NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER CALLS FOR WAR - SORT OF

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER CALLS FOR WAR - SORT OF

If I were Obama, I’d knock back a stiff one before delivering it. . . .
GRADE INFLATION: Historians Give President Obama a B- Grade.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Desperate man tries to convince world he has faintest idea of what he’s doing.
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, BRITPUNDITS WOULD SCORN OUR PRESIDENT’S BUMBLING. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Nile Gardiner: Barack Obama’s Syria speech was an incoherent mess – he is outperforming Jimmy Carter as the most feeble US president of modern times.

JOSH BOAK: Why The Bully Pulpit Can’t Save Obama On Syria. “Obama’s past speeches have been less than persuasive. The Fiscal Times examined three of his most prominent addresses: his 2009 remarks to Congress about health care, his 2011 speech about the economy, and his meditation last year after the Newtown shootings. As compelling as Obama can be from the stump, his presidential speeches have seldom had a lasting impact on public opinion.”

The only really effective speech he’s given is the one he gave in 2004. And that speech was fundamentall
Now, of course, with the Syria debacle, it seems like we’ve gone from tragedy to farce. Obama tried to channel W. last night, but he didn’t have it in him, and Syrian gas attacks on Syrians aren’t the same as Al Qaeda attacks on Americans. But a farce, however farcical, at least isn’t a tragedy. Yet, anyway.
OUCH: Obama’s Syria speech: An illogical argument from a paralyzed president.

Meanwhile, I’m watching a devastating video montage of the Administration’s mixed messages, but what strikes me most is how weird Kerry’s face looks. Speaking of “paralyzed,” I don’t think the work he had done was a good idea.

UPDATE: Peggy Noonan: “Obama, a self-besotted charismatic who can’t tell the difference between showbiz and strategy, and who enjoys unburdening himself of moral insights to his peers.”

Plus: “Another problem, and there’s no nice way to say this: It is hard to believe such a chill man has such warm feelings about the sad end of strangers far away.”

And yet, Peggy, you backed him and looked down on those who saw through him from the beginning.

ET TU, AP? AP FACT CHECK SHATTERS OBAMA SYRIA SPEECH.
Plus, tweet of the night: “The president’s problem tonight is he had to give a speech with John Kerry’s foot in his mouth.”
And to paraphrase Napoleon: If you set out to take Damascus, take Damascus.

“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Foreign Policy: Did The World Just Legitimize The Assad Regime It Spent Years Discrediting? Yes.