Grassley: Obama’s rhetoric ‘gives some encouragement to enemies’

President Barack Obama has the best intentions with his foreign policy, but his rhetoric “sends signals he’s ambivalent” and could lead enemies of the United States to believe he won’t be “tough-nosed when our national security’s at stake,” U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Thursday.

“And I think it does — gives some encouragement to enemies,” Grassley said in a conference call with reporters.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (Lauren Victoria Burke/wdcpix.com)

Grassley was responding to a question about what grade he would give the first year of Obama’s presidency.

“I suppose you’d take it section by section,” Grassley said. “But changing policy from what he said during the campaign, you’d have to give him a very low score. What he’s done in regard to Afghanistan and the war on terror and, just recently, making a very important decision there, I’d give him good grades on.”

While it’s not a bad idea that Obama is “trying to get along with everybody,” ultimately Grassley would give him an “average [grade] on foreign policy.”

Despite differences over policy, Grassley said he has a good rapport with the president, although since Obama “pulled the rug out from under” the bipartisan health care effort “we haven’t talked a whole lot.”

“But every time we’ve seen each other — I was down at the White House last week — he’s always been friendly with me,” he said.