Do you remember when it was considered poor form to criticize a sitting President dealing with an international crisis because patriotism demanded we set aside politics for the good of the country? Yeah, those days are over.
Today's Republicans haven't hesitated to compromise President Obama's authority with regard to Ukraine and Putin's activity in Crimea, all in the name of political scorekeeping. But Sally Kohn was having none of it.
On Crossfire Monday, host Sally Kohn took on Republicans for “hurting America’s standing in the world” by “systematically undermining” President Barack Obama’s policy on the crisis in Ukraine. She found a sparring partner in the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka, who defended the conservative criticism of the president.
“Republicans are practically cheering for Vladimir Putin today,” Kohn said at the top of the show’s second segment. “He’s given them a new excuse to bash President Obama.” She went on to describe how Republicans are all over the media arguing that Putin would not be trying to invade Ukraine if Obama was not such a “weak leader.”
“Aren’t Republicans systematically undermining the president, trying to spite the president, but in effect hurting America’s standing in the world?” Kohn asked.
Koch-head Danielle Pletka from the American Enterprise Institute countered Kohn's claims by saying "this is about national interests and about the security of the world. What we want to ensure is that Putin doesn't view the Crimea the way Hitler viewed the Sudetenland as a free ticket to do what he wants in his part of the world so that we don't have to engage later on. A little bit of toughness."
Um, ok. So once again, how does criticizing Obama get us to that point? It doesn't. But I appreciate the fact that Sally Kohn quit dancing around the unpatriotic, cynical behavior of Republicans with regard to an extremely sensitive international crisis.
