A ‘Putin’s Puppet’ President? Obama’s Truly Shocking Record
We hear a lot of talk about how Trump has “upset norms,” and “abandoned our allies” to “side with a dictator,” but so far as I can tell, while Trump is “siding” with Putin, nobody has ever accused him of “wooing” Putin. “Wooing” isn’t even my word. It’s the Washington Post’s and it’s not about Trump. It’s about Obama. In May 2012, having watched Obama debase himself for the better part of four years, the Post had had enough and called it “wooing”. Trump’s been accused of pretty much everything as it relates to Putin, but never “wooing.”
In fact, a very good argument could be made that Obama’s 2008-2012 first term “wooing” softened the ground for Putin’s geopolitical adventurism ever since.
When one reviews Obama’s table-setting rhetorical blunders and truly shocking betrayals of allies, stripped of the whipped cream of the legacy media, it makes it painfully easy to see who was, in reality, “aligned with Putin” and was, in fact, his “puppet.”
It starts a month before the 2008 general election. In the final, October presidential debate, Obama makes his intentions clear: ‘We simply cannot return to a “Cold War posture“ with Russia.(edited for clarity).
Weeks later, having won the White House and before even assuming office, Obama tells his transition team to get busy with a reset.
Next, Obama (via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) makes his intentions tangible with a gift. A literal reset button. Except… oops. Turns out “peregruzka,” the word they had printed on the button, means “overloaded” or “overcharged.”
Summer comes to the first year of Obama’s new presidency and he travels to Moscow. Surely his young Ivy League mob of over-educated White House aides have done voluminous research in advance of the trip so the likelihood of him having another “pregruzka” moment is small.
Oops:
[Obama speaking in Moscow] Good afternoon. Dobryy den’. (Applause.) It is a great privilege to join all of you today... Russia and the U.S. first established diplomatic relations more than 200 years ago…(and) along the way you gave us a pretty good deal on Alaska. Thank you.
A little humor is always good, right?
Czar Alexander II’s sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million in gold, around 1.9 cents per acre, was regarded by Russians as a national disgrace...
Oops. Ouch. Ok…
What’s Obama’s next move? Further appeasement, this time by angering our ally Poland. He reneges on America’s promise to provide them with a missile shield. Russia will love that (seeing it, as they do, as provocative).
“How could [he] choose such a day?” That was the anguished outburst of a senior Polish officer… when asked what he thought… The announcement came on Sept. 17, the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.
Oops. Double-ouch. Okay, well, that was worse than planned.
2010 brings with it the hope of a Russian Silicon Valley, Skolkovo. Obama is “convinced that the U.S.-Russia economic potential is great,” but it turns out, ultimately, to be “pitiful”—except for Russia.
Reports were rife not long after Skolkovo got up and running that pretty much any Western tech operation foolish enough to set up shop there was immediately spied on and ripped off. As The National Review described it, “It’s unlikely Putin could believe his good fortune: The project was like an espionage operation in broad daylight, openly enhancing Russia’s military and cyber capabilities.”
Oops.
2011 comes and—shockingly <sarc>—Obama still hasn’t earned Putin’s respect, so what’s he do? Harm another ally. As unbelievable as it seems, Obama decides that giving up some classified intel might warm Putin’s heart. Secrets are always good currency, especially when they’re not really yours to tell:
Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal... The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called ‘special relationship’, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair…
Surely, Obama must think, now that he’s left Poland vulnerable and dropped England’s nuclear pants, Putin will be favorably impressed.
Not so much. Months later, during a televised meeting with supporters, Putin openly threatens nuclear war against America and Obama whom he derides as the self-styled “master of the planet.”
“We are the largest nuclear power,” Putin said.
A crafty old KGB agent doesn’t say “my nuke pile is bigger than your nuke pile” unless he means it as a threat.
This brings us to 2012.
Springtime is in the air in Washington and, once again, our young president’s fancy turns to thoughts of sharing more classified information with Vladimir Putin. Obama decides on a little “I’ll show you mine, but you don’t have to show me yours.” From Reuters:
The Obama administration disclosed on Tuesday that it is considering sharing some (more) classified U.S. data (with Russia)…
One might think the president’s puppy-dog entreaties to Putin might finally, at long last, be tempered, that Obama might remember himself and have a bit more dignity, but nooooo… Just three short weeks later, the infamous hot mic incident took place.
I’ll have more flexibility after the November election.
Just two months later, Obama invites Putin for an honored visit at the G-8 Summit at Camp David.
What’d Putin do?
Blows him off.
Aaaaand that’s when Obama lost The Washington Post, which had seen quite enough. “Obama’s Misguided Wooing of an Uninterested Putin”:
...A rude rebuff. Obama had tailored the conclave to Putin... (and had) dispatched (an administration official) to Moscow to hand Putin what a Russian official described... (a) message... ‘that Obama is ready to cooperate with Putin.’ Putin’s response was... to skip Camp David...
Four solid years of rhetoric and importantly, choices, actions, which, had Trump chosen them, any one of them, would have branded him—rightly—a puppet of Putin’s. But, because The One did them, well, his heart is pure and his intentions were good so for him, it was just diplomacy…or something.
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