Reuters reported early Monday that in a Reuters/Ipsos online poll, over a third of Republicans (34%) think the American president poses an imminent threat to this country, whereas only a quarter believe this of the Russian president. 

Why, just the other day, some Republican whack-job called Obama’s water-carrier secretary of state Kerry “out of touch with reality.”  Wait a minute – that was the former head the president’s Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. General Michael Flynn.

Thirty-four percent is a disappointing number.  One would have hoped that more Republicans were better-informed about Obama, particularly as negotiations with Iran approach the March 31 deadline.  You can’t get more imminent. 

In the original snarky article, reporter Roberta Rampton was upset that only 23% of Republicans viewed Syria’s Bashar Assad as an imminent threat, though “Western governments have alleged that Assad used chlorine gas and barrel bombs on his own citizens.”  Rampton doesn’t say why this should represent a threat to the U.S., nor does she explain how Putin poses an imminent threat.  Instead she quotes a sociologist about the “fear mongering” of both parties.

Also alarming to Rampton was the finding that 27% of Republicans thought “climate change” was not a threat at all.

Perhaps embarrassed about the partisanship of the article, Reuters pulled it early in the afternoon and replaced it with one by Peter van Buren, which emphasized the responses of Americans overall, rather than by parties, headlining it “Americans see Putin as Only Slightly More Imminent Threat Than Obama, Poll Says.”  “I think it’s safe to say that a national security expert might not agree with the public’s choices,” sniffed van Buren. 

Why don’t you give General Flynn a call, Peter?