July 20, 2014

Who knew that Carly Fiorina was not only a failed executive at Hewlett Packard, but a foreign policy expert as well? I think the only thing she's actually an "expert" at is repeating ad nauseum the latest laundry of GOP talking points attacking the president for everything that's wrong in the world as she did here.

Here's the sage advice she dished out for President Obama on this week's Fox News Sunday during a couple of their panel segments.

WALLACE: But Carly, in his news conference on Friday we didn't exactly hear the blaring of a trumpet, a call to arms, and pressure on the Europeans. In fact, he started talking about well, the effect on the global economy has been minimal. I mean is that the right way to get the Europeans off the dime?

CARLY FIORINA, FORMER CEO, HEWLETT PACKARD: No. It is not. And in my view, Obama should be doing three things. First, he should immediately stop talking to President Putin. And John Kerry should stop talking to his counterpart. In diplomacy silence is a meaningful message as well. The only thing that Russia can do now is change its behavior. All of this talk, talk. Second, unilateral sanctions that are as punishing as we can make them should be employed now as a signal of our resolve. And yet he should ratchet up the pressure on the Europeans.

WALLACE: Even as the Europeans aren't going to go along with us?

FIORINA: Absolutely. Now I happen to believe that the U.S. should have imposed some unilateral sanctions when it might have made a difference way back when Russia went into the Crimea. However, now we must do something. He must do something because all of this rhetoric, grave concern, the equivalent that he put in those remarks you played between Ukraine, the separatists and Russia. They are not equivalent in terms of the damage they are causing. All of that signals a lack of resolve. [...]

WALLACE: You know, I want to pick up on George's point, Carly, about narcissistic policy disorder. It is a messy world. Russia was always going to want some involvement and some control over Ukraine, once you saw the civil split there, the Arab spring, the turmoil in the Arab world is greater than ever. Is it really fair to blame President Obama for much of this?

FIORINA: Yes, it is fair. Because American leadership matters in the world. American strength matters in the world. And it particularly matters when things are going wrong. I think President Obama has made two crucial errors. First, he confuses ending a war with securing the peace. And unfortunately, the way he ended the wars in Iraq and is attempting to end the war in Afghanistan are making both of those situations very, very troublesome. Secondly, he continues to believe that his words matter. And his words matter less and less because both our friends and our allies as well as our enemies have figured out that words do not signal intention. There is no execution behind them. And that creates a situation in which our allies believe they cannot count on us and our enemies believe they can ignore us.

All this "talk, talk, talk." How dare they try to talk to someone during diplomatic negotiations? Putin's not going to respond to economic pressures until we can get the Europeans to come along, which they very well may after the incident with downed airliner this week. Fiorina apparently believes that President Obama can force them to do as he wants just through the sheer force of his will.
[ad]

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon