The attached video, courtesy of Airman Brian Kolfage is a stark reminder of how much the main stream media distorts reality.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=622410927821028&fref=nf

The conventional wisdom is that George W. Bush lied to congress about the WMD in Iraq. The conventional wisdom is that there was no relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.  The conventional wisdom is that George W. Bush made a huge mistake by invading Iraq.  The conventional wisdom is based on repeated lies and distortions by the main stream media.  The truth is there for anyone willing to see.  This is well documented, but I suspect most people know none of this.

Bill Clinton is the one who claimed that Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of WMD.  Watch the video of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.  Then explain to me how Bush managed to trick them into doing this?  Nonsense.

The truth is that every major official in the Clinton Administration and every top Democrat in congress believed that Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of WMD. So did the Bush administration and top Republicans in congress.  That is because the U.S. intelligence community strongly believed that to be true.  There were only a handful of people who expressed doubt, but none of them had any credible evidence to support their opinion.

It gets worse.  The Clinton administration had reason to believe that Iraq was providing nerve gas to al Qaeda.  The following incident has been ignored or downplayed by the main stream media.  Yet, this seems really significant.  Most people are shocked to learn that there was at least some evidence that Saddam Hussein was helping al Qaeda get nerve gas. Here is what the main stream media, and unfortunately the Bush administration, never told you.

Bill Clinton attacked a factory owned by Osama bin Laden in the Sudan because the CIA found verex the precursor to Sarin gas on the site.  The intelligence said that this came from Iraq.  Later a site inspection failed to verify the presence of verex.  That is why Republicans joked about Clinton bombing an aspirin factory.  If only that were true.  However, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.   This incident is well documented.  The following excerpt is from page 116 of the 9-11 Commission Report:

Ever since March 1995, American officials had had in the backs of their minds Aum Shinrikyo’s release of sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway.  President Clinton himself had expressed great concern about chemical and biological terrorism in the United states.  Bin Ladin had reportedly been heard to speak of wanting a “Hiroshima” and at least 10,000 casualties.  The CIA reported that a soil sample from the vicinity of the al Shifa plant had tested positive for EMPTA, a precursor chemica for VX, a nerve gas whose lone use was for mass killing.  Two days before the embassy bombings, Clarke’s staff wrote that Bin Ladin has invested in and almost certainly has access to VX produced at a plane in the Sudan.

Much public commentary turned immediately to scalding criticism that the action was too aggressive.  The Sudanese denied that al Shifa produced nerve gas, and they allowed journalists to visit what was left of a seemingly harmless factory.  President Clinton, Vice President Gor, Berger, Tenet and Clarke insisted to us that there judgment was right, point to the soil sample evidence.  No independent evience has emerged to corroborate the CIA’s assessment.

A contemporary CNN report from 1998 confirms not only the suspicion that this was a chemical plant, but that there was a direct connection between Osama bin Laden and Iraq:

The U.S. knew bin Laden had been pursuing the development of chemical weapons “within his organization and in cooperation with Sudan’s National Islamic Front,” the official said. Bin Laden had worked with the Sudanese in the 1990s to test “various poisonous substances and to improve techniques for using and producing them,” the official said.

Bin Laden “has provided significant funding for Sudan to build its military-industrial complex,” the official said. The National Islamic Front’s leader Hassan al-Turabi has said bin Laden’s organization would “furnish weapons and munitions for use against enemies of Islam.”

Read the following and ask yourself if there is any evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden:

The U.S. also believes Iraq has been a “foreign benefactor” of Sudan’s chemical weapons efforts.

“Iraq admitted to UNSCOM that it planned to produce VX for its CW program using the EMPTA process,” the official said. “And prior to the Sudanese soil sample, Iraq was the only country we knew of to have pursued this production process.”

Additionally, Shifa officials were in contact with Iraq about its VX program, the official said. Shifa had signed an agreement to provide veterinary drugs to Iraq as part of the oil-for-food program, but according to the United Nations, the contracted material was never delivered.

The main stream media continues to report that there was no relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.  They shout down anyone who dares question that conventional wisdom.  They ridicule Bush and Cheney for even hinting at a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. The facts, obviously, tell a very different story. It was Bill Clinton who determined that such a relationship existed long before Bush became President.  It was Bill Clinton who indicted Osama bin Laden for conspiring with Iraq to conduct terrorist attacks.  The following excerpt is from that indictment:

https://www.fas.org/irp/news/1998/11/indict1.pdf

In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular

projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda

would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq

We’ve been lied to by the main stream media over and over and over again. I will never understand why the Bush administration didn’t fight back.  I also don’t understand why Republicans did not rally around their President.  I am astonished that so many people in the main stream media ignored the obvious and reported the ridiculous.

Did they really think that Bush lied to trick us into an unnecessary war?  If I thought Bush did that I would lead the impeachment parade myself.  There was never any evidence of this.  Yet liberals wanted to believe that Bush was capable of this, so they pretended that this was true.  If there was a shred of evidence supporting this theory Democrats would have rushed to impeach Bush.  They were bitterly angry at the Clinton Impeachment and they wanted revenge.   Sadly these outrageous lies have been repeated so many times that far too many people believe them to be true.  However, repeating a lie does not make it the truth. It is terrible that the media covered up the serial lying by Brian Williams, but it is far worse that the media has been lying about the Iraq war since day one.

Ask yourself a simple question.  Imagine you are President Bush.  Imagine watching the horror of 9-11.  Wouldn’t it be logical to worry about al Qaeda getting possession of a WMD?  You know that Osama bin Laden wants another “Hiroshima” with at least 10,000 deaths.  You have read the report about the al Shifa factory.  You have seen the intelligence suggesting that Saddam Hussein is ready, willing and able to provide nerve gas to terrorists.  What would you do?  Would you just ignore this and hope the CIA was wrong?

This is not speculation.  This is well documented.  No one disputes any of the above. They just ignore it and keep repeating the same lies.  Are they too stupid to recognize the truth or are they just too biased.  Ultimately, does it matter?  The important thing to understand is that the main stream media has lied about this over and over again.

I strongly believe that if most people knew about al Shifa and they knew that there was evidence that Saddam Hussein was providing Sarin nerve gas to al Qaeda their perspective on the Iraq war would change significantly. Isn’t it about time someone reported the cold hard truth?  Is that too much to ask?

TDM

In November 2003 George W. Bush laid out his plan for Iraq.  I wonder how many people have ever read the text of this speech to the United States Chamber of Commerce.  In retrospect, it is stunningly prophetic.  It is impossible to read this and reconcile the insane accusations by the liberal left that Bush lied to lead us into an unnecessary war.  Their eyes and ears were too clogged up with vile hatred to consider the possibility that Bush was right:

http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031106-2.html

In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council are also working together to build a democracy — and after three decades of tyranny, this work is not easy. The former dictator ruled by terror and treachery, and left deeply ingrained habits of fear and distrust. Remnants of his regime, joined by foreign terrorists, continue their battle against order and against civilization. Our coalition is responding to recent attacks with precision raids, guided by intelligence provided by the Iraqis, themselves. And we’re working closely with Iraqi citizens as they prepare a constitution, as they move toward free elections and take increasing responsibility for their own affairs. As in the defense of Greece in 1947, and later in the Berlin Airlift, the strength and will of free peoples are now being tested before a watching world. And we will meet this test.

Bush warned us that we had been ignoring the core problem for decades.  He warned us that if we continued to make the same mistakes we would be doomed to the same results.  Bush proposed a dramatically different approach:

This is a massive and difficult undertaking — it is worth our effort, it is worth our sacrifice, because we know the stakes. The failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region.

His leadership was rewarded by scorn in the main stream media and outright opposition by the Democratic Party. By 2005, many in congress had developed amnesia and pretended they have been tricked into invading Iraq.  The war was taking too long and Democrats wanted to quit, without regard to the consequences. Watch your TV tonight. The consequences are all too obvious.   Bush reminded them of what was at stake:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/20/bush.speech/

Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be dishonorable to abandon. Yet because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom.” through U.S. efforts, “we have lit a fire … it warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world.”

“the unfinished work of American freedom,” showing the world what liberty really means, and changing to meet “the needs of our time.”

David Gergen got it:

[It’s] historically significant because I think he’s revealed to us today his strategy to win the war on terrorism is far more ambitious than we ever imagined,” Gergen said. “It’s not simply going after Iraq and getting rid of Saddam [Hussein], nor is it simply going after al Qaeda. It is rather to expand and extend liberty across much of the world.

“No other American president has ever committed himself in an inaugural as fully as this to that kind of aggressive, foreign policy.”

I often hear people in the liberal left express longing for real leadership. I just laugh.  We had such a leader but they never even noticed.  Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.  Read, once again, the words of George W. Bush in 2003.  Remind me of why this is all his fault.

The failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region.

What a shame.

TDM

Perhaps, just perhaps, someone will finally investigate the tragic misreporting by Walter Cronkite with regard to the 1968 Tet offensive.  The following article is spot on.  I was in Vietnam in 1968 and as a Vietnamese Linguist assigned to the NSA, I know that this is accurate:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0215/colon021715.php3

What makes this so sad is that for years Walter Cronkite was considered to be the most trusted name in news.  It is easy to be trusted, if like Brian Williams, no one ever bothers to fact check what you are reporting.  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have met people who bragged about protesting the Vietnam War.  I have sadly met many Vietnam Veterans who also thought we were caught in a quagmire we couldn’t win.  Walter Cronkite convinced a nation of something that was simply untrue.  That lie is perpetuated to this day.  What the anti-war protestors refuse to consider is the following two questions.

Would Vietnam be better or worse off today if we had stayed the course and forced North Vietnam to honor the peace treaty

Compare South Korea to South Vietnam

What happened in South Vietnam and Cambodia after we left?

Millions of people were confined to re-education camps for years.

An estimated 3 million people were slaughtered in Cambodia.

Explain to me why this was a good result!

No one ever asks these questions.  Instead they gloat over stopping the war with the naïve notion that this was followed by peace and love.  Granted the Vietnam War was terrible.  Granted a lot of civilians died.  But the most unethical thing to do in a war is to lose it to pure evil.  There is, as Douglas McArthur once said, “no substitute for victory.”  It is bad enough that we abandoned South Vietnam under any circumstances,  To surrender on the verge of victory, because of bald-faced lies is the ultimate disgrace.

Under the leadership of the Democratic congress, the United States abandoned South Vietnam with no regard to the consequences.  They threw the sacrifices of the more than 55,000 Americans who died there on the scrap heap of history.  This decision was based on blatant falsehoods and misrepresentations. None worse than the irresponsible reporting by Walter Cronkite.

It is time someone told the awful truth.  Walter lied and a whole lot of people died.  The most trusted man in news is someone we should never have trusted at all.

TDM

A lot of people are learning the bitter truth about ObamaCare the hard way. Almost everyone will learn more by April 15^th, 2015. The following article on AOL is designed to sell enrollment in ObamaCare.  Instead, it documents the awful reality for a lot of people:

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/02/12/financial-penalties-loom-for-those-without-health-insurance/21142254/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-sb-bb%7Cdl37%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D612404

1.  Open enrollment is over February 15.  Millions of people are still without health insurance.
2. The reason they are uninsured is that they cannot afford it.
3. 80% of people who actually signed up for ObamaCare got financial help.
   1. This is because without the financial help, ObamaCare is too expensive.
4. You have to pay a fine if you don’t have insurance.  The fine is either $325 per person or 2% of income above $20,600, whichever is higher.  It goes up next year.
   1. You will also be responsible for 100% of medical care each year.

Many people will learn about this for the first time when they go to file their taxes.  It is a very unpleasant surprise.   If you choose to not enroll in ObamaCare, you are screwed:

http://obamacarefacts.com/missed-deadline-obamacare/

If you missed the deadline: you won’t be able to get marketplace insurance or an ACA-compliant private plan outside the marketplace until the next annual enrollment period, without qualifying for special enrollment.

In other words, you can’t get ObamaCare and nothing else is available either.

FACT: Those who have been ignoring the requirement to obtain and maintain coverage risk finding out about how it affects them for the first time during the 2015 tax season. Since taxes are due April 15th and Open Enrollment ends February 15th, it creates a gap in which some will want coverage, but won’t be able to get a plan that starts before January 1st, 2016.

If you wait until April 15^th, you are already out of options.

In case you wonder how this works let me give an example.  Take a typical family of four, two adults, two school age children.  The monthly premium is $450 per month, with a $9,000 deductible.  If they don’t buy this plan, they will have to pay a fine of at least $1,300 and they will be responsible for all medical expenses with no limitation.  This family has the choice of paying $5,400 for insurance that is unlikely to cover any medical expense or paying $1,300 for the privilege of having no insurance at all.  How does that sound to you?

To make this worse, the fine is used to pay for the cost of health insurance for those who are unable or unwilling to pay anything.  This is not going to play well in Peoria or anyplace else.

SUMMARY

Many people don’t know this because they haven’t done their taxes yet.  Since the open enrollment ends February 15^th, but taxes aren’t due to be filed until April 15^th, a lot of people will figure this out too late to do anything about it.  They won’t even have the option of enrolling in ObamaCare until January of 2016.  Nice!

This is what happens when the American people allow liberals like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to take over our health care system.  There is a price for stupidity.

.

TDM

Two thirds of Republicans oppose legalizing marijuana.  Only one third of Democrats oppose legalizing marijuana:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/the-republican-partys-pot-dilemma/284289/

The following study may explain why this matters.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2015/02/10/new-study-shows-smoking-pot-permanently-lowers-iq/

A study more than thirty years in the making found that smoking marijuana permanently lowers intelligence, or IQ.  Frequent pot smokers (even those who had given up marijuana) tended to have deficits in memory, concentration, and overall IQ. The reduction in IQ for those who smoked pot heavily prior to age 18 was most pronounced: an average of eight points. An eight point reduction in IQ is enough to have a significant, negative impact upon your life. To put it into context, consider that individuals with an IQ of 110 have an average net worth of $71,000 and individuals with an IQ of 120 have an average net worth of $128,000. It looks like smoking pot can lower your tax bracket.

This explains a lot.  Why would anyone be stupid enough to think that any of the following people are capable of handling responsibility:

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Howard Dean, John Edwards, John Kerry etc.

See above.  Any questions?

TDM

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, President Obama has opted for the worst case scenario.  The horrific deaths of that Jordanian pilot, the Japanese hostages and the American girl has resulted in Obama asking congress to congratulate him on doing a good job.  The following wording is incredible:

Whereas President Obama has repeatedly expressed his commitment to working with Congress to pass a bipartisan authorization for the use of military force for the anti-ISIL military campaign; and

 Whereas President Obama has made clear that in this campaign it is more effective to use our unique capabilities in support of partners on the ground instead of large-scale deployments of U.S. ground forces: Now, therefore, be it…

He is not just asking for authorization, he is asking congress to ratify his strategy for fighting ISIS.  He then adds wording which makes it impossible for him or any other future President, to change strategies. This authority specifically precludes the use of “enduring offensive ground combat operations.”   This is a recipe for failure.

To make things worse Obama said that the decision to invade Iraq was ill advised.  No matter how you look at this, it is insulting to every member of congress who supported that resolution.  Many of them were Democrats.

This puts congress and the country in a very tough position.  Congress would actually like to give authorization to fight ISIS, but they would be insane to approve his proposed resolution.  It is just one more example of the arrogance and ignorance of this man.

The only good news is that time is running out on the Obama administration.  The following countdown clock may provide some comfort:

http://www.270towin.com/2016-countdown-clock/

As I write this, there are 635 days, 9 hours, 37 minutes and 10 seconds until we elect a new President.  There is zero chance that person will be Barack Obama.  That seems like a long time, but it isn’t.  By this time next year we will already be through the early part of the presidential primary season.  Obama is leaking power by the minute.  His ability to do further damage to the country diminishes every day.  I wish it were sooner but I am comforted by the stark reality that the clock is ticking and time stops for no man, including Barack Obama.

TDM

Those of us familiar with Brian Williams are well aware of his blatant liberal bias.  Anyone remotely familiar with the facts soon learned to take anything reported by Williams with more than one grain of salt.   He literally gushed over President Obama while he constantly put down Republicans and those awful Tea Party people.  Williams once compared our Army Rangers and Navy Seals to terrorists:

“And that, Chris, that last aspect, the willingness to take one’s own life —  I always tell people, you know, there are guys on our team like that, too. They’re called Army Rangers and Navy Seals and the Special Forces folks and the first responders on 9/11 who went into those buildings knowing, by the way, they weren’t going to come out. So we have players like that on our team.”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2014/12/02/worst-brian-williams-marking-his-10-years-anchor-nbc-nightly-news#sthash.d7qkHG5z.dpuf

Now the truth about Williams has been exposed to all.  This is about more than lying about his personal exploits.  It is about a News Anchor who lied about everything.  He reported the news strictly from the liberal standpoint and never considered the possibility that he got anything wrong.

If you want to know how damaging this has been to the country, consider how badly Williams misrepresented the aftermath of Katrina:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14576012/ns/nbc_nightly_news_with_brian_williams/t/president-bush-talks-brian-williams/

When interviewing President Bush, Williams started with an assault and an insult:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend, that week, you were watching something on television other than what they were seeing.

Williams got it exactly right.  George Bush was watching something other than what people were seeing on TV. That is because people like Brian Williams got almost everything wrong.  Bush had to deal with the reality of the situation, not the liberal myth.  The decisive executive actions by George W. Bush saved thousands of lives.

It was Bush who declared a state of emergency, before Governor Blanco or Mayor Nagin even asked.  That allowed emergency responders all over the country to deploy to the area.  Ultimately over 48,000 people showed up.  National Guard and Coast Guard helicopters literally few out to sea and followed the storm on shore.  They saved thousands of lives.  They set up a hospital that treated over 40,000 people and no one died because they didn’t have enough food or water.

It was Bush who called both Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin and begged them to evacuate New Orleans. It was Bush to begged Governor Blanco to request federal assistance, because Bush was forbidden by law to provide such assistance without a request. (“Posse Comitatus”).  Things were handled so poorly by Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin that Bush seriously considered declaring a state of insurrection so that he could deploy resources.

In the meantime, if Brian Williams had only looked up he would have seen the greatest rescue operation in the history of the world:

http://www.helis.com/featured/katrina.php

“This is the largest search and rescue mission in the history of the Air Force. You could fly over New Orleans and it was like a scene right out of a movie. There were helicopters everywhere!” 

Instead Mayor Nagin was on NBC predicting 10,000 casualties.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/mayor_katrina_death_toll_may_hit_10000/

Brian Williams reported that there were bodies all over the place.  New Orleans looked like a third world country.  Williams was dismayed that this could happen here in the United States.  People were dying from lack of food and water.  Criminals were running the city.  (That part is actually true which is why Mayor Nagin is now in jail)  Williams literally accused President Bush of sitting on his ass watching irrelevant TV shows because he didn’t care what happened to black people in New Orleans. None of that was true.

There are still false media reports that several people died because they were trapped in New Orleans without adequate water, food or shelter.  That is untrue.  I can find no evidence that anyone died because of dehydration.  There was plenty of food and water and security at both the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center.  When people there started bitching, news reporters like Brian Williams reported it as gospel truth.  In reality these people were being ignored by authorities because while they may have been uncomfortable, they were actually quite safe. If only Brian Williams had noticed. If Karina had hit anywhere else in the world Mayor Nagin would have been right about the 10,000 casualties.

The only legitimate complaint about Bush after Katrina is that he was too willing to accept blame he did not deserve and he refused to throw Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin under the bus, where they belonged.

Brian Williams was too busy making things up to notice the truth. He was hero worshipped by the liberal left because of his bald-faced lies about the aftermath of Katrina.  He told them what they wanted to believe and they refused to be distracted by any inconvenient facts.

That is the problem with Brian Williams and his ilk.  Who cares if he wants to lie about his personal history to make himself look heroic?  A lot of people do that.  The real problem is that Brian Williams was lying to the American people on a nightly basis for over a decade. An even bigger problem is that so many people, primarily liberals, believed it. I describe this as the Williams’ suspension of disbelief.

TDM

Then entire world learned a harsh lesson from that awful ISIS video burning a Jordanian pilot to death.  We all know what happened; the real question is what happens next.  The King of Jordan has responded by executing two al Qaeda prisoners.  He has angrily vowed to continue the campaign against ISIS:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/04/obama-jordanian-king-vow-to-continue-campaign-against-isis/

According to Rep Duncan Hunter, Jr., the King is ready to take on ISIS

“They’re starting more sorties tomorrow than they’ve ever had. They’re starting tomorrow. And he said, ‘The only problem we’re going to have is running out of fuel and bullets.’”

That sounds great, until you realize that the White House is already failling to provide Jordan with critical supplies.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/04/us-officials-key-arab-ally-no-longer-flying-airstrikes-over-syria/

All 26 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Jordan’s situation and the unanimity of the coalition battling the extremists “demands that we move with speed to ensure they receive the military materiel they require.” 

Unfortunately, running out of fuel and ammunition could happen sooner rather than later. I am not sure, at this point, that the United States is that valuable as a partner in the fight against ISIS or anyone else.  Obama’s stated goal is to let other people do all the fighting and dying. The results are painfully obvious.  At least one of our “Allies “has figured this out:

A key Arab partner in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State stopped flying airstrike missions over Syria after a Jordanian pilot — who was later killed — was shot down in December, 

This was acknowledged by Josh Ernest:

“I don’t think people should take away from that announcement that the commitment from the Emiratis and other Arab countries in the region to this broader coalition has waned in any way. There’s a very important role for the Emiratis to play in terms of the range of other aspects of our counter-ISIL strategy that requires broad international support,” he said, pointing to humanitarian assistance for those who’ve been displaced and other ways. 

This brutal video is a real wake up call.  Just when you think ISIS has sunk to lowest possible level, they managed to do something even more evil. Several things are now clear to the entire world. Muslim Extremists will never consider good faith negotiations with anyone.  They will continue destroying anyone and anything in their path until someone stops them.  A U.S. President who cannot bring himself to admit the truth about Muslim extremist is not part of the solution, he is part of the problem.

TDM

Secret tapes and e-mails were released about build up to the war in Libya.  They are devastating for Hillary Clinton.  These documents prove that Hillary was the major force behind the decision to attack Libya and overthrow Gadhaffi.  There were smarter, wiser heads in both the military and the intelligence community desperately trying to save her and the country from herself.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/hillary-clinton-undercut-on-libya-war-by-pentagon-/

Trey Gowdy has requested his staff on the Select Committee on Benghazi to review the tapes.  That is extremely dangerous for Hillary. Gowdy is a skilled prosecutor and he will do his homework. We could be seeing high drama in Washington in the very near future.

Obama took the position that he did not need authorization from congress. The only authorization he mentioned was from the UN. The following letter written on March 21, 2011 was not well received by either Democrats or Republicans:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/21/letter-president-regarding-commencement-operations-libya

This means that a lot of Democrats have a vested interest in this issue. It is not necessarily going to be easy to shove this under a rug.

No sane person would argue that Libya is better off today, because of our intervention.  Neither Hillary nor Obama pretended that Gadhaffi was a threat to our national security.  Obama himself described what was really at stake in Libya:

“Left unaddressed, the growing instability in Libya could ignite wider instability in the Middle East, with dangerous consequences to the national security interests of the United States.

Obama was right, he just missed the part where our intervention took a bad situation and made it worse.

TDM

During the 2012 Presidential campaign every week there was the latest and greatest “not Mitt” and Mitt Romney.  Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and even Michele Bachman all were the “not Mitt at some point.  In retrospect it was hard to consider any of them, other than Rick Perry, as a real candidate.  Rick Perry, of course, self-destructed with his brain freeze during a debate.  In the end we ran out of “not Mitts” so we got Mitt.  Ron Paul was a fringe candidate only capable of sucking enough votes out of the mix to guarantee Barack Obama’s re-election.  Election results demonstrated why there was such a desperate search for a better “not Mitt.”

Now that Mitt Romney has taken himself out of the race.  I believe he is about to be replaced by “not Jeb.” The Washington establishment wants a Jeb Bush candidacy.  He is perfect.  He is not nearly as threatening to liberals and he is guaranteed to lose in a general election.

It will be very different in 2016.  Republicans are going to field some very serious candidates.  Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Scot Walker, Chris Christie, and Mike Huckabee are already running.  It is not official yet, but they’re running.  There will be more. The worst of this group is better than the best “not-Mitt” in 2012. Jeb Bush will raise an incredible amount of money, but he will still make an early exit.  His only real chance is to run out of “non-Jeb”s and that won’t happen this time.

At this point it is hard to predict but my money is on “not-Jeb” running against “not-Hillary” and there are more good “not Jeb”s than there are “not Hillary”s.  I guess you could describe this as” to be or “not” to be.