It's stories like this one from The Daily Caller that makes my heart sing!
Confirming That Silence IS Golden!
President Barack Obama was greeted with fleeting applause and extended periods of silence as he offered profuse praise to soldiers and their families during an Aug. 31 speech in Fort Bliss, Texas.
His praise for the soldiers -- and for his own national-security policies -- won cheers from only a small proportion of the soldiers and families in the cavernous aircraft-hangar. ...
...his declaration that “around the world there’s a new attitude toward America, a new confidence in our leadership” yielded only silence ...The silence deepened when the president lauded his strategy of withdrawal from the war. “Make no mistake, ending the wars responsibly makes us safer and our military even stronger, and ending these wars is letting us do something else; restoring American leadership,” he said amid complete silence.
... Obama and his wife are also trying to reach out to military families in several critical swing-states, including Virginia and Florida. ...
That outreach, however, has been damaged by repeated flubs from the White House, including its public emphasis on soldiers’ wounds rather than on their accomplishments, and Obama’s effort to distance himself from the anti-jihad campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For example, Obama gave Vice President Joe Biden the task of developing a post-war agreement with Iraq’s government in 2009. The effort failed, reducing U.S. gains from the campaign that killed almost 4,500 troops, and as well as thousands of jihadis and Sunni insurgents seeking to regain power. The subsequent withdrawal of nearly all U..S. troops has allowed Iran to increase its influence in Iraq. In turn, that influence helps it support Syria’s dictatorship against Sunni insurgents.
White House officials are trying to avoid additional flubs. On Friday, for example, White House officials rushed to debunk a report that the president had used an autopen to sign condolence letters to soldiers’ families. ...
There was no reaction when he promised stepped-up recruitment of soldiers for police jobs. ...
It just doesn't get any better than this:
The audience’s reaction was so flat that the president tried twice to elicit a reaction from the crowd.
“Hey, I hear you,” he said amid silence. ...
The troops’ silence continued through several obvious applause-lines. ...
The White House’s video-feed cut off 10 seconds after the president finished his speech, before the audience’s reaction overall could be gauged by viewers.
CNN and MSNBC ended their coverage of the speech before it was half-over. ...
As the old saying goes, "Give 'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves." Yep, I like that picture -- tall trees and short ropes.
Here's a little extra kick from my Marine Corps! The title calls it "Different Presidents, A Different Corps." I prefer to think of it as "Different Presidents, The Same Corps."
