The American Spectator

Political Hay

The Party of the Weak Horse

By Jeffrey Lord on 5.20.08 @ 12:08AM

(Page 2 of 2)

* 1979: Carter admits shock as the Soviets invade Afghanistan after he has negotiated a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with Soviet boss Leonid Brezhnev. At the signing ceremony in Vienna, Carter had famously kissed Brezhnev on the cheek.

* 1979: Carter looks on as a Soviet-backed government replaces the Somoza government in Nicaragua.

* 1979: Carter abandons the Shah of Iran as the Iranian Revolution is led to power by the Ayatollah Khomeini. The shah, appalled at Carter's abandonment of Iran as a once fierce U.S. ally, tells an aide, "Who knows what sort of calamity he [Carter] may unleash on the world?" Carter's UN Ambassador, Andrew Young, predicts, "Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint," while Carter's ambassador to Iran says, "Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure." Newsweek quotes another Carter aide as saying Khomeini possessed "impeccable integrity and honesty." In November, the American Embassy in Tehran is overrun by Iranian students with the approval of the Ayatollah. American embassy staff is seized as hostages. They are held for over a year, released literally the day Ronald Reagan is sworn in, having defeated Carter in a landslide.

* 1983: While Reagan sets out to rebuild the American military and win the Cold War outright, Democrats embrace the idea of a nuclear freeze. When Reagan installs Pershing Missiles in Europe to challenge the Soviet SS-II missiles, a furious Senator Edward Kennedy says of Reagan's strategy for victory: "I reject the absurd theory that we can have fewer nuclear bombs tomorrow only if we build more nuclear bombs today." Former JFK/LBJ Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the architect of the Vietnam War disaster and now a committed dove, calls Reagan's approach "madness."

* 1983: Reagan's decision to liberate Grenada from a takeover by murderous Cuban thugs loyal to Castro is opposed by future Democratic Party nominees Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry.

* 1984: The Democrats nominate Carter's Vice President, Walter Mondale, on a platform that insists America should "initiate and establish a Peace Academy," while demanding that "we can no longer afford simplistically to blame all of our troubles on a single 'focus of evil,'" a reference to Reagan's description of the Soviet Union. Mondale loses 49 states to Reagan.

* 1988: The Democrats nominate Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who says, "Balancing the budget would require hard choices mostly on the defense side. I don't see much room for cuts on the domestic side." Dukakis campaigns as the candidate who opposes the Midgetman missile, development of the cruise missile, deployment of the Pershing missile, building the Trident submarine, the establishment of a 600-ship Navy (a Reagan goal), the testing and deployment of anti-satellite weapons, construction of newer and faster aircraft carriers, and a refusal to order the Massachusetts National Guard to Central America for two weeks of training until ordered by a federal judge to do so. Says Washington Post columnist David Broder, "...his approach to foreign policy comes so close to renouncing the unilateral use of American power to protect national interests...that it sometimes sounds as if the ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt had taken control of his body." Dukakis loses in a landslide to George H.W. Bush.

* 1991: 45 of the Senate's 54 Democrats, including future 2004 nominee John Kerry, vote against throwing Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. According to Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, the future 2000 nominee of the Democrats, Tennessee Senator Al Gore, votes in favor only in return for 20 minutes worth of television time to speak on the Senate floor. With the Cold War over, Gore is tapped as Clinton's running mate to send a message that the JFK Democrats have returned. Clinton wins with 43% of the vote.

* 1993: The World Trade Center in New York is bombed, killing six and injuring over a thousand. The Clinton administration decides this is a crime and not an act of war, prosecuting those jihadists it can catch.

ONE COULD go on here. On and on and on. All during this period, the Democrats' instinctive urge to appease prevailed. From the moment Clinton had America flee Somalia at the beginning of his term to his decision not to respond seriously as America's enemies attacked U.S. embassies throughout his term, or even after the attack on the USS Cole at the end of his term. Non-serious response by the Democrats running the Clinton defense and foreign policy establishment in essence created the impression of America as perceived by bin Ladin: the weak horse.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the left-wing MoveOn.org -- a major backer these days of Obama -- even opposed the idea of an American invasion of Afghanistan to remove the Taliban government. This was too much for Senator Clinton -- which, in sum, is doubtless the main reason she will not be the nominee of the Democrats. She's what passes for a hawk in the Democrats' circles these days, don't you know?

Now comes 2008. Right on cue, Senator Obama, following in the steps of Wallace, McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry, steps up and says that he would "talk to America's enemies," from Iran to North Korea. He insists that he would have voted against removing Saddam Hussein from power had he been in the Senate at the time. Yet he's stunned that anybody would ever call him an appeaser. Shocked that a spokesman from the eternally violent Hamas would express the wish that Obama win the election. He would, Obama insists, never meet with terrorists. Never.

Serve on the board of the Woods Foundation with a terrorist, perhaps, or have one host a campaign fundraiser maybe, but beyond that -- certainly not. You don't believe he's that naive, do you?

As a matter of fact, yes. In the middle of a global war with horrific consequences, the ghosts of Henry Wallace and Neville Chamberlain are now riding herd for the Democrats with the heir of Jimmy Carter.

Make no mistake. There is a reason Barack Obama is going to be the nominee of the party of the weak horse.

He is one.

Jeffrey Lord is the creator, co-founder and CEO of QubeTV, an online conservative video site. A Reagan White House political director and author, he writes from Pennsylvania.

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Foreign Policy, Education, Trade, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Television, Business, Law, Military, Iran, Russia, Israel, NATO, North Korea, Communism