NYT: Amid Skepticism, White House Tries to Shore Up Support <- NEOLIB UNITARY EXECUTIVE FAIL

[Poll_Blind]

Amid Skepticism, White House Tries to Shore Up Support

The White House on Saturday moved to shore up domestic and international support for a possible military strike against the Syrian government in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on its own people, as United Nations inspectors left Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other top aides to President Obama scheduled conference calls for Saturday afternoon with members of the United States Senate, where there was deep skepticism in both parties about the prospect of American involvement in another war in the Middle East, even the limited cruise missile strike under consideration.

The back-to-back calls to the Democratic and Republican conferences were arranged to fulfill Mr. Obama’s promise to consult with Congress as he contemplates military action, but there was no sign that the White House planned to seek a Congressional vote authorizing the use of force. In addition to Mr. Kerry and Mr. Hagel, both former senators, Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, and Susan E. Rice, the president’s national security adviser, will participate.

--snip--

Privately, some American officials acknowledged mistakes over the past week in their buildup for a strike, leading British lawmakers to reject participation on Thursday. It is unclear when Mr. Obama realized that the British vote would go against him, but it was not until Friday afternoon that the White House released what it said was evidence of chemical weapons use by the Assad forces — nearly 24 hours after Parliament had voted rather than beforehand, when it might have been used to build a coalition against Mr. Assad.

Glad I spent the bulk of my time exercising out in the sun this summer. Glad I didn't waste too much time on this bullshit. As far as I'm concerned, the Obama administration is now officially the number one threat to Democrats in the 2014 elections. He may be the head of the party, but he does not own it and he does not have my permission to destroy it.

Not like that's going to stop this administration from trying, though. They're persistent. Grand Bargain persistent. I'm sure they've already made booty calls to the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and Solomon Islands to see who they can wrangle into the next stank-ass misadventure.

FUCK THAT FAIL

PB

[jsr]

1. But it's going to look awesome on his resume.

Helluva Job. Resolute Executive Decider. He-Man War President.

[Poll_Blind]

17. Agreed. And it's also going to be on this party's tombstone in 2014 if he keeps it up. nt

PB

[geek tragedy]

2. Contain the violence to Syria/Lebanon, don't try to stop it. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Ah 'containment'!

Now there's a word from the past! And what a word it is too!

[geek tragedy]

5. It worked. Vastly preferable to

participating in someone else's holy/civil war.

[nashville_brook]

4. k and r

[L0oniX]

6. Looks like shit, smells like shit, tastes like shit ...oh fuck ...he stepped in it.

[gulliver]

7. The body of the article doesn't justify the headline and lead paragraph.

I don't see any indication that Obama is trying to "shore up support" for anything. He is consulting. We don't know his intentions. The authors got schedule information and want to turn it into something interesting. The schedule information is interesting. Their opinion of what it means is meaningless.

[blkmusclmachine]

8. Hope. Change. Bullsh!t.

[scarletwoman]

9. You forgot Poland!

I'm sure they've already made booty calls to the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and Solomon Islands to see who they can wrangle into the next stank-ass misadventure.

I'm totally with you on this:

As far as I'm concerned, the Obama administration is now officially the number one threat to Democrats in the 2014 elections. He may be the head of the party, but he does not own it and he does not have my permission to destroy it.

Well said!

[MindMover]

10. This do nothing congress can finally put the nail in their own coffin ...

DO NOTHING ABOUT SYRIA AND RISK A WORLD WAR STARTING.....

[Phlem]

11. Excuse me but

How do we make the leap from not doing anything in Syria = World War?



-p

[MindMover]

12. Excuse me, that is what many of the worlds powers said

about Hitler ...

[Phlem]

13. Oh, OK then.

So the Assad regime is ready to take on the world?

-p

[icnorth]

14. What took you so long Mr. President

and who in hell are the advisers you've been listening to? You should have done this before beating the war drums and sabre rattling. Why didn't you tell Congress to get their asses back to Washington and throw this in their play pen two weeks ago? Congress was scared shitless you would do exactly that and drag them into a public forum they didn't want to be in. That would have been leadership; now, not so much as the appearance of waffling and indecision.

[MindMover]

15. Well lets say it is done now, and this DO NOTHING congress can get there collective

lazy butts back to take a vote....

[icnorth]

18. Cool! At least it's a delay

and now we can watch the Chamber of Chaos do their thing.

[MindMover]

19. Exactly, and when they decide to do nothing, they are responsible......

[Phlem]

16. I see

so he should have ignored the will of the people and went right in, that would have fixed everything according to your recent history?

I was wondering how many chapters we need to put in our endless wars?

And here I thought we lived in a Democracy.



-p

[icnorth]

20. What do you mean by my "recent history"?

MY response was in reply to the thread title about securing consensus BEFORE he began beating the drum for military intervention and boxing himself in; in fact I imply just the opposite of ignoring the will of the people by presidential unilateral action.

[Phlem]

21. In hind I see.

Sorry for the mail.

Yes I agree, he should have kept shut with the comments, what he's proposed recently is what he should have said in the first place. After Shrub, there's been an air of "we can do what ever we want" and I got a whiff of that with his initial comments. Seems to me it's just a show right now to appease the "people".



-p