ABROAD, fears about....
-- An administration insistently apologizing for America doing what it has and being what it is.
-- Appeasing -- that's "engaging" -- our enemies largely to snookered result.
-- Dithering on Afghanistan.
-- Hammering an Israel in the crosshairs of jihad.
-- Getting nowhere with North Korea and Iran.
-- Cancelling missile-defense batteries for Europe that outraged a domineering Russia.
-- Failing to enlist China or India regarding reduced carbon emissions.
-- Supporting Chavista goons throughout Latin America -- notably in Honduras.
-- PCing Ft. Hood.
-- Giving Guantanamo-held jihadists civilian-court rights.
AND IF all of that doesn't rattle the cage of one's optimism, hang tight for more coming down the track. Are we to be thankful for any of it?
-- For The Chicago Way extended to Washington and national politics?
-- For an administration waving the legitimacy and anti-corruption flags more vigorously in Afghanistan than in, oh...New Jersey?
-- For meddling in the internal affairs of our friends (e.g., Honduras) but not our foes (e.g., Iran)?
-- For failing (a) to reduce our independence on foreign oil or (b) to increase our dependence on domestic nuclear power?
-- For the swine flu "emergency" botched on a post-Katrina-like scale?
-- For an administration finding Palestinians helpless in the grip of their history, yet finding Israelis somehow less helpless -- indeed overbearing, insensitive, and obstreperous -- in the grip of theirs?
-- For an administration that too often finds America's adversaries victims of injustice imposed on the wretched by the heartless?
-- For a "post-partisan" president who gives every leftist the benefit of the doubt, yet every conservative none?
-- For government becoming the economy's principal -- only? -- growth sector?
-- For a government with effective ownership of Amtrak and the Postal Service, taking for-all-intents ownership positions in banks and General Motors?
XXX
And so, in this season of traditional warmth and optimism, for what should we be thankful beyond our private realms? Perhaps things such as:
-- A plunging in Barack Obama's support among independents and moderates, as reflected in the Virginia and New Jersey elections -- and in health-care polls. And...
-- Morning-after election comments on Virginia and New Jersey, such as Madam Pelosi's ("From our standpoint, we won last night") -- confirming these shamelessly arrogant incumbents set in authority over us just don't get it....
Happy Thanksgiving.
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