I was flabbergasted by the President’s idiotic comment about not wanting to “spike the football”. This is not a sport, and he gets the whole point of this wrong by viewing it as such. I have been quite supportive of the things he has gotten right in this, and given the benefit of the doubt where possible. This is an egregious unforced error, however. This is more of his reflexive blame-America-first-ism. How so?
The fact that he does not want America to be perceived as unsportsmanlike in our big win over whomever serves only to broadcast his gut feeling that it is the approval of our enemies which we must obtain, and that those on the fence, or who may not be enemies but don’t like us very much, must be appeased by American humility and restraint.
[pullquote]America will not be attacked with impunity. You will get your head personally blown off[/pullquote]
The flaw in this is that the reason public opinion matters beyond our shores is not so that “they” will approve of us and therefore withhold their attacks because they like Obama more than Bush, or now more than then. Our goal with foreign image should be to say — to all who need to hear it — that America will not be attacked with impunity. You will get your head personally blown off no matter how many countries we have to knock over to get to you.
That is what matters, and this President is instead feeding conspiracy theories. This was a time for brutal clarity, and instead, we got cowering sensitivity.
If you really want a football analogy, how about “kicked on the second down”.
