{"id":13177,"date":"2012-05-03T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=13177"},"modified":"2012-05-02T23:55:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T04:55:27","slug":"is-obama-playing-politics-with-war-on-terror-of-course-just-as-bush-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=13177","title":{"rendered":"Is Obama playing politics with war on terror? Of course, just as Bush did"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why does anyone seem surprised that Barack Obama is trying to score political points by going to Afghanistan on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden death<\/a>? Yes, it’s disgusting, but that’s what every president does.<\/p>\n

This partisanship looks like “leadership” when he’s on your team. For instance, Chris Matthews of MSNBC — a long-time Democratic Party partisan before moving to TV news — said he’s very proud of Obama for going to Afghanistan<\/a>. Jon Stewart asked whether Republicans criticizing Obama for the trip are on crack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To Republicans, it was obviously a matter of Obama politicizing Bin Laden’s death. The howling has been long and loud. They’ve accused Obama of “spiking the ball” and gloating for political purposes.<\/p>\n

So who’s right? The Republicans who say he’s politicizing national security with the trip? Or the Democrats such as Stewart who fire back that the GOP criticism is crazy? The truth is that they’re both right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Do you remember when George W. Bush rode the “war on terror” horse to victory in 2004? Anybody who doesn’t think he completely used the military conflicts for political purposes wasn’t paying attention. Remember his infamous trip to an aircraft carrier in 2003<\/a> to announce the end of “major combat operations”? Remember the big banner reading, “Mission Accomplished”? Was there any other possible reason for his trip to that carrier other than for television cameras to record him as a triumphant “war president”?<\/p>\n

Obama’s trip to Kabul Tuesday was no different. It was no better or worse. It was a slimy, self-serving political trip calculated to reinforce the notion that he’s the president who killed Bin Laden and he’s the president who’s signing the agreement to get U.S. troops out of the country. It’s all about his election this year — and the TV cameras beaming those images back to the voters.<\/p>\n

I disagree with Obama about pretty much everything, and I disagreed with Bush about just as many things. But one thing they share is a lust for power and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to gain power and make themselves look better. The men who end up in that office are narcissists. I’m not sure you can even run for the office without a strong streak of narcissism and a bit of a “god complex.”<\/p>\n

Anybody who’s shocked that Obama pulled his stunt this week is either naive or hasn’t been paying attention. Any president would have done the same thing, because they’re all slime balls with one agenda — getting into power and staying there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why does anyone seem surprised that Barack Obama is trying to score political points by going to Afghanistan on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden death? Yes, it’s disgusting, but that’s what every president does. This partisanship looks like “leadership” when he’s on your team. For instance, Chris Matthews of MSNBC — a long-time Democratic Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-3qx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13177"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13214,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13177\/revisions\/13214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}