Obama on Libyian Liberation: Huh???

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(Rex Latchford is on vacation at Undisclosed Location, Tropical Island)
I awoke to the news of the Liberation of Tripoli. I was pleased for the rebels, many of whom seemed to be barefoot at the time, at least in the video clips I’ve been seeing. I felt a wave of relief. I’d been listening to the live coverage on BBC World Service which seemed to be a full 12 hours ahead of the American news media. They’d had it that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had been captured, but this morning it seemed he’d eluded capture.
Then came comment from the Obama administration. “We hope Gadaffi (Khadaffy, or whichever of the dozens of spellings you prefer) realizes it’s time to leave power” he said, in essence. Time to go? “Old Camel Breath” had undoubtedly mounted a camel and begun to fade into the desert a half day before Obama made the utterance. If this is how far behind the 8 Ball Obama is, we are in deep trouble.
Unable to wrap my mind around how out of touch the administration seemed to be, I was instead transported to the Libyan desert, the silhouette of “Old Camel Face” on camel back in his rock-star sunglasses, fading into the shimmering air.
I’ll miss that guy. He’s been entertaining me since I first became aware of current events. Without doubt, no other world leader has been as mischievous or full of shit. Let’s all raise a toast to Old Camel Breath… he’s done, but perhaps not finished. Moammar, I’ll miss hearing about your global pranks. Enjoy your time in hell.



  • Jaques Sempte

    History has already proven you right while everyone else followed the herd. Good writing and good reading. I’m right here to see the comments! Keep on it!

    • Blanca

      Ari:I am a colleague and frneid of Mike Maday in CO Springs, CO, whom you mentioned in your book. Some insights that appear to be going unnoticed in CO and especially the bellwether county El Paso County, CO where even though Republicans own a 2-to-1 registered voter base but where El Paso also holds the 2nd highest number of Democrats in the state of CO. 2010 Midterm saw that Bennet won the unaffiliated (independents) in the county 51% to 25% going to the collection of 3rd Party candidates (4 being rightwingers, 2-o-1 in that pool) and Buck receiving 23% of that vote. Furthermore a State Senator, Dem majority leader Morse won re-election with a similar fashion in the county, (actually Morse carried 55% of the unaffiliated’s in his district) and won by 1.1%. Dem’s indeed turned out at a 82% rate in the early vote stage that included the mail votes. Election day voting was way down at 32% of all remaining voters, where Dem’s lost a few percentage points discounting the theory of a late surge. What this is telling me is that independents in CO and El Paso County rejected the Tea Party candidacies 7.5-to-2.5 in a state where there are supposedly more Tea Party affiliated voters. Furthermore the Maes-Tancredo vote has demonstrated a real fragmenting of the Republican brand and party where it appears only 190,000 Republicans are real party loyalists, (same number that McGinnis got in the Rep primary). This represents about 11% of the entire electorate that voted and about 25% or less of the entire registered Republican base in the state. What this means is foretelling going forward. In the end Donkeys remain herded, but the Elephants are splitting up.