Instead of taking the opportunity to go out sounding like an intelligent statesman, Obama kept to his same old song and dance
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
At his final end of the year press conference before departing on his final taxpayer-paid Hawaiian vacation, Barack Obama decided to repeat a laundry list of ignorant, factually incorrect statements about Russia as the icing on the cake of his 8 years of disastrous foreign policy.
"The Russians can't change us, or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn't produce anything that anyone wants to buy except oil and gas and arms. They don't innovate, but they can impact us if we lose track of who we are.
"They can impact us if we abandon our values. Mr. Putin can weaken us, just like he's trying to weaken Europe, if we start buying into notions that it's ok to intimidate the Press or lock up dissidents, or discriminate against people because of their faith or what they look like.
"And what I worry about, more than anything is the degree to which, because of the fearless of the bipartisan battle, you start to see certain folks in the republican party and republican voters, suddenly finding, a government and individuals who stand contrary to everything we stand for as being ok because that's how much we dislike democrats."
There is no need to waste a lot of time finding examples to disprove Barry's final litany of stupidity on the world's other superpower (he did recently concede at least that much about Russia).
Suffice it to say that it is in fact, the USA which is smaller (physically), produces little domestically, and has outsourced most innovation to China and India or else imports Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers. The US economy is based almost totally on the defense and financial industries.
Europe locks up dissidents who protest against immigration or ask questions about World War II, Europe and America discriminate in favor of ethnic and other minorities in education and hiring, and people who are serious about their Christian faith or traditional values face increasing marginalization and outright hostility from the state.
Russia is the opposite of all (or most) of those things. No wonder Obama displays barely concealed comtempt for the country.
But by recycling inane establishment talking points on Russia which bear no relation to reality, Obama lost the last chance he had to at least convince people he knew something himself, as opposed to being simply a front man regurgitating rehearsed policy positions for 8 years.
Bye bye Barry. Finish your final Christmas golf trip and get the hell out of the White House.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
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