Why West Point?

Chris Matthews may have blundered when he called West Point "the enemy camp", but I agree with the idea that West Point was a "strange venue" to make his case for sending more troops to Afganistan. From what I saw of his speech, the cadets were less than enthusiastic with Obama's appearance there. One poor cadet was caught on camera snoozing.

Why in the world did Obama choose this venue? First of all, he most likely got a warmer welcome from the cadets than he would have received from active duty personnel on an actively deployed base. I sure his handlers believed cadets were a better choice due to their youth, idealism, and distance from the realities of war. They were likely counting on a more liberally minded audience among academia.

Did you think Obama appeared arrogant, angry, even hateful during his speech? Either his applause lines were poorly written, or the cadets found very little to applaud, but as the speech wore on I felt Obama's jaw was set tighter and tighter in frustration over the tepid response. I could be projecting, but I think I really did see exactly that happening over the course of the evening.

The speech was a complete failure. The man cannot lead. Gen. McChrystal asked for 60,000 troops, the Dems want us out. Obama compromised and gave the General 30,000. No one is happy with his plan. Compromise in this situation is not leadership. If our goal is to win in Afganistan give the military what it needs to win; the troops, the equipment, the time, and the full fledged support of the presidency. Otherwise, we may as well cut and run. What a complete and utter waste.

And so ends my rant for the day.