One wonders: does the Obama administration deliberately try to screw up our foreign policy, or is it just a matter of ignorance and incompetence? This is painful reading: "Argentina celebrates diplomatic coup as Hillary Clinton calls for talks over Falklands." ...So much for the idea that foreign relations would be conducted better by women.
Maybe a "wise Latina" would do better? Oh, wait...she's busy doing a supreme social justice gig.
It is simply beyond my comprehension why, in the name of "diversity" and social egalitarianism, we as a society have come to the point where we think thiskind of tawdry identity politics should trump competence. Everywhere you go these days, you are confronted by aggressive incompetence--in grocery store checkout lines; dealing with "customer service" for any business you care to name...the list goes on and on. There have been times (and the instances seem to be increasing lately) where I think I would almost sell my soul to be able to deal with reasonably competent people as I go about my daily activities.
So, it is painful, indeed, to see such incompetence and rampant idiocy on the national and international stage formulating (Obama) and executing (Clinton) our foreign policy.
I am frequently reminded that it is hopelessly naive these days to expect the electorate to vote for a person based on what that person actually stands for or has accomplished; instead, these days most people respond to the looks of a candidate; or the carefully constructing image; or the negative campaign ads that slice and dice the other guy. Voters appear to be primarily influenced by botoxed faces and Hollywood-packaged good-looks rather than the content of any candidate's character or the scope of his or her experience. The less they know of that character, the better!
Do you imagine that a Golda Meir or a Margaret Thatcher would have a chance to become the first woman president of the US. Not these days, for sure.
Real personal integrity and character comes from having a consistent set of values and exhibiting behavior driven by those values. Today's classic narcissistically-driven politicians like Hillary and her famous husband; as well as the deeply flawed Obamessiah, can only flutter in the political winds, and zelig-like easily take on whatever characteristics their public care to project onto them.
It is easy to be tough and ruthless with political adversaries in the US political battlefield. The kind of threat political adversaries pose is hardly life-threatening (though in other, less civilized nations it may well be). Political bullies feel perfectly safe in viciously attacking and denigrating those who oppose them. And, you can see that Obama has no compunction about bullying and denigrating his opponents and making them into scapegoats for his own failures and incompetence. And, when it happens occasionally that a political adversary unexpectedly shoots back and won't go away, the bully easily falls back on the "victim" role and whines about "vast right-wing conspiracies", blames others, or sheds a few tears on cue and such.
These are not the kind of people who can face real threats in the real world very effectively because they are not the kind of people who can effectively deal with threats they do not perceive as personal--why should they care much about any other kind, unless the polls indicate they should?.
In short, they did not get where they are today by being a people of integrity, honesty and courage--they got there by--in Hill's case-- riding on the coattails of her charismatic husband; and by shrewdly altering her opinions to accommodate the prevailing political winds. In Obama's case, by shrewdly manipulating his race and gift for empty rhetoric.
And, oh yes, by ruthlessly destroying whoever got in their way. In that alone, they show extreme competence. When it comes to running a country (vs ruining one, it's Amateur Hour.
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