Republican candidates and commentators on the right are insisting Obama is too “weak” or feckless to do what has to be done on Iran. Here’s Jonathan Tobin of Commentary:
Obama is at pains to try to assert he doesn’t “bluff” when it comes to threatening the use of force, but after three years of a feckless engagement policy followed by a largely ineffective effort to impose sanctions on Iran, it’s hard to find anyone who really believes he would actually launch a strike to prevent the ayatollahs from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon.
But maybe harping on the president’s “weakness” is sending exactly the wrong message to the ayatollahs, who must figure they have nothing to worry about with the Cowardly Lion in the Oval Office.
Imagine instead were we to paint Obama as another General Jack D. Ripper, his trigger finger itching like mad. Imagine if Netanyahu’s people emerged from their meeting, and, instead of talking about the gaps between the president and the p.m., they said something like this:
How was it? Frightening, if you want to know the truth. Obama kept reaching for the red phone, saying “Just say the word! Just say the word! I will do this thing, so help me!” And Bibi spent most of the time trying to calm Obama down. “No, Mr. President. We can’t bomb Iran right this moment. We have to allow time for sanctions and diplomacy to work. That’s the Jewish way.”
See? Bibi comes out as the voice of reason, America emerges as a crazy state, and Achmadinejad begins packing his bags for a long vacation in an undisclosed location. It’s win, win, lose!
Of course, I’m kidding (I think). But David Horowitz of the Freedom Center doesn’t put that kind of Jiu-Jitsu past the president:
With the Republican nominees for president harping on Obama’s weakness with Iran for several months now, an American strike on Iran may be politically advantageous. Mitt Romney, who recently declared that “if we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will get nuclear weapons” but “if you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” would have a major talking point taken away from him. Likewise for Newt Gingrich, who has said that “Obama is the most dangerous President in modern American history” with regard to foreign policy, and that “he is incapable of defending the United States.”
If Obama were to strike Iran, any debate about him being a weak foreign policy president would immediately be quieted. He would enter the presidential debates with a firm foreign policy record and as a defender of America, with the Republican nominee looking sheepish and out-of-touch in his criticism.