An expert speaks

The Leader of the Free World, demonstrating his usual light touch:

President Barack Obama offered one of his sharpest denunciations of Donald Trump to date Tuesday, declaring the Republican nominee entirely unfit to serve as president and lambasting Republicans for sticking by their nominee.

The strong rebuke in the White House East Room came after Trump's criticism of the family of a slain Muslim US soldier, along with comments that displayed apparent confusion related to the Russian incursion into Ukraine. 

"The Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president," Obama said at a White House news conference with the Prime Minister of Singapore. "He keeps on proving it."

Strong words. So how do you demonstrate competence? Well, let's look at how the Leader of the Free World does the job:

The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward.

Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.

Pallets full of currency? Nice touch. No word on whether the pallet jack was gold plated as well.

Let's cut to the chase here, shall we? It's easy to denounce Donald Trump for his myriad idiotic statements. He's incredibly easy to bait and his unwillingness to concede a point has continued to cause him, and the poor souls who try to support his candidacy, fits. It's easy to imagine various foreign leaders running rings around him.

Could he be possibly worse than the incumbent, though? Think about what the pallets full of euros mean. Back to the Wall Street Journal report:

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and a fierce foe of the Iran nuclear deal, accused President Barack Obama of paying “a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages.”

“This break with longstanding U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures” of Americans, he said.

Since the cash shipment, the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guard has arrested two more Iranian-Americans. Tehran has also detained dual-nationals from France, Canada and the U.K. in recent months.

You get what you pay for. I remember a time when paying ransom for hostages, especially to Iran, was enough to threaten a presidency. Now? Not so much.

Meanwhile, let's consider how things are going with another of the initiatives of the Leader of the Free World:

Aetna (AET) said Tuesday it is canceling plans to expand into five more states next year and will reassess its involvement in the 15 states where it currently offers coverage on the individual exchanges. Aetna -- which expects to lose $300 million (pre-tax) on its Obamacare business this year -- must conclude its review by the end of September and notify states where it intends to withdraw.

"...in light of updated 2016 projections for our individual products and the significant structural challenges facing the public exchanges, we intend to withdraw all of our 2017 public exchange expansion plans, and are undertaking a complete evaluation of future participation in our current 15-state footprint," said CEO Mark Bertolini in a second-quarter earnings statement.

Maybe the Obama administration can get a pallet o' euros for Aetna, too.