The Perfect Storm of Stupidity

We have just witnessed the stupidity of politicians worrying so much about the way something looks, it interferes with what was a good thing.

President Obama stated emphatically at the beginning of August that the 400 million dollar payment made in cash to Iran had no link to the release of hostages. We now know that wasn't true because a spokesman for the State Department just answered a question honestly about it. We did hold up the payment until those hostages were released.

It is not ransom because the money was not ours, it was Iran's. It's a legal case dating back to 1979 which was about to be settled in the Hague where all indications were we would lose and be ordered to pay billions in interest and penalties. Because of the recent Iran Nuclear Deal we were able to strike the appropriate deal, which was they only get back the money they paid for weapons under the Shah that were never delivered because of the Revolution.

It was smart to play hardball and say through backchannel diplomacy, you get your money back when the hostages are in the air. That's something to be proud of and President Obama should've said hell yes we used it as leverage and now falsely imprisoned Americans are on their way home. But he didn't do that, he chose the stupid path.

I understand that facts don't matter to a certain percentage of the country and that Obama would be criticized no matter what he does but that's no excuse for not laying out the facts from the start. His critics were apoplectic that he didn't tie the Nuclear Deal to releasing hostages, well guess what he executed a superb poker play. Where's the praise from those critics now?