Obama: master of political expediency

In his weekly newletter, The G File, Jonah Goldberg comments on a variety of items in the news. For example, he notes that Jimmy Carter is turning on Obama. Here is the headline from Time Magazine:

Jimmy Carter: Obama Dropped the Ball on ISIS Threat

Jonah then offers this humorous analogy:

First of all, having Jimmy Carter out-hawk you is like having Joe Biden attack you for being verbally undisciplined.

Jonah has

no confidence that Obama will stick with his war on the Islamic State one minute longer than the polls and political expediency require.

I liked this quote from Jonah:

But at the end of the day, division is what democracy is about. It’s about disagreement not agreement. Arguments are democratic. Unity for its own sake is fascistic.

And this one:

For decades, the best working definition of an evil wedge issue was any issue that is politically disadvantageous for Democrats to talk about. It’s of a piece with the mindset that exalted the phrase “dissent is the highest form of patriotism” under Bush and immediately downgraded dissent to the lowest form of racism under Obama.

Obama’s whole approach to politics has been to whip up issues — real and fake — that divide the American people.

Read more here.