Bachmann Critical of Obama on Libya
According to reports by CNN
(source), Michelle Bachman was very critical of President Obama's decision to join Nato forces in efforts to both enforce the UN-sanctioned, Libyan no-fly zone, and protect citizens from their own government in a speech she gave to a Tea Party rally in South Carolina, today 16 April.
Bachmann suggested via her comments that the President's decision could actually end up turning Libya's vast oil resources over to al Qaeda forces. Meanwhile, she subsequently blamed the President for sky high gas prices and said, "I don't think he's on our side anymore."
(source) Of course, this story was printed by a news outlet not approved by Sarah Palin and, therefore, probably lame.Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) is entitled to her opinion. However, someone needs to start placing a little higher expectations on her if she's ever going to be considered something other than a nuisance candidate.
First, she should be expected to tell the truth. As a member of Congress, by her own admission in the same article, she has access to security information she cannot share but clearly bear on this incident. Given that, she must also know that the USA and the UN would never hand Libya to Al Qaeda.
Second, she should start offering her own solutions to problems rather than always calling out blame. We could blame her for global warming because she wastes so much jet fuel flying around the country putting in appearances and making grandiose speeches. Would that be true? She operates on the philosophy of too many neo-conservatives "say it's so, make it so." So, let's hear what she thinks should have been done about Libya rather than just that she doesn't think what has been done was right. What should the President have done? What exactly in
her record heretofore would make us believe that if the President had sad by idly and done nothing she would not have been equally critical.? That's the advantage of being allowed to do what she's doing. She never has to appear to have made the wrong decision because she doesn't have to make decisions. She does not have to be accountable to the world. Apparently, she doesn't even have to be accountable to her constituents. Likewise, we're all sitting around waiting with baited breath to hear her what she's doing to lower gas prices. Has she introduced legislation to outlaw oil speculation? Has she put forth a new bill to reduce energy consumption? What, what has she done? What does she plan to do to lower gas prices?
Finally, it would be great if she ever made any acknowledgment, and this was something she could learn from Sarah Palin's failed candidacy for the Vice-Presidency, that these are complex and difficult times without easy sound-bite solutions. Were she a serious contender for the highest office in the land and not a Tea Party Toadie she might realize that she minimizes some of the greatest challenges of the day. If she's so brilliant with all the answers to everything, why not offer them up? She's a US Representative after all. She's got her foot in Washington. She's not like the rest of us who have no way of getting our word out except to Rant and Rave . com! – not that there's anything wrong with that. The point is she could actually be doing something other than simply bashing that which everyone else is working hard to do. Maybe they aren't doing the right thing, maybe there is no right thing, but at least they are trying. What is she doing?