Judgment Day: What Say the "Conservative" Obama Boosters Who So Praised Obama's Exquisite Judgment?

Damned fine essay by Doctor Zero.

What was Barack Obama’s major qualification for the presidency, the one thing we were repeatedly told to consider above his paper-thin resume, shadowy associations with racists and terrorists, and troubling ethical background? Ah, yes: his judgment....

[quotes from Peggy Noonan and Chris Buckley omitted; oddly enough, he fails to quote T. Coddington Van Vorhees VII, whom I always thought a more substantive and persuasive Obama booster -- ace]

Many more examples would be easy to find. I highlight Buckley and Noonan because they were nominally people of the Right, working to make other conservatives comfortable with the man who had dazzled them. Of course, most liberals are inclined to believe any liberal candidate has good judgment. Buckley and Noonan viewed themselves as ambassadors of Hope and Change to the hopeless and unchanging Right, asserting that Obama was qualified for the presidency because his judgment and temperament were objectively excellent despite his political philosophy.

...

In Obama’s case, the independent voter was presented with only two reasons to vote for him: his vaguely defined policy agenda, and his supposedly marvelous judgment. (I know many will suggest an obvious, but uncomfortable, third reason was the color of his skin, but that was always more about the voters wishing to purchase virtue at a discount price, rather than a reason to vote for this specific candidate.) The vaguely defined policy agenda turned out to be even more ephemeral than any independent voter might have thought, since few of Obama’s actions in office bear any resemblance to the policies he campaigned on, even judged on the usual dismal curve for politicians of either party. This leaves only the matter of Obama’s decision-making skills, and the Van Jones debacle is only the latest, and most outrageous, evidence that his media cheerleaders were wrong about that, too.

And meanwhile his judgment leads him to engage with the coup d'Etat leaders in Iran and punish the democrats in Honduras.

And, of course, grease the skids for an Afghanistan bug-out.

posted by Ace at 07:16 PM

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