Sarah Palin: Now He’s Blaming Europe

As posted on Facebook
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Now He’s Blaming Europe

On Monday, during a fundraiser in California, President Obama declared that Europe’s debt problems and their inability to solve them was “scaring the world.” He went on to explain that Europeans “have not fully healed from the crisis back in 2007 and never fully dealt with the challenges that their banking system faced” and that “they’re trying to take responsible actions, but those actions haven’t been quite as quick as they need to be.”

This of course is coming from a President who has done nothing to deal with our own country’s enormous debt crisis and who is in fact eager to incur even more debt with another useless stimulus bill (now called a “jobs bill” though the last stimulus failed to produce the jobs it promised, which is perhaps why Harry Reid doesn’t seem too eager to bring this new bill to a vote despite the President’s demands to “pass this bill”). Yes, Europe has serious debt problems, but for President Obama to be lecturing our allies about not being “quite as quick” in dealing with a debt crisis is downright hypocritical.

When his all-too-common finger-pointing is directed at Republicans, President Obama’s search for a scapegoat is swallowed as merely the typical Beltway politics of our permanent political class. But pointing fingers at our allies when they are working to get their own financial house in order is counterproductive and can have a serious negative affect on our ability to lead the free world.

One German newspaper denounced the President’s comments as “overbearing, arrogant, and absurd.” Another wrote: “The gloomy state of the economy is putting a damper on Obama’s future prospects. The optimism of the past is gone, replaced by a cheap search for a scapegoat.” And still another wrote: “That’s not how friends talk to each other. That applies particularly to friends who have themselves failed to get a handle on their own, self-made crisis.”

Can we blame them for feeling this way? Keep in mind this was a President who was supposed to make the rest of the world “like” us again.

It’s about time the President showed some leadership and took responsibility rather than campaigning on blaming everyone else for the financial mess his policies have exacerbated.

Between President Obama’s hypocritical lecture poking our allies in the eye again and one Democrat governor’s call to postpone lawfully mandated elections for two years, I suppose nothing should surprise concerned Americans anymore. But that doesn’t mean we have to accept these misguided memes. 2012 can’t come soon enough.

- Sarah Palin

- JP

So, does Obama still think Europe is a country?

Or has he learned anything on the job...
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Just asking, since a number of leftists can't seem to let go of the never proven "Palin doesn't know Africa is a continent" lie, which was started by a McCain aide too cowardly to put his or her name behind it.

- JP

Gov. Palin is on her way to Europe to visit troops

From the governor via Twitter:

"Travel now to bring appreciation from their Alaska family & Natl Guard leadership to heroes in US European Command's area of responsibility"

We had wondered whether Gov. Palin was going to return to the Middle East to visit her state's Guard troops deployed there after she tweeted:

"Got Fed ok for Adjutant Gen Campbell, Command Sgt Major Choate and me to travel to our Ak Army Natl Guard troops on Wed. Glad to go to them"

But now it seems that she's headed for Europe. The U.S. European Command -- USEUCOM -- has a wide area of responsibility:

Prior to the formation of Africa Command in October 2008 the area of responsibility (AOR) of the United States European Command covered more than 13 million square miles and included 91 countries and territories. This territory extends from the North Cape of Norway, through the waters of the Baltic and Mediterranean seas, most of Europe, parts of the Middle East, to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Several other countries and territories were considered to be part of the USEUCOM area of interest (AOI).

Effective 01 October 1998, the AOR of USEUCOM expanded to include six Western Slavic and Caucasus states of the former Soviet Union; Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Another six European countries and territories are considered to be within EUCOM’s Area of Interest [AOI]. This is an area of concern to the Commander because of the possibility of current or planned operations. This could also include areas occupied by forces that could jeopardize the accomplishment of the mission. These were Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

On 17 April 2002, Defense officials announced changes in the Unified Command Plan. US European Command (EUCOM) will increase its area of responsibility. EUCOM will include the remainder of the Atlantic area off the East Coast to the shores of the Europe, he said, and it will pick up primary responsibility for Russia. Previously, Russian relations were handled in the Pentagon. U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) will help European Command with the far eastern part of Russia and will add Antarctica to its area of responsibility.

An interactive map of the USEUCOM AOR is here.

One of the countries where Alaska Army National guard troops are deployed is Kosovo, where 140 soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment began a year long deployment in December of 2008 with its eight Blackhawk helicopters.

No reason she can't go on to the M.E. from Kosovo, however, and we think it's likely she will stop in Germany to visit the wounded at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center again, as she did in 2007.

Update: ADN finally reports on the trip, hours after TX4P broke the story. Meanwhile, the governor's office published this news release on its website.

- JP