Steyn on Obama’s Las Vegas ‘performance’: ‘Every American should be ashamed of their president’ [AUDIO]
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/14/steyn-on-ob...z26S439YYF
On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Thursday night, National Review columnist Mark Steyn, author of “ After America: Get Ready for Armageddon ,” said President Barack Obama gave an embarrassing performance Wednesday during his campaign swing through Las Vegas, Nev., in the wake of attacks on U.S. diplomatic stations in Libya and Egypt.
“I thought that thing last night with the president saying he had ‘a tough day’ and comparing the dead Americans in Libya to campaign supporters, which he did — I thought was one of the most disgraceful, inept and embarrassing performances by a head of state or government that I have ever seen,” Steyn said. “Every American should be ashamed of their president.”
Steyn didn’t fault the president for going to Sin City, acknowledging that sometimes plans are in place and things have to move along. But the tone of Obama’s remarks set him off.
“He didn’t script his remarks,” Steyn said. “I mean, this is a man, for example, who doesn’t have, I think, great empathetic qualities at the best of times. But to slough it off in that bloodless language — you know, when he says, now I believe this is a direct quote, ‘Obviously, our hearts are broken today.’ If you say ‘obviously’ before it, your heart is not broken. He said, ‘Oh, it’s a tough day.’ It’s not a tough day [for him]. It’s a tough day for the families of the four people who were killed.”
Steyn told Hewitt, the author of “ The Brief Against Obama: The Rise, Fall & Epic Fail of the Hope & Change Presidency ,” that Obama should have prepared better for that situation, given all the tools at his disposal.
“Why can’t you — you’re spending $4 trillion a year, and you’ve got these 12-year-old speechwriters you’re so proud of, and you’re the king of the prompter, why couldn’t you on Air Force One, you’re the only head of state in any major country who has a plane to fly him around his own country, and a 40-car motorcade — while you were on the stupid plane, why can’t you actually take the trouble to learn some words that would mean something and are appropriate to the occasion?”
He compared Obama’s performance to those of former President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after tragedies, reiterating his charge that Obama’s remarks were something that should embarrass Americans of all political persuasions.
“If you think of Reagan, after the space shuttle thing, if you think of what Mrs. Thatcher said after the Brighton bombing that killed cabinet colleagues of hers — it’s horrible, it’s disgraceful,” he said.
“Nobody, no novelist would attempt to do anything so crass after this man is dragged through the streets — after he is killed, dragged through the streets of Libya, God knows what’s happened to him if you believe some of the worst stories out there. And then the guy goes to Vegas. Why not just do it at Caesar’s Palace with a bunch of showgirls? Every American who’s watching, regardless if you’re Democrat or Republican, if you’re not embarrassed by the buffoon who’s serving as President of the United States after that performance last night, there’s something wrong with you.”
