VILE – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:   I will say it directly.  I was disgusted by President Obama's speech at American University yesterday, in which he tried to defend his Iran agreement.  Apparently, many others felt the same way.  The speech was cheap, deceptive, small-minded and deceptive.  Other than that, it was fine.  Brit Hume said it best at Fox:

On "Special Report" tonight, Brit Hume blasted President Obama's speech on the virtues of the nuclear agreement with Iran.

"Just because Iranian hardliners chant 'death to America' does not mean that’s what all Iranians believe," Obama said. "In fact, it’s those hardliners who are most comfortable with the status quo. It’s those hardliners chanting 'death to America' who have been most opposed to the deal. They are making common cause with the Republican caucus."

Hume pointed out that it's the Iranian leaders who are chanting "death to America," not some insignificant minority group.

He said the speech was completely characteristic of the president.

"It was dishonest, it was partisan, it was insulting," Hume stated.

Steve Hayes said it wasn't only a bad speech, it was the worst of Obama's entire presidency and maybe the most un-presidential speech he's ever heard.

And Cliff May and Jonathan Schanzer, at NRO online, demolish Obama's attempt to compare himself with John F. Kennedy:

Speaking at American University in defense of his nuclear deal with Iran, President Obama twice invoked President John F. Kennedy. To paraphrase Lloyd Benson, while we did not serve with Jack Kennedy, here are five reasons why President Obama is wrong to compare himself to Jack Kennedy:

1. For one, JFK never forked over $100 billion in sanctions relief to the Soviets as an inducement to make an arms-control deal. Obama plans to do exactly that.

2. JFK never expunged hundreds of KGB operatives from our sanctions list. Obviously, we didn’t sanction KGB agents back then, but Obama is now preparing to ease strictures on hundreds of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) members and businesses. They were put on the sanctions list not only for their role in nuclear proliferation, but also for terrorism, human-rights violations, and more.

3. JFK never agreed to a deal that would guarantee a stronger USSR in ten years. President Obama is preparing to do just that by providing Iran with a “patient pathway” to a nuclear weapon. All Iran needs to do is wait out the terms of the agreement, and in ten years it will be in possession of an industrial-sized nuclear program with the blessing of the international community. If Iran violates the agreement — and Iran has violated many agreements in the past — it can have nuclear weapons much sooner.

4. During his speech, Obama said the world was “more dangerous” during the Cold War. True, the threat of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was a palpable fear. But however aggressive and even evil the Soviets might have been, they did not believe in martyrdom — they did not believe that sacrificing their lives for their revolution would bring great rewards in the afterlife. The fundamentalists of Iran — and their Arab proxies, such as Hezbollah — most emphatically do. As historian Bernard Lewis has pointed out, for religious extremists, mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent — it’s an inducement.

5. President Obama ended his remarks by citing President Kennedy’s “wisdom” and lauded Kennedy’s “warning” that we should see conflict as inevitable. But President Kennedy also said that there was “one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.” Iran’s rulers have caused thousands of Americans to be killed and maimed in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They continue to openly proclaim their long-term goal: “Death to America.” They believe that the U.S. has indeed submitted. If Congress approves this agreement, that perception will not be without justification.

So much for following in the footsteps of JFK.

COMMENT:  Absolutely dead on.  Kennedy actually ran to the right of Nixon on national defense in the 1960 election campaign.  And he never hesitated to call up reserves when a military threat warranted it.  He confronted the Soviet Union directly during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Compare please to Obama's behavior regarding Russia's actions in Ukraine.

Obama is so inadequate.  He is, at best, a student-government president.

August 6, 2015