1.) Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani is blasting Obama's decision to grant trials to the Islamist terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks:
“It is an unnecessary advantage to give to terrorists,” Giuliani said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don’t know why you’d want to give terrorists advantages, and, secondly, it’s an unnecessary risk.”
Giuliani also warned that opting for a civilian court trial over a military commissions proceeding would mean lengthy delays.
“Our federal system has an enormously protracted process that’s going to go on forever. ... It grants more benefits than a military tribunal will grant. There’s always the possibility of acquittal, change of venue,” the ex-mayor said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Source: Politico
3.) Politico is reporting that President Obama was upset with a question from AP's Jennifer Loven during a press conference in China:
President Barack Obama made no effort to conceal his irritation when his press corps used the first question of his maiden Far East trip to ask what was taking him so long on Afghanistan.
Jennifer Loven of The Associated Press had asked: “Can you explain to people watching and criticizing your deliberations what piece of information you're still lacking to make that call.”
“With respect to Afghanistan, Jennifer,” the president scolded, “I don't think this is a matter of some datum of information that I'm waiting on. … Critics of the process … tend not to be folks who … are directly involved in what's happening in Afghanistan. Those who are, recognize the gravity of the situation and recognize the importance of us getting this right.”
The cool president’s heated response reflected second-guessing from the press and Pentagon about a process that has spanned eight formal meetings with his war cabinet, totaling about 20 hours.
Source: Politico
4.) Wizbang is analysissin' the hell out of Obama's response to Loven's question:
Herein is a just a small measure of a thin skinned White House on the matter of Afghanistan policy. Considering that the source is Politico, which covets its White House access, and the quoted question came from none other than AP Obama maven Jennifer Loven, it can only be concluded that, to a small degree, some in the media are seeing themselves as Hope and Change chumps.
One wonders where this strange new respect for "those directly involved in what is happening" was during the Iraq War and the successful surge strategy that then Senator Obama opposed. Could it be that this President is being mugged by reality and doesn't like the scrutiny that often accompanies the perquisites of the office of POTUS?
Source: Wizbang
5.) HotAir Pundit is comparing the president's bow to Japanese emperor Akihito to the more professional greetings used by other world leaders.
6.) Jake Tapper is reporting - via a message from a trusted source on Japanese culture - that O-bow-ma's stunt with Akihito is an embarrassment:
Obama's handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush's back-rub of Merkel."Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.
"The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms....The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.
