Obama’s wins have Republicans trembling in confusion

The landmark nuclear agreement with Iran is the latest and perhaps one of the most significant wins by President Obama. He is proving political strategists wrong and rewriting the history of lame duck presidents as he piles success upon success. The president is scoring big wins against Republicans and has them playing defense, unable to respond to his masterful executive actions. As Republicans in Congress refuse to act, the president is wielding a powerful pen. He is winning on the economy, same-sex marriage, Obamacare, climate change and immigration. The Republicans control Congress, but their only agenda is “no.” Following the 2014 election with Republicans taking control of the Senate, many political pundits declared Obama a lame duck. Those political experts assumed with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate that Obama would basically be blocked from any major initiatives. Democrats have a great deal to celebrate from Obama’s astonishing wins in spite of Republican opposition and obstruction. The pundits obviously wrote the president’s political obituary prematurely, as he has the Republicans on the run. The president has redefined lame duck as he soars with the winds of success under his wings.

Rick Smith
-Urbandale

More on Smith

Everyone is exasperated with Rick Smith, but I was stunned when I read Kirby Smith’s letter in Cityview, “Smith on Smith, July 23.” He wrote that Bush had the same intelligence as everybody else, which is as preposterous as the cherry-picked and manufactured intel they used to justify the invasion of Iraq. The very first salvo in the propaganda campaign was delivered by Dick Cheney in August, 2002, to a VFW audience. Cheney said there was no doubt that Saddam was amassing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to use against us and our allies, and with absolute certainty he was procuring equipment to enrich uranium. Marine General Anthony Zinni was in attendance that day, and as head of Central Command, he had access to all intelligence. Zinni said he was shocked Cheney was flat-out lying about these things. For the next six months, the administration exaggerated, insinuated and lied so well that 45 percent of Americans believed, at the time we invaded, Saddam not only had operative connections to al-Qaeda, but was involved in 9-11. I’d recommend Smith start by listening to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who was in the State Dept. at the time, or read long-time Bush confidante Scott McClellan’s book about the systematic lying from his bosses in the White House. His conscience could no longer bear the weight, and he resigned as press secretary. Then, if need be, move on to any of 100 books detailing the lies that led up to the worst strategic decision by a commander-in-chief in our history. It’s painful to say, but as long as people like Kirby Smith refuse to pull their heads out of the Mesopotamian sand, there’s going to be a need for pests like Rick Smith.

Tim Facto
-Des Moines