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Disgraced Ex-Obama Official: Obama Should Think of Putin as a Republican
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On March 25, 2014 @ 10:22 am In The Point | No Comments
Obama’s DNI nominees and appointments have been disasters. Indonesian Muslim genocide enabler Dennis Blair was finally forced out, and not a moment too soon, because of internal infighting.
But now he offers some advice for Obama in dealing with Putin.
Presidents tend to think of autocrats like Mr. Putin as fellow statesmen, said Dennis Blair, Mr. Obama’s first director of national intelligence. “They should think of dictators like they think of domestic politicians of the other party,” he said, “opponents who smile on occasion when it suits their purposes, and cooperate when it is to their advantage, but who are at heart trying to push the U.S. out of power, will kneecap the United States if they get the chance and will only go along if the U.S. has more power than they.”
Sadly that’s probably the only way to get Obama to stand up to Putin. Tell him he’s a Republican. A pity that Blair didn’t take his own advice when dealing with Indonesia.
That quote comes within a New York Times article trying to reframe Obama’s botched Russia policy as a failure of all three presidents. Think of it as a kinder gentler “Blame Bush” narrative. Except that some Bush people got Putin. Obama’s people didn’t.
Dick Cheney, privately told people at the time that when he saw Mr. Putin, “I think K.G.B., K.G.B., K.G.B.”
Robert M. Gates, came back from his first meeting with Mr. Putin and told colleagues that unlike Mr. Bush, he had “looked into Putin’s eyes and, just as I expected, had seen a stone-cold killer.”
And even Bush eventually got it.
Mr. Bush in his memoir recalled confronting Mr. Putin, scolding him for being provoked by Mikheil Saakashvili, then Georgia’s anti-Moscow president.
“I’ve been warning you Saakashvili is hot-blooded,” Mr. Bush told Mr. Putin.
“I’m hot-blooded too,” Mr. Putin said.
“No, Vladimir,” Mr. Bush responded. “You’re coldblooded.”
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