TOLD YA
(updated)

Me yesterday:

Pretty much everyone on the right, including Fox and talk radio, is going to take the McCain/Graham line henceforth: no more talk about excessive surveillance, and a lot of talk about how weak Obama has been as Snowden has jetted around the world, with the aid of America's enemies.... if Snowden isn't extradited -- I assume he won't be -- Obama's failure to get him back will be deemed by the right as effectively canceling out the killing of bin Laden.

Fox Nation today:





This is from a thread that excerpts a Reuters story:

Since his first day in office, President Barack Obama's foreign policy has rested on outreach: resetting ties with Russia, building a partnership with China and offering a fresh start with antagonistic leaders from Iran to Venezuela.

But the global travels on Sunday of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden highlight the limits of that approach. Leaders Obama has wooed - and met recently - were willing to snub the American president.

The cocky defiance by so-called "non-state actors" - Snowden himself and the anti-secrecy group, WikiLeaks, completes the picture of a world less willing than ever to bend to U.S. prescriptions of right and wrong....

Also see Peter King:

As Edward Snowden continues to avoid arrest on U.S. espionage charges, one Republican lawmaker is wondering why President Barack Obama isn't more forceful in his pursuit of the admitted leaker of national security secrets.

Rep. Peter King, the outspoken New York congressman who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, also said on CNN's "New Day" it was time to hear directly from Obama on the growing diplomatic nightmare.

"I hate to be in the middle of the crisis second guessing the president, but where is he?" King asked. "Where is the president? Why is he not speaking to the American people? Why is he not more forceful in dealing with foreign leaders?" ....

If you're a Snowden fan, I'm sure you see "a world less willing than ever to bend to U.S. prescriptions of right and wrong" as a well-deserved comeuppance -- and probably you don't care that the people who are going to yell about this the loudest are Republicans who have no problem whatsoever with a massive national security apparatus, apart from their discontent with the man currently in charge of that apparatus. The people who are going to seize on the government's failure to stop Snowden or gain custody of him are people who sneeringly use the phrase "leading from behind" every time Obama doesn't instantly smack down anyone who looks at America crosswise.

They've been waiting years for America to demand a Republican Daddy who'll smack around a few uppity foreigners and dirty hippie traitors. This may be when their message will start resonating again.

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UPDATE: I think this Weekly Standard blog post by Daniel Halper is relevant here as well:

Immigration Bill Gives Hong Kong Access to the Visa Waiver Program

Speaking about Hong Kong's decision to let NSA leaker Edward Snowden leave, without handing him over to American authorities, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that "we find their decision particularly troubling." Carney added that their decision "unquestionably has a negative impact" on U.S.-Hong Kong relations, and called it a "setback."

Which is all very relevant to the immigration bill, which Congress is currently debating and which will be voted on later today in the Senate. That's because on pages 1020-1021, there's a special provision giving Hong Kong access to the Visa Waiver Program....

For right-wingers, a hard-line position in immigration complements foreign policy muscularity -- both concern evil furriners who threaten our Purity Of Essence. I don't know what Halper wants us to do -- get in a shooting war with the Chinese? -- but the message here is that liberalism = consorting with the enemy.

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UPDATE: Yup, it's a meme:

Pres. Obama and his admin. embarrassed right on the world's stage all thanks to 30-yr-old high school drop out, Snowden

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) June 25, 2013