WEIRDNESS - AT 9:54 A.M. ET:  There is a certain weirdness about this administration.  It is our presidential administration, but at times it does not seem of us, as if it were imported from another national culture.  Former Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger said on Fox News last night that the Obama administration has little idea of the path of American foreign policy in the postwar era, and what it had accomplished.  True.

Consider, as one exhibit, the profoundly weird "tarmac moment" yesterday, when President Obama, on the ground in Air Force One in Copenhagen, condescended to meet with his top Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and used the opportunity to meet McChrystal's wife.  Now, that would be okay, but the meeting lasted 25 minutes and involved the fate of thousands of American troops, and the possibility that Afghanistan could once again emerge as a launching platform for attacks on the United States.  From the Washington Post:

A brief meeting between President Obama and his top general in Afghanistan on Friday offered the commander in chief an opportunity to question directly the dire assessment of the war effort there, officials said.

To question?  In 25 minutes you barely get out the question, let alone get a thorough answer.

Until Friday, Obama had talked with McChrystal only from a distance, and had met him only once. Aides called the private meeting "productive" and went out of their way to say how fond Obama is of the man he chose to lead the war.

Fond?  General, you'd better inspect the space under that Obama bus, because you may well be thrown there.  When they start using words like "fond," the term "retirement papers" comes to mind.  And there's this gem:

Obama likes McChrystal "very much personally," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters. He added that Obama "got a chance, as I said earlier, to meet and talk with his wife, somebody who obviously is, along with General McChrystal, making personal sacrifices in this whole endeavor."

I can just hear Obama say, "Hey, bring along the wife.  We'll party after Chicago gets the Olympics."

McChrystal had made some comments in London that merely reiterated his well-known and highly publicized beliefs.

Aides refused to say whether Obama scolded McChrystal for his frank answer or his less-than-subtle campaign on behalf of his troop request.

Nothing like an anonymous knife in the back

One adviser noted, however, that the meeting was arranged hastily after Obama realized that the two men would be close to each other in Europe during the president's effort to win the 2016 Olympics for Chicago.

Realized they'd be close?  What is this, 1492?  Sailing ships?  No matter where on the globe a general is, he's within hours of the president. 

A genius comment by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

"The president said that McChrystal understands that he put together an assessment, and he expects and wants people to ask him questions about that assessment so that we can get the right strategy."

Nice of the president to recognize that McChrystal understands how it works.  The question is whether the president understands how it works.

October 3, 2009