{"id":30761,"date":"2014-06-17T14:29:37","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T18:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30761"},"modified":"2014-06-17T14:29:37","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T18:29:37","slug":"barack-obamas-abysmal-legacyeight-disastrous-years-of-incompetence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30761","title":{"rendered":"Barack Obama’s Abysmal Legacy:Eight Disastrous Years of Incompetence?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Taylor Dibbert
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

T<\/strong>hings still aren\u2019t going well for Mr. Obama. As a result, Americans and people throughout the world continue to suffer.<\/p>\n

The Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal is appalling, and it would be naive to think that Mr. Obama will be able to turn things around. Indeed, his administration is now plagued by a plethora of scandals that are unlikely to go away before he leaves office. From the VA to Obamacare to the IRS to Benghazi and more, Mr. Obama seems intent on having words like \u201cdisaster\u201d and \u201cincompetence\u201d become synonymous with all eight years of his presidency.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The speech that Mr. Obama gave at West Point last month on foreign policy was supposed to be \u201cbig.\u201d Yet it\u2019s unclear how anyone in his administration could\u2019ve thought the speech would have gone down well. No new ideas or constructive policy initiatives were presented and people from all corners found it a disappointment.<\/p>\n

Barring some unforeseen dramatic changes, Obama\u2019s West Point speech simply confirmed that the president will leave behind an abysmal foreign affairs legacy.<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama is still long on talk and short on meaningful action. Events in the Middle East continue to worsen as Washington embraces its role as an inept cheerleader. (A residual force in Iraq is looking pretty good right about now). In Afghanistan, the president is again cowering to domestic politics and the allure of hard deadlines by announcing that all US troops will be gone by the end of 2016.<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama is so busy trying to finish wars that he\u2019s forgotten what victory might look like. More focused on using clich\u00e9s and straw man arguments in speeches, he\u2019s forgotten that Washington used to lead instead of making excuses for its new role on the sidelines of world affairs.<\/p>\n

The Bowe Bergdahl-Taliban prisoner swap also serves as a telling example of the president\u2019s isolation and arrogance. The Obama administration has given an array of reasons for why it decided to do what it did \u2013 almost as if Obama\u2019s inner circle was searching for the story the public finds most palatable.<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama isn\u2019t content to irritate virtually all Republican lawmakers. Quite evidently, he\u2019d rather antagonize Democrats as well. Aside from the dubious strategic rationale underpinning the exchange, the president didn\u2019t inform congress about the prisoner swap \u2013 but that shouldn\u2019t be viewed as such a surprise. Mr. Obama still believes that he\u2019s so charismatic, special and intelligent that the law doesn\u2019t apply to him; he\u2019s just that great.<\/p>\n

The prisoner exchange is another reminder that the president\u2019s foreign policy is guided by dangerous mix of naivet\u00e9, arrogance and myopia. Forget ups and downs, team Obama has now put amateur hour on autopilot.<\/p>\n

Both at home and abroad, Mr. Obama\u2019s approval ratings are in the tank. The damage Mr. Obama has done will be felt years after he leaves office, which brings us to the 2016 race for the presidency.<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton recently began a book tour to promote her memoir recounting her time as America\u2019s top diplomat under Mr. Obama\u2019s watch. Ms. Clinton obviously has an agenda and has already emerged as the clear frontrunner for 2016.<\/p>\n

Some people have already mentioned that since Ms. Clinton has devoted an entire chapter of her book to Benghazi, she\u2019s probably hoping to put that scandal to rest before her presidential campaign gets underway. That may be true and Ms. Clinton would bring plenty of baggage to a presidential race, but that doesn\u2019t get to the heart of the matter. If Ms. Clinton were to run, the presidency of Barack Obama would be her biggest handicap \u2013 not Benghazi or anything else.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll want to put significant distance between herself and Mr. Obama. Her book tour could serve as an ideal platform to start that process and ensure that she won\u2019t take the blame for failed policies that were not her own.<\/p>\n

Only time will tell how much Ms. Clinton can make Mr. Obama sweat. Bring on those book signings.<\/p>\n

(Taylor Dibbert is an international consultant based in Washington, D.C. and the author of the book Fiesta of Sunset: The Peace Corps, Guatemala and a Search for Truth.This Article Appears in “The Commentator”)<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Taylor Dibbert Things still aren\u2019t going well for Mr. Obama. As a result, Americans and people throughout the world continue to suffer. The Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal is appalling, and it would be naive to think that Mr. Obama will be able to turn things around. Indeed, his administration is now plagued by a …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Barack Obama’s Abysmal Legacy:Eight Disastrous Years of Incompetence?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30762,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761\/revisions\/30762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}