Political Punch

I have always been taught that you don't mess with the peace keeper. The peace keeper and the soft spoken are the ones that are the fiercest, toughest and most deadly. I think that although Obama does not have any MILITARY experience, it would be foolish to test his resolve. I think that behind his calm and cool demeanor stands a President prepared to fight for the Country and the Values that he holds dear. We are still UNITED. Even if we have squabbles at home you don't pick on my siblings.
I think that the world leaders that choose to try to take advantage, have a rude awakening coming.
Just wait and see.

To the world don't test us, regardless of our internal differences we are still THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Geez, those Russians never miss an opportunity...Obama, don't back down...

Our enemies know that we are ripe for the picking now that the leftist views of Obama are in the White House. Let's just hope that Obama surrounds himself with folks who have some military experience and who know that we can't cater to the whims of our enemies.

Medvedev's hissy fit from 9 days ago is old news. But be that as it may, Hillary Clinton should help with the gravitas of the situation as SoS. If that is the case for sure, then I would hope Jake Tapper would refrain from marginalizing her as he frequently did during the primaries. Who knows? She may be the person to address about envoys between the US and the designated countries. Just a conjecture du jour.

Our enemies smell a weak America just around the corner and who can blame them for wanting to take advantage for it. It's nice to see all those foreign contributions to Obama's campaign fund are paying off...

"Some bullies are defiant, impulsive, and hungry for domination and power, and some just want to connect with others. Unfortunately, not knowing any better, they do it in an unhealthy way.

"Often, high scale bullies have 'lieutenants.' Lieutenants don't bully others until the main bully is present; they seek approval of a parent-figure, however distorted that may be from our point of view." Politics, the MSM and especially talking heads like LT. Olbermann seem to be encouraged to bully by the Obama camp.

"The profile of a bully indicates that if parents don't spend adequate time with their children, they may compensate for that attention by 'extortion.' They may seek it aggressively and gratify themselves with power and domination over (people) they perceive to be weaker than themselves."

Obama : "I can see Russia from the White House!"

We are overestimating the abilities of the freshman Senator from Illinois... Not a hater, I'm just sayin' these are dangerous times.

We have overestimated the abilities of the freshman Senator from Illinois.

The enemy (Russia, Iran, Al Qaeda) is underestimating Obama. Testing the US under Obama will bring the enemy to its knees. Obama is smart and does not seem to have made any mistakes. Underestimating his experience would be fatal. I do believe that the enemy will be more responsive in a positive way contrarily to how it (they) responded to Bush. Diplomacy works.

Jake,
That's a long list of leaders who represent potential Foreign pot holes.....Let me suggest another "list": This list would include the names of politicians, dignitaries, specialists, public servant and the vast majority of American citizens who have the perverbial "back" of President-elect Barack Obama.

Obama keeps reciting these imaginary problems with Iran. Why? Because its easy to pick on a little guy to make yourself seem tough. There is no need to perpetuate these myths about Iranian nukes or Iranian support for terrorist organizations (who is he talking about? the MKO? PEJAK? PKK? Its the US that is funding those terrorist organizations, not Iran).

Don't fall for it. People who pick on others to make themselves look better are bullies.

fascinating - thanks for this nuanced post, Jake. I realize it won't get the haters commenting, but that's OK. This is indeed an interesting time - Obama's going to resist getting bracketed by foreign leaders, and they will try to box him in.

This is also a time of great instability - Bush is weaker than ever, and when Obama takes off he will probably be strong. Look for adversaries to try to find some edge right now.

Thank goodness Nixon lost that election in 1960 - the entire world was fortunate Kennedy was president during the Cuban missle crisis . . . no doubt whatsoever.

"ever see pt109?"

Yes. Cliff Richardson did a fine job in the movie. Ever study the actual incident? Kennedy was almost court martialed for negligence. He was unprepared, lost his craft, members of his crew and enabled the Japanese to find out more about our vulnerabilities. He was a heckuva swimmer though.

"read anything about the cuba missle crisis?

Yes. Krushchev found a peaceful way to resolve the crisis and we removed the obsolete missiles we had in Turkey secretly. Meanwhile, tactical nuclear devices that were already in Cuba remained and Kennedy had to sign an agreement not to invade thus ensuring the safety of a Communist dictatorship that remains to this day. US operatives inside Cuba were killed, or imprisoned and tortured.

"we liberals/democrats are not weak, we just pick our fights carefully"

Actually, given those examples, the fights pick you and if you get lucky, we survive them although usually at the cost of soldiers lives as in the PT109 collision and the CIA operatives and Cuban patriots in the missile crisis.

Obama needs more experience. Until then, Emmanuel and the Clinton brigade will keep him out of trouble if we stay lucky.

freedom is ,and will never be free.i am a liberal but ,then again so was jfk.

ever see pt109? read anything about the cuba missle crisis? we liberals/democrats are not weak , we just pick our fights carefully and generally as a last resort after all other peaceful avenues have been explored. example: bill clinton put the stealth bomber slap down into effect more than a few times ,along with a few cruise missiles thrown in for good measure as well. he was no warhawk but he was definitely no pushover .

obama will be tougher than a lot of people think ,he and his advisers know that an initial perception of weak or indecisive leadership will be exploited to the utmost by our enemies ,and he also knows that is not acceptable.

the world had better not forget that this good ship "lollypop" still has a lot of pop left in it...

btw jt ,its "Lollipop" isnt it?

"Sitting here in these chairs that I’m going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on the front lines are forced to and it’s our privileged obligation to find solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held accountable, not being just one of many just casting votes or voting present every once in a while, we don’t get away with that."

Can someone please translate?

Did you expect the rest of the world to play nice...just because some people elected O as prez? Maybe y'all really thought the waters would part and our enemies would lay down their swords...in which case I have some ocean front property in Ariz you might be interested in.

This rouge nations and third world countries and extremist loved Obama when he was bad mouthing America to get the extremist in America to vote for him. Now its pay back time for Obama and wife for having runny mouth