Did You Miss Obama’s ‘Foreign Policy Reset’ Speech? Jonah Goldberg Sums it Up in One Perfect Tweet
President Obama gave the commencement speech at West Point today, and used the occasion to let his fans in the news media find out what his new foreign policy initiatives are, since no one really knows what the old ones were, and they failed anyway. But don’t concern yourself with chasing down the video of the speech, that’s what Twitter is for!
This @JonahNRO tweet really does explain years and years of Obama rhetoric. http://t.co/BgE90MJAcb
— Byron York (@ByronYork) May 28, 2014
Washington Examiner journalist Byron York is a pretty bright guy and knows politics well, so he understood how accurately Twitter user (and National Review columnist) Jonah Goldberg was in describing Obama’s speech:
Some say we must put armadillos in our trousers to defeat tyranny. Others say that cats are poor spellers. I reject both points of view.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) May 28, 2014
Yes, it’s hilarious, but it’s also very descriptive – Obama’s speech was full of “strawman fallacies” of argumentation. The fallacy is setting up fake arguments from your opponents while ignoring their real arguments, so your side looks more cogent.
Here’s one:
Obama cites "critics who think military intervention is the only way to avoid looking weak." #strawman #nobodybelievesthis
— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) May 28, 2014
Here’s another the left just loved:
Obama: "Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail."
— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) May 28, 2014
That one’s a twofer – not only is it a strawman, but it’s cliched too!
Over and over, Obama defended his failures by misrepresenting what his critics said about his foreign policy, while only vaguely outlining what his “new” foreign policy is going to be like. This portends three more years of fecklessness from a president without principles.
