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Posted on 04/30/2012 4:28:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
On April 30th in 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City, George Washington took the oath of office to become the first president of the United States. He took that oath amidst a widespread surge of popularity and consensual respect that has yet to be replicated in any subsequent presidential election in this country. For two terms, Washington was able to govern, and govern well, because even before he won the election as president of the United States, through his deeds, Washington had won the respect and trust of all of colonial America. If measured against that high standard, Barack Obama, whether he is elected in November 2012 or not, will be unable to govern effectively, if at all.
Whether the standard to measure Barack Obama is legislative, fiscal, foreign policy, managerial or personal, Obama ranks among the lowest of the low in presidential ability.
Legislatively, Obama’s signature piece of legislation, Obamacare, is tied up in a Supreme Court challenge which has exposed the shameful short cuts, side dealings and horse-trading that Team Obama was forced to implement in order to have the legislation scrape past the Senate. Billions of dollars of “incentives” to Senators and congressmen can be done once or twice. But, if congress requires these kinds of tawdry incentives to advance Obama’s presidential agenda, it is hard to imagine Obama has any ability to implement future legislation.
Consider some of Obama’s other signature efforts--a JOBS bills that doesn’t create jobs, an energy policy that increases the price of gas at the pump and increases America’s dependence on foreign oil. An insistence of subsidies, for failed “green” endeavors, that waste billions of taxpayer dollars on ill-thought Solar and wind schemes that advance the agendas of Obama’s political allies.
Fiscally, Obama has been the most irresponsible president in the history of the United States (and that is saying something!). Obama’s spend, spend, spend agenda has kept the economy from growing, has created new generations of citizens dependent upon the government dole and has resulted in the slowest growth in GDP in three years. And for what? Obama has not been able to create the jobs he promised because Obama doesn’t understand that business, not government, creates jobs in a free economy.
Entitlement spending has ballooned to outrageous levels wherein over 50% of Americans do not work, nor do they look likely to do so in the future. Obama has put in place trillions of taxpayer dollars as spending intended to stimulate the economy. But the economy has not been “stimulated”, though the pockets of Obama’s political allies have been generously lined with taxpayer dollars.
The president has not even been able to produce a federal budget that can be debated seriously by congress. His last such pathetic attempt was unanimously voted down (0-414), showing that Obama has been abandoned by his own party. Could congress, in a bi-partisan effort, be sending the president an indisputable message about what they think of Obama’s stewardship of the economy?
What does it say that Obama can’t even get one vote on an issue as important as the federal budget? There seems to be universal, bi-partisan agreement that in matters financial, the president is irrelevant.
Obama’s international shenanigans, from his bowing and scraping his way across Asia during his first year in office, to his hugs and handshakes for charlatans and brutish dictators, has been a public embarrassment. Obama’s off-mike comments to Medvedev show the president to be an anxious schoolboy, lackey-like and eager to be all things to all people, desperate for praise and willing to sacrifice American values to achieve.
The story of George Washington and the cherry tree may be apocryphal; merely a tale emblematic of George Washington’s propensity for truthfulness, but Obama spawns no such legend. He has told too many falsehoods, taken too many short cuts, and appointed as his spokespersons and surrogates, too many who do the same, and hence, Obama has lost the trust of the American people. What Obama has lost is what Americans value most—integrity.
And then there is the personal. It is turning out that Obama is actually not very likeable. At every opportunity, Obama seems to jump into controversies that should be solved at a state or local level (Gates affair in Cambridge, MA or Trayvon Martin in FL), before he has all the facts. Obama is showing himself to be a race-baiter, citing directly, or through his surrogates, that any who disagree with his policies or opinions must somehow be racist. Or there’s the class-warfare mongering. Repeatedly, Americans hear Obama blaming “millionaires and billionaires”, claiming that they haven’t paid their “fair share”, though Obama is a multi-millionaire and he, too, takes advantage of every tax loophole.
Barack Obama has been so fixated on his re-election (another of his falsehoods since he has often stated he didn’t care if he was a one-term president) and consumed with building winning “issues-based” coalitions, that he has lost the trust and respect and confidence of most Americans. Even if Obama, by some sleight of hand, were to win in November, he has no mandate; he lost consumer confidence, and he can’t govern.
John Marshall once said that a statesmen is a “a person that loves the people enough to tell them the truth". Barack Obama is clearly no statesmen and has repeatedly refused to deal honestly with the nation’s problems as he ceaselessly maneuvers for short term political gain. Even if he wins the election, it’ll be the longest lame duck session in the nation’s history. Barack Obama cannot govern. The nation is wiser and demands a statesman.
But of course, nobody will believe you any more.
You can’t compare a race with a stinking incumbent to one with no incumbent.
Obama played the race card against a race card coward. That isn’t happening now.
But getting a viable 3rd party of conservatives off the ground is like drilling for oil. Start now, show strength, and grow for the future.
And, since Romney is losing anyway, the reasonable thing to do is to start strengthening that 3rd party now.
Actually Supertramp (Roger Hodgson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BruEmB7_1ok
America demands a statesman? I don’t know one!!!
Obama should lose, but then the Republicans had to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as usual, by picking Romney.
Re: the subject of Romneycare vs. Obamacare, I think that Romney could at least say that his version was the best thing for Massachusetts. As conservatives, we may disagree with the approach, but we're either for states' rights or we're not. At least Romney didn't pass his plan in the middle of the night, while giving away 100s of millions in various vote-buying schemes.
No question. Wonder what will happen in Tampa if Milt Romnuts is down by 10 to 15% by then?
I know a lot of folks think that, but I don't see it that way, HD. I see Romney as a 3rd Way Social Corporatist. In other words, he's not a real capitalist. Social Corporatists will applaud capitalism so long as their elite oligarchy controls decision making.
I posted the same thing before reading your comments. As governor, Romney did what he thought was best for their state, and I believe the law and program was pretty popular within their state. If we conservatives are for states' rights, we have to accept that. I don't believe that Romney passed that with the intent of taking it country-wide however, so there are a number of key differences between the two.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not yet an ardent Romney supporter, but he has ways of arguing what he did was within his rights as a state. Furthermore, it appears that overwhelming majorities within Massachusetts wanted the program, and it was passed in the daylight, without lots of shennanigans. Obama can't say ANY of that about his.
I thought Romney wasn’t yet nominated. So how can he be losing?
Which is it?
I don’t think any of us were ARDENT Romney supporters but he’s the candidate.
And I am ardently in favor of getting rid of Obama.
Is there any other way? I don’t think so.
We need to focus on Obama now and stop dissing his opponent.
Though the polls seem to dispute this, I think this author is right.
Obama has become ubiquitous, in our faces in an unprecedented way. Fenway Park, Jimmy Kimmel show, NBA games, he is seen doing everything but the country's business. He is beginning to be recognized for being an instigator of divisiveness, a catalyst for animosity.
The belief that he is incompetent is gathering steam. As Obama's tone is exhibiting more anger, more frustration, his speeches are becoming grating to us. By November this guy will be reviled by enough to vote him out, IMHO.
those who think romney is losing the nomination at this point are in denial.
I, too, hope he has already lost the election.
Obama may have lost the consent of the majority to govern but if he somehow lies and cheats his way into a second term, that won’t stop him from using every executive order, every EPA-type agency, every czar, every NYT op-ed, every bribing giveaway program he can to finish cementing in place the ruination of our republic.
He must be defeated on Nov. 6th.
“Romney is losing. His path to victory is extremely narrow, and Obama is nearly there ALREADY.”
I think the game is rigged though. We have Soviet style candidates, we might be having Soviet style elections too.
If I am WRONG however, Romney may well be obliterated.
Everything that can be thrown at Obama has been thrown at him for three years, and deservedly so. So far, almost no one has attacked Willard Mitt Romney as he will be, and as he deserves to be. We’ll see how Willard stands up to the same same kind of campaign he waged against his betters (each and every one of them, bar none) in the primary. Add to that Obama has delivered most of what his base clamored for, Willard has shattered the GOP base for a long time or even permanently.
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