Obama's Diplomacy and Putin

"I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is...He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability -- the extraordinary, uncanny ability -- to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them, and make sense out of them, and I think he has never been really challenged intellectually. I mean, he's the kind of guy you'd hate in law school, who would pick up the book the night before the final, read it, [buy a crib sheet from someone ] and ace the test. So what I sensed in him was not just a restless spirit but someone with extraordinary talents that they had to be really taxed in order for him to be happy."

The above is a now famous comment from Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s closest advisor to author David Remnick who was interviewing her for his book on Obama. It is probably safe to assume that her opinion of President Obama’s skills is second only to his. What else can explain the continued missteps through the barnyard of foreign affairs and world crises? He has totally misjudged the result of the Arab Spring, offered no leadership in Libya, lied about the Benghazi affair, demonstrated both bad judgment and a lack of spine in Syria, basically abandoned any attempt to stop Iran’s nuclear arming, and is pushing Israel to accept a bad bargain with Palestinians who refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. In the midst of all this, his Secretary of Defense announces a pullback in force level to pre-World War II levels.

All of this rank amateurism is not lost on Vladimir Putin. While Putin has no desire to engage in a military confrontation with the United States, he only has to read the signals. The United States is abandoning the field. The resulting vacuum is now Russia’s, or China’s, or North Korea’s, or Iran’s. The current crisis with Ukraine should have been foreseen when the EU started courting Ukraine for possible membership. Groundwork should have been laid by the Secretary of State, whom I believe bragged on travelling more miles than any prior Secretary, to assure Russia of the non-threatening nature of the EU, instead of allowing the process to become a referendum on throwing off the heavy Russian yoke. But once again, the administration was too late to the party and all we can now do is bluster. I doubt this is the flexibility that Obama was promising before the election.

Compare the above quote by Valerie Jarrett to this one by Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does, sir.” Which of the two quotes do you think Putin believes?