CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Obama failed to heal the planet

Remember back on the last night of voting in the primary campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination, when then Senator Barack Obama had the audacity to promise to heal the world?:

"But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it … then I am absolutely certain that generations from now … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…"

Obama's promise to heal the world is from his June 3, 2008 remarks he gave in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If you are one of those context folks or nuancing so-called fact checkers, you can find a transcript of Obama's heal the world speech here.

Today, the Romney campaigned released a new web video, "Healed?" The video takes President Obama to task for his failure to deliver on his promise to "heal" the planet.

You can watch "healed?" below:

The video offers several examples of evidence demonstrating that Obama failed to heal the planet.

On April 22, 2011, Barry Peterson of CBS news reported that "tens of thousands demonstrators took to the streets in Syria to only to face bullets. Barry Petersen reports on what witnesses called the bloodiest day in the five week uprising against a regime that seems ever more desperate."

On August 3, 2012 the United Nations General Assembly, by a vote of 133 for, 12 against and 31 abstaining,  overwhelmingly denounced Syria’s deadly crackdown on "rebels" and demanded the lockdown of Syria's chemical and biological weapons.

During the September 16, 2012-edition of "Meet the Press," NBC's David Gregory noted there were "new tensions between the Obama administration and Israel." During his interview during that broadcast Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "I always say the danger of not acting in time is much greater because Iran with nuclear weapons would mean that the kind of fanaticism that you see storming your embassies would have a nuclear weapon."

During the September 24, 2012-edition of MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," Chuck Todd reported about Obama's failure to get Russia to help resolve the civil war in Syria:

"And let’s be realistic here. Russia’s standing in the way of doing anything in Syria. Okay? That’s a foreign policy failure on the President’s part."

The new "healed?" video also reminds us about Obama's assurance to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he can be more flexible concerning America's missile defenses after he is reelected. Surely four more years of a more flexible Obama won't heal the world any more than the last four years have.

The new video has it right, "The world can’t afford four more years."

'Shell-shocked' team Obama whines and plays a blame game over debate loss

Shell-shocked by Governor Romney's terrific debate performance, especially juxtaposed to President Obama's lackadaisical performance in front of a television audience of  about 67.5 million, team Obama is flailing around whining and pointing fingers of blame at each other.

Failing to convince any fair-minded person that Obama lost the debate because, as the Obama campaign continues to falsely claim, Romney lied; that the mile high altitude, which didn't bother Obama during his TelePrompted infamous Greek Column speech, was the reason for Obama's drubbing; or that it was because of something the moderator, Jim Lehrer, did or didn't do -- the Obama team has moved to blaming each other.

At Breitbart, Alexander Marlow reports that Obama's team is so distraught over Obama's debate shellacking they are throwing Senator John Kerry under the bus. They blame Secretary of State wannabe Kerry for being too diplomatic while playing Romney during Obama's debate practice.

Marlow quotes Norah O'Donnell and Bill Plante from CBS's "This Morning":

Norah O'Donnell: "Some Democrats say [Obama's] campaign needs a wake-up call.  Bill Plante is here with that part of the story.  Bill, you've been talking to your sources; what are they saying?

Correspondent Bill Plante: "Well Norah, they're simply upset and really outraged. They blame the President's team, first of all, for not preparing him to meet the challenge of an aggressive Mitt Romney. They say that nobody in the room challenged him, including the guy that he was debating with, John Kerry, because, as they say, he wants to be Secretary of State so he's not going to get in the President's face. And Presidents are used to deference; they're not used to people challenging them like that. So they think that the debate prep was terrible, but they also fault the President himself for not understanding that Romney was going to be more aggressive."

It is peculiar to see the Obama campaign blaming John Kerry for Romney cleaning Obama's debate clock, especially in light of the fact the President's deputy campaign manager and sometimes spokesperson, Stephanie Cutter, was communications director for  Kerry’s failed presidential campaign when it melted down in 2004. I remember article after article blaming Cutter for the Kerry's loss. Is team Obama pointing the finger at the wrong person to be the next victim under the Obama bus.?

 At The Daily Beast, James Warren quotes William Daley as admitting that Romney's "extremely good night" is a "big advantage." Warren also credits Obama campaign aides with using the term 'shell-shocked'  to describe the Obama campaign's reaction to the debate:

At least two current Obama campaign aides were more blunt than Daley and used the term “shell-shocked” over the Obama performance. There were various analyses of what went wrong, including finger-pointing at debate preparations. Those included claims that Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who played the role of Romney in mock debates, probably wasn’t tough and aggressive enough. (“He does, after all, want to be Secretary of State,” claimed one aide.)

So much for the formerly much ballyhooed nonchalant and diffident "No Drama Obama." I guess that was too much of what was obviously incorrectly perceived to be a good thing.

Meanwhile, in an effort to recover ground lost by Romney's debate take down of Obama, Senior Strategist for Obama's re-election campaign, David Axelrod, is taking over the debate preparation for Vice President Biden for the debate this Thursday with Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan. Axelrod's takeover is already raising expectations for a great debate performance from Biden who wasn't able to win the 2008 vice presidential debate Sarah Palin.

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