The "New Normal" is Abnormal!

Like I have been, Bill Kristol is against the "new normal" , the excuse being used to explain away the failures of the Obama presidency. Read his whole column, which starts off this way:

"Are you alarmed by the counterterrorism failures increasingly evident as we learn more about the Boston terror attack? Don’t be. Former CIA director Michael Hayden has helpfully explained, 'This tragedy is the new normal.'

"Are you surprised that a whole city was ordered to 'shelter in place' as one 'knockoff jihadi,' in Vice President Biden’s term, roamed the streets? Don’t be. It’s the new normal. Are you shocked by the Obama administration’s dissembling in response to terror attacks in Benghazi? Don’t be naïve. It’s the new normal. Are you worried that the president proclaims “red lines” to deter dictators from, e.g., using chemical weapons, then does nothing to enforce them? Don’t be unsophisticated. As Rep. Adam Smith, ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, explained, 'The president said it was a red line. What the president never said was what that meant exactly.” It’s the new normal. Are you startled that the commander in chief accepts defense cuts that the president’s own defense secretary said would be 'devastating' and 'a disaster' and 'would inflict severe damage to our national defense'? Don’t be foolish. It’s the new normal.

"And do you think, back home, that we might do better than slow economic growth, high long-term unemployment, mountains of debt, and a massive health care reform that’s a 'train wreck,' in the felicitous term of the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who helped shepherd it through Congress? Didn’t you get the memo? It’s all the new normal."