Shut Up, He Explained

Mr. Classy Post-Partisan got a little snippy when asked about Sarah Palin's criticism of his decision to change America's nuclear stance: President Obama QUestions Sarah Palin's Nuclear Acumen

President Barack Obama on Thursday made clear he was not going to take advice from Republican Sarah Palin when it comes to decisions about the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Palin, the former vice presidential candidate, has not been shy about criticizing Obama's policies and this week weighed in on his revampednuclear strategy, saying it was like a child in a playground who says 'punch me in the face, I'm not going to retaliate.'

"I really have no response to that. The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues," Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

Jesus, what an ass. As Moonbattery points out, being a governor of a state was probably better preparation for grappling with nuclear issues, than being a community organizer and serial candidate. MB also reminds us of something I'll bet most of us had forgotten:

Does anyone besides me remember the debate with Hillary in 2008 when the question came up, "How would you respond to a WMD attack against an American city?" And Obama babbled on and on about FEMA without ever once mentioning retataliation?

Yes, it's almost as if Americans elected a raging "schools not bombs" style leftist after being assured he was a moderate pragmatic guy who would heal our nation's wounds. Since the real Left has been trying to neutralize the US nuclear capability ever since the Rosenbergs passed their first satchel of docs to the KGB, it shouldn't be too surprising that Obama would consider that a high priority. Of course, most Americans had no idea he would do this. It was not a (major) issue in the campaign and was not something Obama mentioned before actually announcing the slight change in plans.

Technically, Obama is correct that Sarah Palin is not an "expert" on nuclear issues, meaning she probably hasn't written a PhD thesis on the subject, doesn't know how many nukes we have, plus she can see Russia from her house. (Haw!) Uh, so what? Do people now need credentials to state an opinion on national security issues? Palin is stating what a lot of people are thinking: that it's probably not a good idea to (1) set up a multi-part protocol for determining whether we should respond to a WMD attack with nukes and (2) to stop developing new nukes. You don't need to be Douglas Feith to conclude that this might tend to degrade and weaken our national security.

No, it's a lot easier to tell the little lady to shut up, rather than address her concerns. It's so much easier to tell the world someone is stupid, rather than take the time to explain why they are wrong.

Obama is becoming increasingly brittle as his presidency goes on and the criticisms of his policies mount. As they do, he has become more and more prone to these sorts of insulting outbursts. He may not realize this now, but his mouth is going to get him into big trouble someday.