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| Why can't Obama just put Putin in his place—you know, like Superman did with Dr. Doom? Via Auggie18. |
Senator Linsey-Woolsey Graham, on CNN (via
Crooks & Liars):
Well, number one, stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators. It is not your strong suit. [jump]
Why of course, Senator, that's
your strong suit, isn't it? And you look so fetching when you're doing it.
Every time the president goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody’s eyes roll, including mine. We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression.
President Obama needs to do something. How about this — suspend Russian membership in the G-8 and the G-20 at least for a year starting right now. And for every day that they stay in Crimea, add to the suspension. Do something. […]
Guess I know where that's coming from: "Lindsey, that was
very disrespectful. You know if I have to take one more gold ticket from your envelope there won't be any left and it'll be
no Reading Rug time on Friday..."
What Graham is recommending is in fact the opposite of what he imagines he's recommending: talk rather than action; that is, instead of simply canceling the G8 summit in Sochi (which was meant to be sort of the last act of the Winter Olympics and the crown of the Russian Federation's triumphant entry into the community of TV-worthy, properly marketed nations), Obama should announce that he's moving the summit around the map and down the calendar along a series of dates each more uncertain than the last, making a promise of punishment he obviously won't keep.
Because if little Lindsey complies too late with the teacher's demands, he still loses his Reading Rug privileges; the teacher can't afford to back down. Putin, in contrast, is never going to submit, but will eventually sign up for some face-saving compromise solution, and the punishment will vanish as soon as he has done it. It is not in point of fact for Obama, as it is for the kindergarten teacher, to show that he's the boss of you, but rather to show patiently, and more by example than precept, that we're all adults here. Even if, just as in Congress, he knows we aren't.
