Earlier in the week, AEI's Danielle Plekta lamented President Obama's numerous foreign policy failures, which prompted Kevin to point out that the previous administration's track record was uneven as well.
In her response, Plekta admits as much but then offers this:
But one thing Iâ??ll give the late, unlamented GWB is that he was relatively modest about his own importance to the cosmos. If heâ??d have told us that he was going to heal the ocean or part the sea, or whatever the heck it was that President Obama promised, he would have been laughed out of town. Weâ??re still talking about his daft â??mission accomplishedâ? banner, for heavenâ??s sake.The standards of comparison I made are to the America that this president promised us in his election campaign and his first inaugural. He has fallen woefully short, as his own acolytes would confess.
True. But comparisons with campaign rhetoric are rarely pretty are they? To wit:
"I'm worried about over committing our military around the world. I want to be judicious in its use. I donâ??t think nation-building missions are worthwhile." (Bush, 2000).
"I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it's got to be." (Bush, 2000)
"We don't want the 82nd Airborne walking kids to kindergarten." (Condoleezza Rice, 2000).
"The adults are in charge." - Every conservative pundit I can remember, circa 2000.
But aside from that, I think it's true that Obama over-personalizes his rhetoric, has oversold his capacity to effect change internationally and on a number of important fronts, is not succeeding. I think that's more the result of his failure to change the ends of American policy as opposed to the means, but that's a debate for another day.
Suffice it to say that when it comes to presidential hubris, while it's not parting the seas, pledging America to eliminate tyranny in the world (as GWB did in the Second Inaugural) is no mean feat. And wasn't it a Bush administration official who insisted the administration "could create its own reality?"
