Obama And Russia – What We Need Is A Little Bit Of The Gipper

By Dave Freeman

Many of my conservative friends are mad at Obama. That’s nothing new – they are always mad at him. But this time, they are angry at him for his handling of Russia, particularly the ongoing unrest in the Ukraine.

These people see Obama as spineless. They want him to stand up for not just America, but for the rest of the world. They want to see strength. But all they see is a lot of soft talk, and very little action.

Now I understand the flip side to that argument. The left would retort to the “spineless” accusation with a “well, what do you want, armed invasion? Short of that, there’s nothing he can do.” And they think their point is (smugly) made.

I have to say, I disagree with that line of thought. While I am usually pretty centrist in my opinions, leaning right on some and left on others, on this issue, I am firmly with the conservatives. I do think Obama can do more, and he could start by channeling Ronald Reagan.

I was a teenager during the Reagan presidency, and love him or hate him, you have to admit you felt good about him in a security sense. You felt like he had our back. And you knew the rest of the world was wary of him as well – whether it was out of sheer respect or uncertainty that he would actually pull the trigger. But they definitely paid attention, and they didn’t brush him off. It’s my opinion that Putin would not have dared pulled this when Ronnie was in office.

Ronald Reagan was not only a strong leader, he was a gunfighter, and he was so good at projecting that image, he never really had to fire his gun (unless you count minor skirmishes like Grenada). Think about that. There’s your answer to the “what do you want, bombs?” argument. No, I don’t want bombs. I want strength.

We need Obama to find his inner Reagan, and start projecting that. Because as it stands now, the rest of the world truly thinks they can push him around. And that isn’t good for anybody.

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