The mass email from BarackObama.com evaded our spam filter and made it into our inbox at 1:03 a.m. on June 24. What was Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, urgently telling us as we slept?
He was urging us to watch President Obama’s June 22 address to the nation on Afghanistan, and conveniently provided a video link and text. But why should we want to watch Obama again? Messina explained:
To put it simply: When this president took office, there were 180,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, the combat mission in Iraq has ended, Afghanistan will be fully responsible for its own security by 2014, and there will be fewer than 100,000 American troops in the two countries by the end of this year.
As President Obama decisively concludes two long-running wars, he is refocusing our foreign policy to more effectively address the threats we face and strengthen America’s leadership in the world as we do.
I’m writing to you because this transformation has already begun to reshape the policy debate—foreign and domestic—in the 2012 election. As the President said last night: ‘It is time to focus on nation building here at home.’
The outcome of this debate will have consequences for all of us, so it’s important that you understand the policy and help inform the conversation.
That’s it. Almost as lame as the speech it was touting.
You thought Messina might feel he had to defend the politically motivated—and strategically indefensible—September 2012 date for the drawdown? Silly you.
You thought he might explain how the speech fit into a coherent foreign policy vision for the region or the world? Silly you.
You thought Messina might not present the decision for what it was: a drawdown driven by a prior Obama “promise,” not by realities on the ground; a foreign policy decision motivated by the desire to “conclude” two “long-running” wars, not a commitment to succeed in them. And you thought Messina might express pride in what our soldiers and Marines have accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan? Silly you.
But Messina did accurately convey the two core messages of his candidate’s speech: Come home, America. And reelect me.
Why? So President Obama can continue “to focus on nation building here at home.” For some reason, Messina didn’t quote the whole sentence: “America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home.”
Perhaps Messina thought you might be put off by the attention-grabbing and hortatory gimmick of beginning the sentence, “America.” Perhaps he suspected you felt that Obama’s tone was hectoring rather than inspiring. Perhaps he intuited that it sounded as if our president thinks he’s addressing the denizens of a third-world nation, a bunch of God-fearing and gun-toting yokels who need the benefit of nation-building efforts by our betters in the capital. Perhaps Messina knows that lots of Americans think we’ve already built a pretty great nation—and that if the government would stop building up mountains of debt at home, and would commit to winning our wars abroad, we’d be fine? Silly you.
And perhaps you thought the president might be more concerned about the success of the military campaign in Afghanistan than his own campaign in 2012? Silly you.
And if this president gets reelected? Silly us.
—William Kristol
