Fox contributor Ralph Peters teamed up with host Martha MacCallum to exploit Obama’s absence from the Paris rally as an excuse to attack him as soft on terrorism.
Whether or not Obama should have attended, his absence has as much to do with his policies on terrorism as whether he uses the word “Islamic terrorism” or just “terrorism.” In other words, none.
But the choice of Peters as a guest didn’t just guarantee an anti-Obama attack but a hate-filled rant. As I’ve previously posted, there seems to be no limit to Peters’ hatred for Obama – and Fox loves Peters for it.
MacCallum all but asked Peters to start knocking Obama with her first question: “What were your thoughts as you watched that solidarity (at the march) and Eric Holder said we stand in solidarity with France but nobody there to do so in a physical way,”
“I was ashamed,” Peters said. “There is simply no excuse for it. …I was stunned by this.
MacCallum murmurdered her agreement.
Peters continued, ramping up the antipathy as he went along.
PETERS: The president is a physical coward, he is a moral coward, he is an intellectual coward.
…Physical cowardice is not a big deal in a president because they don’t have to lead bayonet charges.
Moral cowardice matters. And this man can never bring himself to have the guts to say about any issue, ‘I was wrong.’ He clings to this issue, this idea that Islam is a religion of peace. …He won’t utter the words ‘Islamist terror.’
And finally, intellectually: it’s amazing how little he’s learned in six years. He’s still, as far as international relations goes, at the intellectual development level of a University of California undergraduate of Che Guevara t-shirt.
Make no mistake: passivity in the face of terror is complicity and yesterday President Obama chose the side of the terrorists.
MacCallum didn’t challenge a word. Instead, she piled on. “I think about the insensitivity factor ….and how the people of France would feel about the very stark absence of the United States when they have lent their support to us… And I think about James Foley and the beheading and the president golfing afterwards and the fact that the White House later said, you know, maybe that wasn’t the right move. Maybe the optics weren’t right.”
Wait a minute! Didn’t MacCallum just contradict Peters on the “Obama won’t ever admit he was wrong” front? Funny how she let that go, eh?
MacCallum didn’t challenge Peters’ next smear, either.
PETERS: This is a president of the United States who doesn’t get excited about terrorist threats to the homeland. He’s got this romanticized view of Islam that doesn’t jibe with reality. But he clings to it.
MacCallum signaled her agreement. She “asked” emphatically, “Is there no change of thinking based on what has happened over the past six months in so many countries around the globe?”
Peters noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were there. “We were absent without leave, no we were deserters,” he said.
MacCallum did not point out that, as Haaretz reported, French President Francois Hollande had asked Netanyahu not to come. Hollande wanted neither Netanyahu nor Abbas. But when Netanyahu decided to come anyway, Hollande asked Abbas to come, too. When Netanyahu spoke at a ceremony at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, Hollande walked out.
Instead MacCallum said, “Thanks, Ralph,” in a tone of deep appreciation.
Watch it below, from today's America's Newsroom.
(H/T reader Richard)
That quote made me think of Darth Cheney right away, but I can’t recall Fox ever making the same remark about him.
“President Obama chose the side of the terrorists.”
Because in right wing world, as we all know, there are only 2 sides to every issue; therefore if Obama isn’t sufficiently anti-terrorist, he must be pro-terrorist.
“Fox tries to make Obama look bad for not getting us into a new decade long war since he has been office. They actually seem disappointed as does Cheney I am sure!”
And furthermore Ray, I’m getting a gut feeling that Ralph Peters was probably NEVER, EVER PUT IN A COMBAT ZONE when he was in uniform. I’ll bet the house he was probably STUFFING HIS FACE with pizza, bon bons and other VERY FATTENING FOODS at his cushy desk job!
Dear Martha, with maybe a few exceptions, the people of France doesn’t give a shit about the absence of your president.
In fact, the people of France is more bothered with the presence of war criminal Netanyahu, and those incredible freedom fighters Rajoy (limiting freedom to assemble in Spain), Orban (limiting freedom of press in Hungary) and a few others who never would have had a Charlie Hebdo in their country, or that a Charlie Hebdo would have made non-stop fun.
