The Grand Obama Derangement Theory

The Power Line brain trust takes a crack at a uniting theory justifying Obama Derangement Syndrome in order to explain away why the President is both a domestic tyrant who must be brought low and a foreign policy milquetoast who nobody pays attention to.  Paul Mirengoff complains that the ideas are not mutually (and comically) exclusive.

Obama’s core stated foreign policy objectives are to keep the U.S. out of war and to transform America’s image from that of unilateralist bully to a nation that plays well with others. Thus, it makes plenty of sense that Obama would behave internationally in ways that most conservatives would find feckless and/or timid.

Now, if Paul Mirengoff had written only this paragraph, he'd have a point.  Since conservatives are all about idiotically invading countries and costing us tens of thousands in troops, millions of ruined lives, and trillions in taxpayer dollars, President Obama's reasonable notion that such a policy may not be the best idea really does come across as "feckless and/or timid" to these credibility-free numbskulls.  Alas, he keeps going right into the teeth of the derpstorm.

The real question for conservatives who note the stark difference between Obama’s domestic and international posture is not whether they are being inconsistent but whether they are missing a unifying theme. The unifying theme would be an ideological aversion to the United States sufficient to cause Obama to (1) push for the radical transformation of the nation’s domestic policy through unlawful methods and (2) weaken the nation internationally by declining to assert American influence or even willfully ceding influence, including to our adversaries.

To recap, it's 2014, the sixth year of the man's second term, and the right still hasn't gotten past 2007's "Obama obviously hates America!"schtick.  And then he ends by invalidating his original complaint:

The question, in other words, is whether Obama behaves as he does in foreign affairs because he is naive or because he understands how the world works and simply wants the U.S. to have much less say about it.

The fact that Obama effectively plays domestic hard ball might cause some to tilt — Milbank style — in favor of the second explanation. But there is considerable naivety in the substance, if not the style, of Obama’s domestic policy.

In order to explain away why the Feckless Tyrant Theory is not a oxymoronic mess, he gives you the Stupid Supervillain Theory.

Exeunt, stage reality.