Bypass the president

Much has been made of President Barack Obama’s refusal to address Islamist/Muslim extremists/extremism as such, or to identify, for example, beheaded Coptic Christian Egyptians as anything but “Egyptian citizens.”

Critics of the president’s self-imposed ideological myopia spend as much time reporting their dismay over this as their outrage over Muslim extremists’ heinous acts. And critics of these critics blast away at them for being low-thinking political hair-splitters.

The president’s critics should stop complaining about what the president doesn’t say and get in front by saying it themselves. Here’s how:

Commentator: “Discussing the mass decapitation of 21, singled-out, Coptic Christian Egyptians by self-proclaimed Muslim terrorists of the Islamic State, President Obama said this. Roll the tape.”

This does the following:

• It informs the public of the facts, void of political correctness.

• It does so without putting words in the president’s mouth.

• It does so without criticizing the president for not saying anything he clearly doesn’t say when the tape is rolled.

And it does all this by lobbing the ball to the American people; right over the president’s head.

Joe Booth

Spokane Valley