Bill Kristol asks:
For Republicans and conservatives, the temptation has been to attend to the home front and to focus on resisting Obama’s big government agenda — an agenda worth resisting, in my opinion. But the most successful conservative intervention in the first four months of the Obama presidency has been — counter to predictions by consultants and pundits — that of Dick Cheney on national security policy. He may be the only Republican so far who’s really forced Obama onto the defensive. And most conservatives and Republicans would, I think, agree that the other Republican who’s effectively — if episodically — challenged Obama on foreign and national security policy has been Newt Gingrich.
Both Cheney and Gingrich have the background and stature to address credibly national security issues. Here’s an interesting question: Will any Republican whose career lies mostly ahead of him — or her — step up to confront Obama on the foreign policy and national security front? Is any of them enough of a risk-taker to defy the conventional wisdom that if you’re a mere senator or congressman or governor or aspirer to office, you should focus on domestic issues, that it’s hard (and it is) to take on a president on foreign policy? Will any of them seek to join Cheney and Gingrich in the foreign policy fray?
Kristol goes on to suggest that by standing up to Obama, Gingrich and Cheney might be – intentionally or not – positioning themselves for a bid for the White House in 2012. An outside possibility; though one which will become much more plausible if Obama’s policies cause an American defeat and/or a serious attack upon the United States. But more important than Presidential politics is the need of our nation for an articulate counter to Obama’s warmed-over Carterism.
Unlike our leftwing foes, we are patriots through and through and thus there are things we simply won’t do – most importantly, in our critique of President Obama we won’t offer a handle to any foreign enemy to make anti-American propaganda. We know that it wasn’t President Bush the enemy hated, but the United States of America. Obama and his supporters want to think that now Obama’s in charge, things will be different. There will be a rude awakening from this fairy tale – and when it happens, we have to be prepared both with rational pre-disaster arguments for a different policy as well as a patriotic support to help the President help the nation out of whatever mess he lands us in.
Our job, as conservatives, is to try to keep Obama up on the rails, as it were – we have to help sustain the nation in the face of his foolish policies while at the same time advocating a different course which will mark out our path to victory in 2010 and beyond. But this will take some courage – and I hope that more senior GOPers start showing the guys Gingrich and Cheney have shown.
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