entitlement on health ...
Meet the New Boss …
Opinionator —
... , a show of bipartisan continuity in a time of war that will be the first time a Pentagon chief has been carried over from a president of a different party,” reports The Times. “Mr. Obama was expected to appoint Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine commandant and NATO supreme commander, as his national security adviser.” The conservative pundit Max Boot, writing at Commentary, is pleased as punch at Obama’s foreign-policy team : The only outright leftist in the bunch is Susan Rice, and she is being shunted aside to a post where the premium is on rhetoric, not action. She ...
This Is In Your Wheelhouse, Daniel
Balloon Juice —
... Damnit. I read this Max Boot piece praising the Obama team for their national security/foreign policy picks, and the first thing I did was race ...
Blinkers. Eyes. Obama
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Neocon Max Boot begins to get it: As someone who was skeptical of Obama’s moderate posturing during the campaign, I have to admit that I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain. (Jim Jones is an old friend of McCain’s, and McCain
almost certainly would have asked Gates to stay on as well.) This all
but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, the
unconditional summits with dictators, and other foolishness that once
emanated from the Obama ...
Obama the Realist
Weekly Standard Blog —
... Of course, none of this is to say that conservatives of all stripes shouldn't be pleased by the direction Obama is taking. As Max Boot says, "Only churlish partisans of both the left and the right can be unhappy with the emerging tenor" of the Obama administration. The realists may have opposed the surge, but they were not hostile to it -- they worked diligently for its success once the decision was made. If there is an emerging consensus on American foreign policy, it is that the players should remain the same even if the outcomes are different -- that the ...
'Gobsmacked' on the right
Ben Smith's Blog —
Max Boot, in Commentary, is surprised by Obama's national security team:
As someone who was skeptical of Obama’s moderate posturing during the campaign, I have to admit that I am gobsmacked by these appointments , most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain. (Jim Jones is an old friend of McCain’s, and McCain almost certainly would have asked Gates to stay on as well.) This all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, the unconditional summits with dictators, and other foolishness that once emanated from ...
Gobsmacked?
Swampland —
... And now we have Max Boot "gobsmacked" by the excellent Obama security choices, which Boot sees as a sign that Obama is going to have a foreign policy not so distant from, well, neoconservatism: ...
The Wingnuttiest Are Starting to Thaw
Hoffmania! —
... The problem with this sort-of-epiphany from Max Boot and others like him is not that they're seeing things differently a little too late. It's that they disturbingly bought hook, line and sinker into the pervasive right wing media reporting that Barack Obama was going to turn the United States into the new mothership of Communism or a training ground for terrorists. ...
