If Obama Had Been Prez in WW2

By: Brooks Mick
June 17, 2008 03:00 PM EST



Consider how it would have gone if Roosevelt had become too ill for his second term and Obama had been elected.

The Time: A few days after D-day.

The Place: The Oval Office. Obama and various staff are present.

Obama is sitting behind the desk reading reports from Europe.

Obama: The news from the invasion is terrible. Tens of thousands of our troops have died. Some are still bogged down in the hedgerows of France. The French government isn't stepping up to the plate to help us out. I think we ought to cut our losses and pull out.

Secretary of Defense: The problem with that, Mr. President, is that it would leave the Jews of Europe to be rounded up and herded to concentration camps and turned into soap and lampshades. That's unacceptable.

Obama: Let's take a poll and see if the American people care much about the European Jews. I read an article in Look Magazine last week saying we ought to leave the Europeans to their own devices, that it was Europe's war, not ours. We could try talking to Hitler, reasoning with him, laying on a little diplomacy.

Secretary of State: That was tried for the previous 5 years or so and didn't work out.

Obama: But the Germans are no threat to us. They haven't developed the atomic bomb yet. Their bombers can't reach us. The missiles they have barely reach England. There's no imminent danger to us.

SecDef: The operative word in your statements is "yet." If we don't crush them now, if we allow them to take and keep all of Europe and then work on their missiles and atomic bombs and chemical agents, they will be a threat to us at some point and by then it might be too late.

Obama: But if we keep losing troops at this rate, the American people may lose confidence and turn against the war.

SecState: It's your job to keep building the morale of the people and keep them focused on the need for perseverance.

Obama: I'm good at promising hope and change and all that, selling the easy snake oil, but I've never even tried selling the hard choices. I promised a quick end to the war and that's why they elected me. I promised two chickens--or was it three?--in every pot and a Fair Deal for everyone (except the rich). Heck, I promised not just a Fair Deal, I promised to stack the deck in favor of more than half the country.

Head of Social Security Administration: Well, Mr. President, you know that's mathematically impossible, but let's get back to the war in Europe.

SecDef: So what's it going to be, sir? Do we rally the people, keep cranking up the production of B17s and P51s and battleships and submarines? Do we keep the training camps going at Fort Bragg and Camp LeJeune; do we put in more docks at the Norfolk Naval Base? Or do we cut and run? The fate of Western Civilization hangs on your decision.

Obama: Wow...it was a lot easier to make that decision when I didn't have to make it... let's just cut and run. Call General Eisenhoer and let him know.

SecDef: Hmmm...why don't you call General Eisenhower yourself, Mr. President? I don't think I want to hear what he's going to say...