Barack Obama – Still Over His Head

A few weeks into his Presidency, President Obama had already had to throw Tom Daschle under the bus for tax problems, was taking heat for seating a tax-cheat, Timothy Geithner, as his treasury secretary, and several lesser luminaries he wanted for his administration had to back out because of tax problems. He had to break his own campaign promises about not allowing lobbyists roles in his administration by granting several waivers. He insulted one of our closest allies, Great Britain, by sending back a bust of Winston Churchill that had been a gift by the British government to the American President after 9/11, and had essentially snubbed British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, on an official diplomatic trip to the United States. In an article I wrote at that time, I opined that Obama was "way over his head", an opinion for which I was excoriated by a couple of people and that lead me to being called a racist because I was "obviously judging him on his appearance."

Now, several months later, I see absolutely no reason to change my opinion. In the interim, Obama signed a hurriedly passed "stimulus" bill, breaking at least a couple more campaign promises on the way, that has failed to stimulate anything except the national debt and Democratic interest groups. He consistently sides with dictators and tyrants while insulting allies and ignoring democratic popular movements. Under his watch, North Korea continues to test missiles and atomic bombs and Iran, a regime that has vowed to destroy Israel AND the United States, openly defies international opinion to develop the atomic bomb. Under the Obama administration, the government now owns a large chunk of the domestic auto industry and, flouting existing protocol, the unions received favorable status over preferred shareholders to gain ownership of much of the remainder. Now, it looks like Chrysler and GM will be bankrupt again in about a year. Unemployment continues to climb and there is no end in sight. No matter what you think about the President's health care reform, he has shown himself particularly inept in getting it through Congress or creating a demand for it in the public. Now, the latest embarrassment was to fly to Copenhagen, tell the Olympic committee that they should award Chicago the Olympics primarily because he wants them.

It is time to realize that Barack Obama is the perfect embodiment of the Peter Principle - that a person rises to the level of their incompetence. He is an attractive man who reads a teleprompter well, but who is, at best, a mediocre politician. This should come as no surprise to us. While the left, and particularly the fringe media (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc.), fretted over Sarah Palin's inexperience for the Vice-Presidency, only being the governor of a state, they completely disregarded the lack of any real-life experience possessed by Obama.

This is a man who has never run a business in his life. His job prior to entering politics was as a community organizer, trying to see how much government money he could wrangle for his own special interest group. He was tagged early by the Chicago political machine (and no one runs machine politics like Chicago) as a potential star. He won his first election to the Illinois State Legislature after his three opponents were kicked off the ballot for technicalities in their ballot petitions - things like people printing their names rather than writing them, valid signatures but unregistered collectors, etc - which left him running unopposed. In his election for US Senate, his Democratic opponent withdrew after his "sealed" divorce papers were leaked to the press. In the general election, Republican Jack Ryan also withdrew after his "sealed" divorce papers were leaked, causing a scandal. What are the chances? Obama then made short work of carpetbagger, Alan Keyes, from Maryland.

In his short, less than one term, Senate career, Obama was totally unexceptional other than being named the Most Liberal Senator by National Journal Magazine in 2007. His big break onto the national scene was in delivering the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004, thus demonstrating his prowess in reading a teleprompter. Obama was being groomed for the Presidency following a Hillary Clinton administration, in 2012 or 2016 but, apparently, the Democratic National Committee forgot to send him the memo.

There is no doubt that Obama is a brilliant campaigner. As Rush Limbaugh said, "He says nothing better than anyone." And it is true. On the campaign trail, a candidate can say whatever they like. You don't like lobbyists? There will be none in my administration. Want Guantanamo closed? It will be within a year. We will withdraw from Iraq within a year. Afghanistan is the good war - I will concentrate on winning there. I will change the tone in Washington. I am a uniter, not a divider. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Unfortunately, when the election is over, you have to actually govern and this is where Obama has been exposed. He has no real world experience outside of politics and his para-political community-organizing gig. He doesn't have even a rudimentary grasp of history or economics. For all of Obama's vaunted intelligence, I have yet to see evidence of it. He hasn't deviated one iota from the far left socialistic/fascistic playbook since coming into office. He doesn't seem to understand that the average American doesn't hold with the liberal philosophy he has been entrenched with all his life. He spouts platitudes about social justice that any sophomore sociology major at his former alma maters, Harvard and Columbia, would instantly recognize and nod his head, but that the average rancher in Kansas or construction worker in Georgia, people with real-world experience, would recognize as insanity. Instead, Obama regularly ridicules his opponents and accuses them of ill will whenever he is opposed. Instead of using his bully pulpit to persuade and inspire, he uses it to lecture, browbeat and declare from on high what is and what is not "acceptable." He wants "conversation and ideas" but, if those ideas don't agree with his viewpoint, he decries them as "partisan politics as usual."

Our President is now in perpetual campaign mode, certain that his charm and erudition can overcome objections to his far-left policies. Unfortunately, while you may be able to get away with promising unicorns that fart rainbows in campaigns, when it comes to governing, people become a little more discerning. That is why, no matter how many times he promises it, people know that you can’t dramatically expand the government health care rolls while simultaneously decreasing the deficit and increasing accessibility to health care providers. People understand that the President is blowing smoke up their skirts and that is why the public support for Obama’s health care reform is tanking, not because of lies and misleading statements from Obama’s opponents. Just try to convince someone that the way to increase efficiency of anything is to have more government involvement and you’ll understand why Obama is having a difficult time selling his program.

All of this might be comical if it wasn’t so serious. Our economy continues stagnate while unemployment rates continue to climb. Indecision on Afghanistan may very well cost us the war or, at the least, more American lives. Iran is on the cusp of becoming a nuclear power and Russia is, once again, flexing her muscles.

A more humble man might regroup, learn some lessons from his failures, and come back as a strong and decisive leader. Of course, humility and Obama do not even belong in the same sentence. If there is anyone who has a high opinion of himself, it is Barack Obama. George Will says, “Presidents often come to be characterized by particular adjectives: "honest" Abe Lincoln, "Grover the Good" Cleveland, "energetic" Theodore Roosevelt, "idealistic" Woodrow Wilson, "Silent Cal" Coolidge, "confident" FDR, "likable" Ike Eisenhower. Less happily, there were "Tricky Dick" Nixon and "Slick Willie" Clinton. Unhappy will be a president whose defining adjective is "vain."

We were promised a President who was post-racial, post-partisan and who would change “politics as usual.” What we got was an ungracious, egotistical, highly partisan, radically left-wing President who is way over his head.

Congress and Respect: A Strange Sense of Priorities

President Obama can’t catch a break when he tries to sell the United States on health care reform. Last time, all anyone wanted to talk about after his press conference was his ham-handed handling of “Gatesgate”. This morning, after Obama’s address to the joint houses of Congress, much of the ink that has been spilled has regarded only two words – and not those of Obama. All the talk has been about the Republican Representative from South Carolina, Joe Wilson, and his outburst when Obama claimed that his health care bill would not provide coverage for illegal aliens, “You lie!”

Even though the New York Times, Washington Post, and Newsweek, not to mention the major television network news couldn’t see fit to report about the racist, profanity-laden, conspiracy-theorizing words of former self described communist-radical Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones until after he was fired (and even then, attributed it to a right-wing hatchet job by Fox News’s Glenn Beck), Wilson’s words were front-page news on all the aforementioned outlets.

The hyperventilating left is having a field day. Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, angrily confronted Republican leaders saying, “No President has ever had that happen before!” Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Mr. Emanuel a member of the House of Representatives in 2005, when Democrats booed, hissed, and shouted, “No!” when President Bush spoke about the need for social security reform? Arlen Specter, ever the opportunist, stated that Wilson should be censured. After all, as Nancy Pelosi reminded us, lawmakers can be sanctioned for calling other lawmakers liars. Let’s just forget the fact that Harry Reid did just that about President Bush on national TV. The head of the House Democratic Caucus, John Larson, is looking into sanctions against Wilson.

Now, I think that yelling during a Presidential address to Congress is boorish behavior and totally inappropriate, in spite of the fact that he was absolutely correct. Wilson should not have shouted and it was entirely appropriate that he immediately apologized. But forgive me if I don’t succumb to the vapors over this incident as have so many on the left and in the media (but I repeat myself.)

It is interesting to me what constitutes an offense sufficient for a call for censure in Congress. If Congress can censure Wilson for calling Obama a liar, why don’t they censure Obama for repeatedly calling his opponents in the health care debate liars? In last night’s speech alone, Obama stated that his opponents are spreading “bogus claims”, “tall tales”, and “demagoguery and distortion”, which is ironic, considering that his entire speech consisted of bogus claims, tall tales and demagoguery and distortion.

But I really don’t have a lot of concern for what lawmakers call each other. I find it strange, though, that while calling another lawmaker a liar is censurable, no one seems to bat an eye when lawmakers call citizens expressing their legitimate concerns “un-American”, as did Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, or “tea-baggers”, a pornographic term, as did Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-CA), or likening Obama opponents to the Delta fraternity in Animal House, looking to start a food fight, as did White House Press Secretary, the golden-tongued Robert Gibbs. The degree of contempt that Congress and this administration have toward the American people is remarkable.

And while we’re on the subject of censure, is Wilson’s outburst a more serious offense than Charles Rangel, head of the tax writing House Ways and Means Committee, failing to report over $1 million to the IRS? If Wilson showed disrespect to the President, doesn’t that type of blatantly illegal activity show disrespect to all those of us who pay our taxes, as required? Let’s not even get into the corruption that sticks all over Congress Critters like John Murtha, Chris Dodds, and Barney Frank.

Today, on www.Biggovernment.com, a video surfaced showing members of ACORN, counseling an undercover documentary film maker and his accomplice on how they can set up a brothel and employ children as sex workers. Let’s see how much respect Congress has for your tax dollars. If they don’t investigate ACORN, you know that they don’t care about you. All they care about is preserving their political power.

So, while lawmakers are busy getting their panties in a bunch over an admitted lack of decorum during a speech, it is business as usual, the pillaging of the national treasury for their own gains. After the 2006 mid-term elections, Nancy Pelosi vowed to “drain the swamp” of Republican corruption. It seems that the Republican swamp rats have just been replaced with Democratic weasels. It has become increasingly obvious that the only way to drain the swamp is to totally replace the entire Congress.

So, while Congress works themselves into a lather about a lack of respect of one of their members to the President, let’s not forget the lack of respect Congress has for you.

Honest Barack's Used Car Lot

The first new car that Dawn and I bought in our marriage was a 1987 Toyota Minivan. After looking through minivans on a dealership lot in Kansas City, the salesman asked that magic question, "What will it take for you to drive home in this car tonight?" About 6 hours later,after a lot of brutal and mind-boggling negotiations, we drove off the lot in a new Toyota Minivan, somewhat bewildered and feeling that we had been involved in something slimy. A couple of years later, after the engine blew and we found out that the dealership never sent in the money for the extended warranty, we realized that we'd been taken, but by that time the dealership had gone out of business and there was no way to recover our loss.

Having bought a number of cars, houses, and a few other large purchases in our 27 years of marriage, Dawn and I now have a policy that we don't make a decision on a large purchase within the first 24 hrs. Now, when a salesman asks me what it will take to drive my new car off the lot tonight, I tell him "Nothing." We have found that our policy saves us much aggravation and not a few dollars. Even those offers that "will expire at 5:00 tonight" seem to be able to be extended to the next day, if necessary.

I am reminded of this with our current health care debate. Maybe the President's tenure as Car-Seller-in-Chief at General Motors has equipped him for the job because it sure seems like we are getting the "offer expires today" hard sell. Obama is telling us, "If we don't reform health care now, it will never get done." He has set a deadline of the end of July as the time when Congress must pass the legislation, though like a good used-car dealer, when it looks as if he may lose the sale, it seems the deadline is becoming a little more flexible.

Fortunately, the American public seems to be learning, as we did after our minivan debacle. Now that the "stimulus" plan that was rushed through Congress so fast that no one had time to read it, has turned out to be a very expensive failure and we are now discovering all the little noises under the hood and find that the knobs on the dash aren’t connected to anything, people are wary of the Washington used car crowd.

Take the Cap and Tax Bill, for instance, which was rammed through the House so quickly that it was passed before it was even entirely written. (Think about that. If you approached your boss and told him that you needed an enormous amount of money for a project and you needed it by tonight, but you didn't have the specifics worked out yet, do you think you'd get it? Would any responsible businessman do that?) Now that people are seeing how much it is going to cost to lower the global temperature by 1/10 of 1 degree in 100 years, there are rumbles in the heartland. "But," we are told, "the United States must set an example for the world to follow." Of course, a stake was driven right through the heart of this argument with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent Great American Apology Tour trip to India. When she urged India to limit their carbon emissions ("Don't make the same mistake that America did." e.g.- creating the world's greatest economy, being the greatest producer of medicines, machines, and products in the history of the world, etc.), India's government basically said, "Do you think that we are idiots or something?" (That was a paraphrase, but a pretty accurate summation.)

So now the latest model that the salesmen are hawking is health care reform. To hear Obama speak, this is the Mercedes Benz of bills – not flashy, but incredibly reliable and high-quality. Unfortunately, Honest Barack doesn’t even know what’s under the hood. When asked whether the House’s bill will allow people to keep their own insurance, as Barack promised, he replied, “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.” (It doesn’t, by the way.)

And don’t expect the salesmen to drive the same models they want you to buy. In Senate committee, a Republican amendment introduced by Sen. (Dr.) Tom Coburn (R-OK) requiring Congress to participate in any nationalized health care plan they enact was stripped by the Democrats on the committee. They know that the Mercedes body is powered by a Dodge Valiant engine.

As Moliere said, “Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.” We all know this. The essay hastily written the night before it is due, as I can personally attest, is never as good as the essay meticulously researched and written. Who would take out a mortgage before reading all the paperwork? Oops, bad example, but you know how that turned out.

Any large purchase deserves careful study and thought. For our governmental used car salesmen to try to bum rush a this package by us without allowing us to even read the paperwork, let alone think about our purchase means only one thing – they know that if we are allowed to carefully consider it, we will see it for the lemon it is.

Note: I used stereotypes in order to illustrate a point. I apologize to any slimy used car salesmen that may have been offended by being compared to politicians.