“Has Barack Obama’s presidency already failed? In normal times, this would be a ludicrous question. But these are not normal times. They are times of great danger…The costs to the US and the world of another failed presidency do not bear contemplating.”
his was the view expressed on February 10 in the Financial Times.
It is nothing less than extraordinary that, less than a month into the presidency of Barack Obama, the warnings are flying that it has embarked on a course of actions that are a danger to the nation and to the world.
A day later, Kathleen Parker, a columnist for The Washington Post, was lamenting President Obama’s lack of experience and, more importantly, his lack of maturity. “Obama wants too much to be liked…but there’s a price in becoming president. Giving up being liked is the ultimate public sacrifice.” George W. Bush can confirm the truth of that.
“Obama’s lack of authority over the stimulus package has underscored the value of political experience and toughness,” wrote Parker of Obama’s ceding control to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Meanwhile, two weeks into his presidency, both Obama and wife Michelle were complaining that they were “tired of being in the White House” given the limitations on their former freedom to come and go as they wished.
“Sell the sizzle, not the steak” is an old advertizing maxim. Just over half the voters bought the sizzle surrounding the charismatic candidate, but the steak is proving hard to swallow.
In the first month of his four-year term, there were several cabinet appointments that turned out to be seriously flawed, but that was just the beginning of a number of odd decisions culminating in what may have been the most boring first press conference by a new President. He delivered a ten-minute opening statement followed by a ten-minute response to the first question.
Meanwhile, Obama has issued a flurry of executive orders including shutting down Gitmo, but not determining what we do with a bunch of fanatic, stone killers, some of whom have been released and went right back to al Qaeda. Not satisfied with that, he authorized the spending of $20.3 million in immigration assistance to Palestinian refugees—calling them victims—who want to leave Gaza and bring their hatred here.
His first call to a “head of state” was to Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Fatah Party. Abbas is not a head of state and Fatah exists only at the pleasure of Israel who needs to appear to be negotiating something other than its own destruction. His first television interview was with Al Arabia. The Iranian response was to demand that he apologize for the “past crimes” of the U.S.
He has ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed and then withdrew all charges against the mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole. Do you feel any safer now?
His administration is about to kill any possibility of exploration and drilling for offshore oil while at the same time talking endlessly about “energy independence.”
Finally (though not really) he has nomined David Ogden to be deputy Attorney-General. This is a man whose most notable accomplishments include representing pornographers, trying to defeat child protection legislation, and undermining family values. He once represented a group of library directors to argue against the Children's Internet Protection Act that requires libraries and schools receiving funding for the Internet to restrict access to obscene sites.
The barbarians aren’t at the gates, they are inside the gates.
This isn’t just a failed presidency at this point. It is a suicidal one that is threatening to take down the nation with it.
