Tag Archives: John Bolton

The Benghazi Speech

I know the Prez is doing a press conference next Wednesday, but he really needs to do a speech about Benghazi.  It needs to be an air-tight, comprehensive speech that will stand up a month, six months, a year from now.  No drip, drip, drip.  He needs to explain exactly what happened, what went wrong, and what’s being done to fix it.  The White House should release documentation to supplement and back up the speech.

He will never have more good will from the American people than he has right now.

Having executed a brilliant campaign, I worry that his people will drift back into their first-term crappy communicating.

He needs to explain why the Africa Command (Africom), established in 2007 under Bush 43, was the only command not to have its own Commanders’ In-Extremis Force (CIF) and  had to rely on help from the European Command, which meant forces that were on a mission to Croatia.

As for the members of the GOP who have been critical of Benghazi, like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, they had to have known that Africom didn’t have a CIF.  I’ve heard John Bolton rant about a lot of things on Fox News — why wasn’t he complaining about this?

Will Newt Get Us All Killed?

Newt Gingrich doesn’t just want to be the 45th president of the United States, which would be plenty for a normal person.  He wants to stand out as one of the all-time great leaders in history.  That means that if he is elected, he will want to “save” this country from something truly awful.  Even if he has to provoke that something awful.  Having John Bolton as his Secretary of State would be a good start.

So I worry that Newt would be overly aggressive in his dealings with other countries, trying to create his moment of grandeur and glory, a moment that could end up being a disaster.

But being weak is no good either.  I believe that where Newt would seek a confrontation, even one that could be avoided, Mitt Romney would shy away from one, even one that must be addressed.  Either extreme can be devastating.

I know that “He’s kept us from getting killed” doesn’t really work as a campaign slogan, but it’s true of President Obama.  He’s been neither too hawkish nor too dovish.  He’s been just right.

Our commander in chief must be like Goldilocks — avoiding what’s too hot or cold, too hard or soft.  We are safer with President Obama than with either Newt or Mitt.