I think Mark Styn has become my favorite sarcastically acerbic, mildly irascible, right wing scribbler. And he hits on something I've been saying about Obama for a good 5 years now - the man has been wholly overrated by a near mindless enthusiasm, is a fraud as a leader, or even an 'ideas' guy, and exists on the fumes of a shallow and self serving rhetoric - give him credit for cunningly leveraging white guilt and left wing naivety to expedite a rise to great power, but it's a power which I'm guessing he now largely views as incidental to the thing that really matters, the story of himself.
This lack of leadership perfectly on display with his Afghan pullout decision - I'm struck by how many are wondering at the way Obama seems to effortlessly sublimate his own political needs and interests above the needs of a coherent foreign policy that serves the interests of America - his original embracing of the war in Afghanistan was entirely a cynical political calculation made during his primary race against Hillary - I said so at the time and was crucified for having the temerity to suggest such a thing - his announcement of the 'surge' once in office was likewise entirely political - he really had only two choices here, go small or go big - he took six months to make the decision [which I said, accurately I think, was merely theater designed to give the impression that the great thinker in chief was bringing all his intellectual might to bear on the issue] and then chose a third option, a 'safe' middle ground that had nothing to do with a coherent strategy and had everything to do with serving his political interests, the exact choice any objective observer paying attention to the way Obama goes about things expected he'd make all along - and now he's announced, against the advice of his military advisers, the beginning of a withdrawal - and people are shocked that this move reeks of self serving political calculation? That's all this guy does - this is what he's about.
