Home » Fool or knave: on the interview in which Obama called ISIS the “jayvee”

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Fool or knave: on the interview in which Obama called ISIS the “jayvee” — 46 Comments

  1. Could HE be the fool and his advisors, like Valerie Jarrett, be the knave? He reads everything off a tele-prompter. Those aren’t his words. Everything is scripted. We know now that his ‘associate professor’ title was a joke back in Chicago and his co-workers thought he was a lightweight. We all suspect he got to law school not through merit but to fill some hole the school wanted to fill (I still believe he applied as a ‘foreign’ student). He did not accomplish anything on his own smarts. Therefore, fool, fool, fool.

    But he knows that he can turn to his handlers to prop him up whenever he needs them. He might have socialist ideals, but doesn’t know how to implement them. For a man who supposedly was a Constitutional scholar, he seems to understand very little of how the Constitution works.

  2. I don’t think the phrase “fool or knave” fully describes the depth of Obama’s mission. Treason isn’t right either. Neither is destroyer. “Knock down a peg or two” doesn’t fit. Struggling. I guess knave will do.

    Arrogant and foolish knave who is lazy and gets a pass from the cool kids. A prick.

  3. And the fact that Jeb doesn’t call out Obama as the knave of knaves completely disqualifies him for me.

    We need to destroy the Dems and all their policies. No compromises. Do what they do to us all the time.

  4. Has anyone in the MSM asked Hillary lately what she thinks of that jayvee comment? When she was asked at the Council of Foreign Relations a few months ago about it, her response was classic Hillary: that she didn’t “think it’s useful to go back and replow old ground.”

    Imagine a Republican president’s secretary of state getting away with that.

  5. Since the US has begun to lead from behind in the Middle-East, other powers have sought to fill the vacuum. One we haven’t heard much about is Saudi Arabia. It seems that they are putting a lot of pressure on Iran, enough perhaps, to make Obama’s deal look good. This Jerusalem Post article by an Jordanian-Palestinian politician is worth the read.

  6. …her response was classic Hillary: that she didn’t “think it’s useful to go back and replow old ground.”

    Apparently her husband feels the same way, given his admission yesterday that sometimes he wishes he wasn’t married to her.

  7. May’nt knave occasionally (or more than occasionally) be a fool? Our first Affirmative Action President is definitely a knave, but the word itself (with its whiff of antique charm) is not strong enough to carry the malicious, amoral and evil qualities of the man. And, even at his most ultra-knavish, our president has many intellectual blind spots and a dim-witted grasp of life as it really is. But, as I have said before, he has been sucking up to himself for so long that he has a pronounced intellectual curvature of the spine. He really believes his own stuff! But at the core, his instincts are the product of all the Politics of Resentment Kool-aid he has been lapping up all his life. These instincts are inherently evil and destructive to the nation.

  8. President Selfie has been an expert at finding the slots that make him look coolest. His special skill is that he can do this with multiple groups without putting the others off. His own comment that he is a blank screen onto which others project the image they want to see is the best description. Half-black, half-white; socialist with Wall Street cred; American and International; Ivy League and victim; Muslim and Christian; academic, jock, and street-level organiser. Now you see him, now you don’t. It is the essence of the con man, the empty suit, the narcissist who wants only his own aggrandizement.

    He likely isn’t 100% con man, 100% narcissist. Few are. He does seem to believe more in socialism, and eventually chose to identify as black rather than Indonesian. He doesn’t seem to have many friends, but I don’t doubt he genuinely loves his family and perhaps a few others. A small man, ultimately, who we made large for our own reasons.

    I am reminded suddenly of the Tragedian in CS Lewis’s The Great Divorce.

  9. Regarding Obama and his so-called modest number of executive actions compared to Reagan and Bush (a leftist meme) Bookworm Room pointed out recently that Obama has also issued hundreds of presidential memoranda, which are virtually identical to executive orders but fly under the radar. When you count those, Obama is actually the king of executive orders. But typical Obama to downplay his own actions, lecture people on the rule of law, and then do the exact opposite. Classic.

    http://www.bookwormroom.com/2016/01/07/dont-believe-leftists-who-claim-obama-hasnt-governed-by-executive-fiat/

  10. Whatever combination of knave and fool Obama may be, it is the fools and knaves that offer their support to him that are the real threat.

    Neither knave nor fool can lead where few follow.

    In a society where governance is predicated upon “the consent of the governed”, it is inescapably critical that the majority possess a mature perspective, insist upon moral uprightness and honor intellectual humility. Whereas immaturity, moral dissolution and intellectual arrogance spell the ‘death knell’ for such a society.

  11. This is part and parcel with the necessity to set the record straight on the Iraq intervention in order to re-lay the foundation of the issue in the zeitgeist. It highlights that the Obama administration came into power with the reliance on the successful assertion of demonstrably false premises about the Iraq intervention, and its position in the War on Terror, that they then fashioned into the cornerstone of American foreign policy with the effect of cascading harms.

    In the Washington Post in September last year, Fred Hiatt described President Obama’s deceptive approach to applying weak-horse American “inaction”:

    On those rare occasions when political pressure or the horrors of Syrian suffering threatened to overwhelm any excuse for inaction, he promised action, in statements or White House leaks: training for the opposition, a safe zone on the Turkish border. Once public attention moved on, the plans were abandoned or scaled back to meaningless proportions (training 50 soldiers per year, no action on the Turkish border).

    Perversely, the worse Syria became, the more justified the president seemed for staying aloof; steps that might have helped in 2012 seemed ineffectual by 2013, and actions that could have saved lives in 2013 would not have been up to the challenge presented by 2014.

    By the same token, Iraqis don’t believe the US wants to defeat ISIS because their point of reference is the strong-horse American leader’s victory over AQI in recent memory with the COIN “Surge”.

    The “magical thinking” is that war is like sports where contests are self-contained and delineated. War and peace (post-war) are a continuum. A war is not won until the lasting peace is secured on our terms.

    Afghanistan is an example. In the 1980s, the proximate objective of defeating the Soviets was achieved, but the long-term peace was not secured.

    Not all anti-Soviet mujahedeen were Taliban. The anti-Taliban factions we allied with in 2001 to depose the Taliban regime were anti-Soviet mujahedeen, too. However, once we ended our involvement with the Afghanistan conflict upon the Soviet defeat, the Taliban’s supporters – including foreign Arab radicals such as bin Laden – continued to support their preferred faction until they took over Afghanistan against their rivals among the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in order to establish the peace on their terms.

    On its face, Obama’s “jayvee” analogy already placed ISIS firmly on the other side of the line for action. In sports, the reason for a JV team is to develop players for the varsity team. In fact, a main reason that al Qaeda became so dangerous in Afghanistan was their Taliban host (with contribution from the Saddam regime) allowed AQ to establish the organized infrastructure for “jayvee” development.

    That Obama cited a main reason why AQ became dangerous to wave away the danger of AQ-derived ISIS is incredible.

    Terrorism, like any progressive human endeavor, is iterative, which is what the JV analogy is about. JV and varsity talents, method, means, and intent are the same. The difference is just the relative degree of progression on the developmental curve. Over time, the JV purposefully becomes the varsity.

    Moreover, competition is relative.

    A “jayvee” team may be hard pressed on its own to compete against a varsity team – eg, the US military in the COIN “Surge” or perhaps the Soviets in Afghanistan – but a “jayvee” team certainly can compete effectively against other JV teams and dominate lesser competition – eg, the otherwise weakened Assad regime, other Syrian rebels, and Obama’s weak-horse neutering of American leadership.

    As a boy, I liked to play playground basketball. I often played against another boy who beat me soundly (with one memorable exception when he was hobbled by a bum ankle). I had fun, but there was no doubt who was the superior baller. He was bigger, more athletic, and more skilled than me. Guess what: he only made his school’s “jayvee” team.

    ISIS may well be (or may have been) a “jayvee” team, but that doesn’t limit the real harm that ISIS can do if their competition is relatively weaker, including against competitors – such as America – that deliberately choose to be weaker than “jayvee”.

  12. Excellent analysis of the Remnick piece and your last sentence perfectly encapsulates my view of Obama.

  13. Generally overlooked in the reporting on executive orders, which are based on a specific clause in a named statute, are 0’s “executive actions.” Unlike EOs these have no specific basis in law and are administrative in nature – e.g., “let’s make sure the border patrol is not acting overly aggressively toward those poor people”, “are you sure these Tea Party morons are eligible for 501-C.3 status?” The EAs have no real legal standing and 0 gets away with this because he has a complaisant federal bureaucracy – see Lois Lerner, et al – and a lazy, cowardly oppo party.

    Even Saddam Hussein understood the distinction; when asked about the law in Iraq, he replied that “the law in Iraq is the paragraph above my signature.” We don’t even rate rule by decree, but rather rule by a wink and nod to the bureaucracy. Of these there are hundreds, vastly outnumbering the formal EOs.

  14. David Brooks doesn’t seem to agree with the fool or knave assessment.

    Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I’m beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him.

  15. Donkatsu:
    “The EAs have no real legal standing”

    Legal and Constitutional standing are not the same thing.

  16. PatD:
    “David Brooks doesn’t seem to agree with the fool or knave assessment.”

    Yet in line with Neo’s post, Brooks also laments the rollback of the world order that relies on strong-horse American leadership. Does he not make the connection between cause and effect?

  17. bho has made several sports related analogies over the years. If you have seen him shoot hoops, throw a baseball, and those weird contortions on the golf course, he comes across as not making the cut for the jayvee team. Unfortunately, when it comes to creating chaos and destruction he is a pro with an excellent coach in VJ, our 21st century Rasputin

  18. ” Geoffrey Britain Says:
    February 9th, 2016 at 3:58 pm

    Whatever combination of knave and fool Obama may be, it is the fools and knaves that offer their support to him that are the real threat.

    Neither knave nor fool can lead where few follow.

    In a society where governance is predicated upon “the consent of the governed”, it is inescapably critical that the majority possess a mature perspective, insist upon moral uprightness and honor intellectual humility. Whereas immaturity, moral dissolution and intellectual arrogance spell the ‘death knell’ for such a society.”

    Was that you who was quoting from the last paragraphs of Alasdair MacIntyre’s, “After Virtue”?

    I finally bought it during the holidays. Found I had spent years, (once again as with “The Closing of the American Mind”) thinking about issues that had already been covered well and better by others decades before.

  19. parker Says:
    February 9th, 2016 at 5:06 pm

    bho has made several sports related analogies over the years. If you have seen him shoot hoops, throw a baseball, and those weird contortions on the golf course, he comes across as not making the cut for the jayvee team. Unfortunately, when it comes to creating chaos and destruction he is a pro with an excellent coach in VJ, our 21st century Rasputin”

    George Bush, post 9-11, on the mound pitching a strike before a stadium filled with onlookers and the eyes of the rest of the world on him as well.

    And Obama on his bicycle, wearing his streamlined nerd helmet.

  20. Most of us here have firmly come down on the side of “knave”. I knew exactly what Rubio was trying to say in the debate, and I thought it was important..he was declaring Obama to be the KNAVE. I also understand why he tried to repeat it. His mistake was not trying to say it in a different manner and more forcefully. It’s too bad Cristie used that particular moment for his attack.

  21. That’s ok Cruz and his friend will convert and save us

    A controversial Christian evangelical leader whose endorsement is being proudly trumpeted by Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz works energetically to convert Jews to Christianity and has predicted that there will be a new period of concentration camps for Jews before the return of Jesus. Mike Bickle is also notorious for having said that God sent Hitler to hunt Jews for not accepting Jesus as the messiah. Bickle, the founder and director of the International House of Prayer, a Kansas City-based Pentecostal Christian missions organization, runs the Israel Mandate project

  22. Eric,
    An EA, an executive memorandum, or a nod and a wink generally violate one or more of the equal protection clause (14th Amendment), the “Take Care” clause (Art II, Section 3), and various parts of Art I, Sections 8 and 9 (Congress). Otherwise, there would be an EO, citing legislative power.

    These elements of the Constitution all have been elucidated and implemented through legislation; hence my assessment of neither legal nor constitutional. Obviously, YMMV.

  23. That was to be sarcastic….
    Every communist socialist is a knave
    they all betray and game people and lie for power
    its never different…
    so all if this is moot

  24. artfldgr Says:
    February 9th, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    That’s ok Cruz and his friend will convert and save us

    A controversial Christian evangelical leader whose endorsement is being proudly trumpeted by Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz works energetically to convert Jews to Christianity and has predicted that there will be a new period of concentration camps for Jews before the return of Jesus. Mike Bickle is also notorious for having said that God sent Hitler to hunt Jews for not accepting Jesus as the messiah. Bickle, the founder and director of the International House of Prayer, a Kansas City-based Pentecostal Christian missions organization, runs the Israel Mandate project”

    Wouldn’t quotation marks, and/or some kind of acknowledgement of The Times of Israel, or Mother Jones, or wherever you got this, and of the original author, be in order?

    It doesn’t seem to me that it ought to be that troublesome.

  25. Oh, I am so tired of Obama — that was painful to read.

    I’ll go with lazy, narcissistic knave. He doesn’t bother doing the work, such as attending the daily national security briefings (which would have ensured him knowing ISIS was not JV) because his mind and his agenda is already set. Who cares what ISIS is up to when you have no intention of stopping them, and may even assist them from time to time?

    It’s ironic that so many of the terms the Left used to describe W fit Obama so well — in this case, “incurious” comes to mind. So much of Obama’s behavior could have been predicted based on his time as State Senator and US Senator – the inordinate number of times he voted “present” (avoiding taking action), getting his name/credit for legislation that others had authored, and then spending more time traveling (campaigning for president) than ever working as a US Senator. He’s not really the president, he just plays one on TV.

  26. I know it’s a throwaway, background part of Remnick’s piece, but Obama’s claim to work on his 2nd book from 7:00 – 9:00am is utter tripe. Any casual observer of Obama’s (published) daily schedule knows he typically does not start the day until ~ 10:00am (and that’s assuming he makes his first appt. of the day, the much-skipped daily security briefing). Pair that with Obama saying he spends his mornings watching ESPN —- yeah, not buying that he has a the kind of work ethic Obama’s golf pal wants us to believe.

  27. So, our president “leads from behind”- is it not true that if you are behind you are a follower rather than a leader.

  28. Neo:
    “I’m taking it up because of the revival of the “Obama, fool or knave?” argument”

    artfldgr:
    “Every communist socialist is a knave
    they all betray and game people and lie for power
    its never different…
    so all if this is moot

    It’s not moot at all.

    You’ve pointed out the heart of the issue in Neo’s post that goes to Senator Rubio’s ‘knave’ characterization of President Obama and Obama’s strategy for working the transformation of America’s place in the world.

    Namely, the mainstream-conservative Right and GOP’s grasp of the critical Narrative contest for the zeitgeist that lays the foundation that sets the frame of the cultural/political discourse that shapes American affairs at home and abroad.

    “Even though this is somewhat of an old topic”, Neo is compelled to cite to Iraq as an active topic at the forefront of current events. Our Iraq intervention in its various forms since 1990-1991, let alone 2002-2003 or since 2011, has fundamentally defined the current epoch of American leadership of the free world – today more than ever.

    Understanding the importance of Iraq to the course of American leadership, Left activists – following the precedent of American change wrought from their successful Vietnam-War stigmatization – have updated the same strategy to stigmatize the Iraq intervention in order to lay the foundation to effect this next stage of American history.

    In other words, as you said, “its never different”.

    You’re correct that Obama’s knavery about Iraq that Neo highlights is essentially the knavery carried forward from the Left’s impactful stigmatization of the Vietnam War.

    The challenge for Rubio, Neo, the Right, and Republicans is to be better at highlighting and countering the Left’s knavery in the Narrative contest for the zeitgeist in a more effective way than Rubio’s mocked repeated generalized talking point.

    As Neo’s post highlights, presenting a substantial case to the American people about Obama’s knavery foremost relies on raising Obama’s record with Iraq in the context of American leadership of the free world.

    Building an effective Iraq-based case against Obama first requires re-litigating the decision for OIF in the political discourse to set the record straight on the grounds for the Iraq intervention.

    In other words, it’s incumbent on mainstream conservatives in general and the Republican candidates in particular to backtrack to the Megyn Kelly “knowing what we know now” hypothetical and this time, instead, explain to the American people with conviction that on the law and the facts, the President’s decision for OIF was correct.

    In the critical Narrative contest for the zeitgeist, re-laying the foundation on the Iraq intervention to re-set the frame for the cultural/political discourse would substantively position Rubio, Neo, the Right, and Republicans to highlight that President Bush and America the leader of the free world were right on Iraq, and establish the context needed to highlight and criticize Obama and the Democrats’ knavery that has resulted in so much harm.

    But, if they fail to re-relay the foundation on the Iraq intervention to re-set the frame for the cultural/political discourse, then they’re left with Rubio’s mocked repeated generalized talking point. In that condition, even Neo’s meticulous criticism in this post will fall short due to insufficient premise to activate the contextual frame that’s needed to generate a game-changing impact.

    Setting the record straight on the Iraq intervention really amounts to basic training for the Right. If mainstream conservatives can’t even muster to counter the Left’s demonstrably false narrative on OIF with an easily accessed, straightforward set of law, policy, and facts, then there is little hope they can muster to compete against the Left in the only social cultural/political game there is.

    So, all of this is not moot. It’s essential.

  29. David Brooks is, as clear an example of a “useful idiot” as one is likely to find. One of those “who will not see” of whom Leonardo da Vinci spoke.

    DNW @ 5:18,

    It was not I, would that I had such command.

  30. Oops. Fix: But, if they fail to re-relay re-lay the foundation on the Iraq intervention to re-set the frame for the cultural/political discourse, then they’re left with Rubio’s mocked repeated generalized talking point.

  31. There is another aspect to the knavery. In lieu of commercials, CNN International runs regular promos of its people who describe their work in glowing terms, The Amanpour clip shows a Obama saying that after his term in office, race relations would be permanently changed for the better. He is not a one-trick pony.
    Only great self restraint has kept me from throwing something at the TV.
    Eric, I agree that the record on Iraq is important. Just think what things will be like if the Russian-favored Bulgarian commie who happens to be a friend of Chelsea’s MIL becomes the next Secretary General of the UN. We have to stand up for ourselves now.

  32. Stan on the Brazos Says:
    February 9th, 2016 at 8:51 pm

    So, our president “leads from behind”- is it not true that if you are behind you are a follower rather than a leader.

    &&&&&&&

    “Leading from behind” is a GAY – – or queer expression.

    The dominant male during anal sex leads the procession from behind.

    Yes, it’s had that ‘connection’ going back forever.

    Barry is WIDELY reputed — in the gay community — as being of the ‘brotherhood.’

    Hence, this particular expression is — an in-your-face gay calling-out.

    Barry Soetoro LOVES such antics.

    ( The double entendre in the public eye — that is. )

    Like giving the public the finger — by laying it across his cheek — during a photo-op.

  33. Absolutely Knave.

    Masquerading as Absolute Genius grappling with extremely difficult circumstances, so those who don’t continue to adulate him (e.g., this astounding piece: http://tinyurl.com/j2mm2ku) will either consider him an Unfortunate Victim of Events Beyond His Control (Inc.) or merely an Absolute Fool—both of which conclusions (excuses) are precisely the illusions that he wishes to encourage in order to mask his malevolent agenda.

    And constantly blaming the opposition, while calling for “non-partisanship”.

    And constantly lying while calling for “transparency”.

    (In fact, lying is for all intents and purposes “The Obama Doctrine”; and he has successfully saturated the body politic with so many lies that all trust has broken down.)

    And tossing the “victim”—and race—card around whenever it comes in handy.

    (Which is always.)

    Yes, an Absolute Knave.

    And he’s just getting warmed up….. He’ll be hitting his stride in the months to come.

    So watch your back and be prepared….

    File under: Pray for America (and for the world, if you have anything left over).

  34. Knave, of course. That’s too mild a term for what’s being done, though. I think it will be years before a true accounting of the damage that’s being inflicted is tallied. If ever. I still fantasize that there is an Ellsburg, a Snowden, for us out there somewhere, someone who has been waiting, watching.

  35. It is delusional for conservatives to think that our enemies don’t really believe in what they are willing to die for. This applies domestically and internationally.

    Obama and the Democrat party have been fighting for a century to implement socialist/marxism in America. With the election of Obama they have come very far.

    Everything Obama does is deliberate, carefully thought through to advance the marxist agenda.

    To right the ship of state will require a long time. It is doubtful that the public will vote for Republicans/conservatives often enough to get this done.

    But as Churchill said, never give up.

  36. So, all of this is not moot. It’s essential.

    its moot because there is nothing to do about it…
    you cant stop (communist) feminism
    you cant get back control of schools and that nationalization
    you cant even reverse the health care eugenics stuff

    we are missing about 70 million people who were exterminated by pre birth methods

    in less than 4 years they gonna vote away everything from the hated white males who are a minority while the new majority minorities will do what? be reasoned with?
    [edited for length by n-n]

  37. Millennials have a higher opinion of socialism than of capitalism

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/02/05/millennials-have-a-higher-opinion-of-socialism-than-of-capitalism/

    In my column today, I mentioned that one reason millennials prefer Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton is that they’re not just willing to look past Sanders’s socialism – they actually like his socialism. It’s a feature, not a bug.

    Here are some of the data I was referring to.

    In a recent YouGov survey, respondents were asked whether they had a “favorable or unfavorable opinion” of socialism and of capitalism. Below are the results of their answers, broken down by various demographic groups.

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