Morning Joe is-what else?-hysterical this morning. He is beyond shrill. The President called ISIS a bunch of guys with guns and good social media,
Joe Scarborough-who sounds more like Joe McCarthy every day-thinks the President is living in a fantasy world because he doesn't sound scared of ISIS.
He wants the President shrieking 'We're at war with radical Islam!'
I discussed Obama's speech yesterday and argued that he hit all the right notes.
“They can’t beat us on the battlefield, so they try to terrorize us into being afraid, into changing our patterns of behavior, into abandoning our allies and partners into retreating from the world,” Obama said. “As president I will not let that happen.”
"The man behind the attacks, Obama said at another point, is “not a mastermind. He found a few other vicious people, got their hands on some fairly conventional weapons, and sadly it turns out if you’re willing to die, you can kill a lot of people."
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/11/obama-calls-out-isis-fearmongering.html
Morning Joe is misreading what the President is doing here. It's not that Obama isn't aware of the ISIS threat but he's not playing into their hands by giving them the satisfaction of terrorizing him. That's the key to terrorists-they want to terrorize you. Best response then is not to be terrorized.
What Morning Joe and the other Chicken Littles don't get is that it seldom makes sense to change policy 180 degrees. It's not clear why Morning Joe wants POTUS to call the guy a mastermind.
What the Chicken Littles are showing is that what matters to them is not actions but words. Obama has taken the right actions. There may be things that can be adjusted or improved on but not a sea change.
Joe is brandishing polls that show that Americans are scared-the President is out of touch with reality without also being scared. But isn't that leadership. What Obama is saying is he understands Americans are scared but he's doing a FDR-pointing out that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
I think Obama touches on a very key point about how you respond to terrorism. The Chicken Little answer seems to be to react as much as possible and totally change our patterns of behavior. But as Obama says this is a mistake.
As for polls, well recall what Cheney said when polls showed how unpopular he was: So what?
I don't think that's the President's reaction to the polls that show Americans fearful. But he sees his job as a leader being about speaking against fear rather than joining in for political gain like Morning Joe and his party love to do.
What Morning Joe doesn't get is that public opinion isn't always right. Sometimes a leader has to lead it to a better understanding.
Joe Scarborough-who sounds more like Joe McCarthy every day-thinks the President is living in a fantasy world because he doesn't sound scared of ISIS.
He wants the President shrieking 'We're at war with radical Islam!'
I discussed Obama's speech yesterday and argued that he hit all the right notes.
“They can’t beat us on the battlefield, so they try to terrorize us into being afraid, into changing our patterns of behavior, into abandoning our allies and partners into retreating from the world,” Obama said. “As president I will not let that happen.”
"The man behind the attacks, Obama said at another point, is “not a mastermind. He found a few other vicious people, got their hands on some fairly conventional weapons, and sadly it turns out if you’re willing to die, you can kill a lot of people."
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/11/obama-calls-out-isis-fearmongering.html
Morning Joe is misreading what the President is doing here. It's not that Obama isn't aware of the ISIS threat but he's not playing into their hands by giving them the satisfaction of terrorizing him. That's the key to terrorists-they want to terrorize you. Best response then is not to be terrorized.
What Morning Joe and the other Chicken Littles don't get is that it seldom makes sense to change policy 180 degrees. It's not clear why Morning Joe wants POTUS to call the guy a mastermind.
What the Chicken Littles are showing is that what matters to them is not actions but words. Obama has taken the right actions. There may be things that can be adjusted or improved on but not a sea change.
Joe is brandishing polls that show that Americans are scared-the President is out of touch with reality without also being scared. But isn't that leadership. What Obama is saying is he understands Americans are scared but he's doing a FDR-pointing out that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
I think Obama touches on a very key point about how you respond to terrorism. The Chicken Little answer seems to be to react as much as possible and totally change our patterns of behavior. But as Obama says this is a mistake.
As for polls, well recall what Cheney said when polls showed how unpopular he was: So what?
I don't think that's the President's reaction to the polls that show Americans fearful. But he sees his job as a leader being about speaking against fear rather than joining in for political gain like Morning Joe and his party love to do.
What Morning Joe doesn't get is that public opinion isn't always right. Sometimes a leader has to lead it to a better understanding.
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