{"id":8170,"date":"2014-10-08T17:26:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T17:26:15","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-10-08T17:26:15","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T17:26:15","slug":"panetta_trashes_obama_the_regime_trashes_panetta_and_just_about_everyone_thinks_obama_is_a_failure_six_years_late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/10\/08\/panetta_trashes_obama_the_regime_trashes_panetta_and_just_about_everyone_thinks_obama_is_a_failure_six_years_late\/","title":{"rendered":"Panetta Trashes Obama, the Regime Trashes Panetta — and Just About Everyone Thinks Obama Is a Failure (Six Years Late)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: Now, let me go back to not too distant a time. The president of the United States, when asked about ISIS, referred to them as “the JV team,” not that important, not that big, and they were so invisible in terms of being on his radar that he did not even have a strategy for dealing with them. Shortly after that statement and a couple others like it, some polling data surfaced. <\/p>\n

The polling data indicated the American people had dwindling, low and dwindling confidence in President Obama\u2019s ability to defend and protect the country, a dwindling and low opinion of the president\u2019s leadership on foreign policy. Within hours, a press conference was scheduled. Eh, not a press conference. It was an address from the White House, the Green Room, I believe it was, in which the president all of a sudden decided to announce a strategy for dealing with the varsity, ISIS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They had magically jumped from JV status to varsity in terms of the real world overnight, and Obama had come up with a strategy. I — your beloved and ever honest, on-the-point host — told you what everybody knew but few really wanted to say: This is all being driven by polling data. The president\u2019s already told us his level of interest in this, which is not very high. But there are Democrats running for reelection in November and they\u2019re getting nervous out there about a lot of things.<\/line><\/p>\n

They\u2019re getting nervous about the economy.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re getting nervous about ISIS, Americans being beheaded, journalists and so forth.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t sit well. You combine that with polling data that shows the president doesn\u2019t seem to be engaged or care about it, and Democrats begged him to do something. Voila, he did, and the conclusion was obvious. That whole announcement was driven by polls, and its purpose was to get Obama\u2019s poll numbers up and attempt to renew the confidence of the American people in not just the president, but the Democrat Party in dealing with these things. <\/p>\n

Now, how did that work out? It didn\u2019t, and we knew it before today because there have been previous poll results released, but we have another one now. It\u2019s from Chris Stirewalt at Fox New<\/a>s, but it\u2019s everywhere. “Obama insiders and Democrats told The New York Times that they are anxious to see the president continue his pivot away from foreign policy, with several calling for a focus on jobs and the economy. One can see why.<\/line><\/p>\n

“Obama\u2019s about-face on Iraq and Syria doesn\u2019t seem to have changed voter attitudes about his foreign policy and that of his party. A new,” wait for it, “CBS News\/NYT poll says that the president\u00c2\u2019s approval rating for foreign policy is essentially unchanged since last month when he announced an escalation of air strikes in the two countries, the return of US ground forces to Iraq and increased arms shipments to rival rebel groups.<\/p>\n

“Last month, 39% approved” of Obama\u2019s foreign policy. After a month of no-boots-on-the-ground warfare against ISIS his approval rating has jumped a staggering one point. He\u2019s gone up from 39% approval to 40% approval, which means that the reason we\u2019re doing this (from the Regime\u2019s standpoint) has not worked out. Now, I realize, my friends, that\u2019s a controversial thing to say. The truth often is. But it\u2019s undeniable. <\/p>\n

Six weeks ago: JV team, no strategy! Meaning: No engagement. Don\u2019t really care. Not our problem except that it\u2019s our fault. They\u2019re mad because of our policies of support for Israel. They were mad at us because we\u2019ve been too big for too long. We walked all over people, and we basically turned every country in the world into a hellhole while stealing everything they had so we could have a big superpower country and all that. <\/p>\n

We kind of deserve this kind of thing. You know, they\u2019re mad at us. That\u2019s why he wasn\u2019t interested. What business do we have telling this little group where they can and cannot operate? That\u2019s their attitude. But the American people have a different view of America\u2019s role in the world, because the American people view the United States as the good guy. A lot of Americans still do view the United States as a good guy, and they expect their president to be one of the good guys! <\/p>\n

They expect their president to think of the country as the good guys. So drastic action was called for, and that meant a reversal, a 180-degree reversal on attitudes and action against ISIS, Iraq and Syria. But the poll numbers are in, and it hasn\u2019t worked. ISIS is moving. ISIS is moving, and they\u2019re continuing to grab territory. The bottom line is: If you doubt me on this, just consult any cable news network you want, and every bit of this stratagem will be reported in terms of, “Is it helping or hurting Obama?” <\/p>\n

Not, “Are we succeeding in beating ISIS?” but, “Is what\u2019s happening — and is the way we\u2019re reporting it — helping or hurting Obama?” That\u2019s their total focus. Now, Panetta? You add what Panetta\u2019s book is saying, and it is getting bloody out there on the Democrat Party side. Tuesday, yesterday on MSNBC\u2019s Andrea Mitchell Reports, NBC News, Leon Panetta showed up, and he said that Obama\u2019s approach in all of this is to be like a law professor.<\/p>\n

You know, sit there like you\u2019re in the faculty lounge, and you stroke your chin while applying your supreme intellect to the task at hand, and you weigh in with your words, and you sit there and you talk with other learned intellectuals in the faculty lounge, and you deal with the hypotheticals and the theoreticals and the philosophical and all of this. You do it in ways and terms and attitudes that convey a superior intellect, while you at the same time ridicule the plebes you\u2019re trying to please and so forth. <\/p>\n

So Panetta says this guy just treats everything like he\u2019s a law professor, deals with it in the abstract. And the prospect, the aspect of rolling up his sleeves and getting the job done is not the way Obama operates. Obama\u2019s not a roll-up-the-sleeves guy and get to it. And then Leon Panetta yesterday on PMSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports, suggested that Obama has given up. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with number 12 and 13. Gloria Borger interviewing Panetta — (interruption) yeah, \u2019cause we had a ban on PMSNBC, that\u2019s right. I don\u2019t permit any sound bites from them, so we gotta turn to CNN. So, Gloria Borger said, “President Obama\u2019s taking action against ISIS. He\u2019s conducting air strikes in Iraq and Syria. He\u2019s really being tough out there. What are your thoughts on that, Mr. Panetta?”<\/line><\/p>\n

PANETTA: He\u2019s made the decision to put troops on the ground in Iraq, to try to help the security forces. He\u2019s made the decision to arm and train rebel forces in Syria. And he\u2019s made the decision to conduct air attacks. So, in many ways, he\u2019s made the right decisions. Now, I think those decisions should have been made two years ago.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Ooh! Well, it\u2019s not quite saying he\u2019s given up like he told Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, but the stuff he is saying about Obama is devastating. Two years too late. He\u2019s given up. He treats everything here like a lawyer. And Gloria Borger, not happy, then said, “Should President Obama have started air strikes when Syria used chemical weapons against its own people, violating the president\u2019s clearly drawn red line?”<\/p>\n

PANETTA: The president very clearly should have said, “You have crossed that red line and we\u2019re not gonna allow that to happen.” And I think initially my sense was they were gonna do exactly that. But somehow they backed away from it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Uh-oh.<\/p>\n

PANETTA: I think that was a — you know, a key moment in time in terms of sending a message to the world.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, no.<\/p>\n

PANETTA: That there was a question mark as to whether or not the United States would stand by its word.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, there was. He\u2019s exactly right. We drew the red line and then pretended it didn\u2019t exist, hadn\u2019t drawn it, paper tiger kind of stuff. He\u2019s exactly right. There\u2019s something beginning to happen here, folks. Panetta\u2019s not the first. He\u2019s like the fourth or fifth former Regime official to come out with books or TV appearances really ripping Obama and his Regime. That has yet to happen to Bill Clinton. And, in fact, the people doing it are former Clintonistas. The people doing this are former Clintonites like Panetta, who, on the one hand it looks like they\u2019re paving the way for Hillary. But then Panetta said something yesterday that does not look like it helps Hillary at all. <\/p>\n

I mean, he just tore into everybody over Benghazi. I mean, he just ripped into everybody, but there\u2019s no way that helps Hillary. So I may have to modify slightly, ever so slightly, my analysis of what Panetta\u2019s doing here, \u2019cause I still think that much of what he\u2019s doing is trying to inoculate Hillary from the incompetence of Obama and separate her from it so that she\u2019s free and clear of it if she decides to run on her own. But nevertheless he\u2019s just saying some devastating things here. <\/p>\n

Now, Bill Burton went on CNN last night, Erin Burnett OutFront. Bill Burton, the former deputy White House secretary talking about Panetta\u2019s new book, and Erin Burnett said, “It\u2019s a criticism of the president\u2019s policy, but more significantly, Bill, it\u2019s a criticism by Panetta of Obama\u2019s leadership. It says he just didn\u2019t make a decision.”<\/p>\n