This is what you get when you retain left over Right Wing Garbage

[boston bean]

In a new memoir, Mr. Gates, a Republican holdover from the Bush administration who served for two years under Mr. Obama, praises the president as a rigorous thinker who frequently made decisions “opposed by his political advisers or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats.” But Mr. Gates says that by 2011, Mr. Obama began criticizing — sometimes emotionally — the way his policy in Afghanistan was playing out.

At a pivotal meeting in the situation room in March 2011, called to discuss the withdrawal timetable, Mr. Obama opened with a blast of frustration — expressing doubts about Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander he had chosen, and questioning whether he could do business with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

“As I sat there, I thought: The president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy and doesn’t consider the war to be his,” Mr. Gates wrote. “For him, it’s all about getting out.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/world/asia/obama-lost-faith-in-his-afghan-strategy-memoir-asserts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

and this:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration defended Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday after former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that the vice president “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

The quote comes from an upcoming memoir by Gates, who also served as defense secretary under George W. Bush, the president who nominated him to replace Donald Rumsfeld, and worked in many other administrations. Excerpts from the book in The New York Times and Washington Post paint a picture of Gates as frustrated by Obama administration control over the national security space.

In a statement by National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden Tuesday, the Obama administration pushed back on the excerpts and defended Biden.

“The president disagrees with Secretary Gates’ assessment — from his leadership on the Balkans in the Senate, to his efforts to end the war in Iraq, Joe Biden has been one of the leading statesmen of his time, and has helped advance America’s leadership in the world,” she said. “President Obama relies on his good counsel every day.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/white-house-defends-joe-biden-against-book-by-former-defense

[elfin]

1. Doubts about golden boy Petraeus??? Obama still the smartest one in the room

Had good reason not to trust the Pet. His ego and barely disguised political ambitions plus extra-marital adventures compromised his attention IMO.

Don't know if this is the time period when he and Paula were getting busy, but he always bothered me as "too good to be true" in a way.

Plus Karzai! Yuck! A crook from the get go raking in our money and other sleazy stuff.Gee, wonder why Obama didn't like or trust him.

[boston bean]

2. And you got Gates criticizing him over it. What a LOSER! nt