It’s hard to believe that Fox News really thinks that President Obama is just sitting around filling in his NCAA brackets and saying, “Ukraine can wait until I’m finished.” Or “I’ll get around to the problem eventually.” But that’s exactly the image a “fair and balanced” panel – all with similar anti-Obama views – promoted on Wednesday’s Special Report
Steve Hayes started the bashfest:
Look, this is a disgrace. The way that the President of the United States and his administration is handling this is so unserious on so many different levels. You heard from the NATO Secretary General that this is a crisis, it’s a crisis like we haven’t seen in decades. What is President Obama doing? He’s filling out his NCAA bracket. He’s hosting a film ceremony for Caesar Chavez. This is not a serious response to what is, I think, a real crisis.
…The President of the United States shouldn’t be declaring that we won’t use military force in Ukraine. I suspect that’s something Vladimir Putin already knows, but he shouldn’t declare that. It may come to the point where we have to even if we don’t want to, even if we have a war weary public where we may have to repel Putin’s advances by force. …The White House better get its act together and start treating it like a crisis.
Bret Baier and Mara Liasson bashed the President for waiting 6 months until a NATO summit in South Wales to get commitments regarding Article 5 Treaty obligations, that the U.S. steps in militarily when a NATO country is invaded. “Objective” Baier said, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Liasson agreed. “This has to be done much sooner than that. It’s one thing to say, as the President did, we’re not going to engage them in Ukraine, it’s another thing to draw the line at other countries and other incursions. I think that has to be done, and you can do that without provoking a military conflict. You can make a show of force.”
Baier made a brief stab at balance. He said, “Maybe this is a window into where the long term thinking of the administration is.”
“Well, that makes no sense to me,” Liasson replied. “You can’t wait until September to generate the commitments. The commitments are generated, actually, by Article 5. They’re already made. …NATO has to make it clear that this can’t go any further.”
Charles Krauthammer reiterated the “unserious charge.” “He (Obama) is simply completely unserious about the gravity of the situation. …The United States is the guarantor of the western alliance. He doesn’t seem to understand that.”
By the way, attacking President Obama for filling out his NCAA brackets is a tradition on Fox. The only thing that’s changed is the excuse.
Video below from the March 19, 2014 Special Report.