Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

President Obama, America's Nero
Townhall.com ^ | February 17. 2015 | Cal Thomas

Posted on 02/17/2015 4:45:55 AM PST by Kaslin

President Theodore Roosevelt said, "Speak softly, and carry a big stick." More than a century later, President Barack Obama speaks loudly (and incessantly) and carries a twig.

Like Nero of ancient Rome, Obama fiddles, takes selfies and does Internet interviews while the world burns. Is he trying to distract himself, or us? To use a sports analogy, is he trying to "run out the clock" and leave office before terrorist fires consume us?

We have a president who is mismatched to the times in which we live. He is unserious when seriousness is required. The tyrants of the world have taken notice and rightly calculated they can pretty much do what they want without paying a heavy penalty.

The administration is pleased about a "ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine, negotiated by the leaders of France and Germany, but even they are skeptical Russian President Vladimir Putin will abide by it. Why should he? Who's to stop him from solidifying his land grab in Eastern Ukraine, not to mention Crimea, which he has already "digested" with little response other than sanctions? For now he seems willing to endure them.

This does not bode well for a negotiated deal with Iran over that country's nuclear weapons program. Iran's mullahs don't believe they will pay much of a price for lying to the West about constructing a nuclear bomb and a missile system to carry it as far as the U.S., but an agreement will allow President Obama to brag about the "success" of diplomacy and justify his reluctance to do what is necessary to stop them.

The president has said he was elected to "end wars, not start them." That would be a worthy goal if ending a war could be done unilaterally, but if one side is still fighting the war isn't over.

Islamic fanatics, who are recruiting and growing in numbers by the day and claim to have a presence throughout Europe and inside the U.S., believe they have marching orders from Allah. They will not be deterred by "infidels." They see American resolve extending no further than dropping bombs.

Obama said ISIS (or ISIL as he calls them) "will lose," but he didn't outline a battle plan in his request to Congress for additional powers, only that he would not send in ground troops; a few special forces maybe. A Washington Post editorial was correctly headlined: "No Way To Fight A War."

It's worth recalling President Franklin Roosevelt's "day of infamy" speech to Congress following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and contrasting it with President Obama's request to Congress and his overall reluctance to aggressively confront the terrorists.

Here's FDR: "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God."

That's what leadership sounds and looks like when it is backed by action. The president should stop talking and create a legitimate coalition charged with initiating air and ground assaults on ISIS targets. He should devise a strategy for closing our borders to Muslim extremists and for expelling those found already here. The president should do all he can to protect American lives. He should act. He should lead.

William Shakespeare wrote these words for Macbeth, but insert the president's name for the first word "Life" and you could not have a better description of America's Nero:

"(Obama's) but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: barack0bama; iran; rome; terrorism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last


1 posted on 02/17/2015 4:45:55 AM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Obama is crazy enough for half a dozen Neros.


2 posted on 02/17/2015 4:53:05 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SWAMPSNIPER

That is for sure


3 posted on 02/17/2015 4:56:23 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

...some of my best friends are Neros......


4 posted on 02/17/2015 4:56:53 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

This is a horrible mis-read on El-Presidente. His objective is to destroy our civilization so that one he prefers can be brought into existence. In this the muslim terrorists are fellow travelers. Once their first step (destruction) is achieved and their ends differ he feels he can then confront them.

Personally I think El-Presidente wants a system similar to that of the middle ages, only instead of the rich owning the land and allowing us peasants to work it the govt will own it and the rich will run the govt.


5 posted on 02/17/2015 4:57:18 AM PST by logic101.net (If libs believe in Darwin and natural selection why do they get hacked off when it happens?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

6 posted on 02/17/2015 4:57:23 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
He was as sent here, as we Christians have been sent here.

His job is as spiritual as ours.

He's accomplishing more for his father than we seem to be accomplishing for ours

And THAT is the gist of the matter


The sooner we look into the mirror and remove the toupee', the sooner we will see clearly ... that's the first and easiest step

The second is apparently harder

2 Chronicles 7:14King James Version (KJV)

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

7 posted on 02/17/2015 4:59:42 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but, they're true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SWAMPSNIPER

Y’f’got the “g”


8 posted on 02/17/2015 5:00:33 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but, they're true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

After 75,0000,000+ or more abortions of babies...
America elected one to abort America.., TWICE...

AND is fixin’ to elect a She-beast next time..
OR a mentally deficient Jeb Bush..

Obama is merely the figurehead of a large cabal of Neros..
many of which run States like Animal Farms milking and culling the people for profit..

And republicans allowed it.. to happen..
REVOLT should have happened long ago...
The Republic died with Barry Goldwater..

All totally legal connived by lawyers some of whom are republicans..


9 posted on 02/17/2015 5:14:17 AM PST by hosepipe (" This propaganda has been edited (specifically) to include some fully orbed hyperbole.. ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The author has to twist about too much to explain Obama. Just recognize that he is Moslem, a veritable Turkish Sultan and everything else he does makes sense, even to his directly analagous (except for her sex) Vizier Jarrett.


10 posted on 02/17/2015 5:14:44 AM PST by arthurus (it's true!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: logic101.net

Co-religionists, not fellow travelers.


11 posted on 02/17/2015 5:15:36 AM PST by arthurus (it's true!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SWAMPSNIPER

He’s a pothead and he’s proud of it. Thinks it’s cool. While the rest of us squares were at least learning something in high school, he “spent the last two years of high school in a daze” according to his ghost-written book. The idiots of America elected a pothead as president. Yes, and he’s a muslim raised my marxists, too.


12 posted on 02/17/2015 5:21:26 AM PST by duckworth (Perhaps instant karma's going to get you. Perhaps not.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe

Anyone would have been better than Obama! All you Conservatives to didn’t vote for Mitt—I hope your happy! You know in your heart he would have been a much better president than Obumbo—but he was once pro-abortion and he was a Mormon! He did Romneycare in Boston—Still on his worst day in the White House would have been better than the best days of Obama. He might have even been as great as Reagan! Even McCain would have been better! Or dare I say it—Even Hillary Clinton—Leftist and all—she wouldn’t have dallied while the Middle East Burned. Even John Edwards would have been better! Jeb Bush—we would be lucky to have him Now! Hey, I am willing to say Biden would be better than the clown we have now.


13 posted on 02/17/2015 5:30:27 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Imam Obama reacts to the random beheadings, by random terrorist, against random victims.


14 posted on 02/17/2015 5:32:18 AM PST by TexasCajun
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“Nero” is too close to “Negro”.

Y U B Racis’?

(/sarc)


15 posted on 02/17/2015 5:34:37 AM PST by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: logic101.net
His objective is to destroy our civilization so that one he prefers can be brought into existence."

(Newt Gingrich on Islam) Newt, a historian cuts this Islamic history short for in truth, Islam has been trying for centuries to push all infidels out of the picture, this radicalism is not a recent event, it is in fact the face of centuries old Islam. Newt makes a compelling case all the same.

16 posted on 02/17/2015 5:39:38 AM PST by yoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

——The president should stop talking and create a legitimate coalition-—

The coalition exists and Obama was kicked out....... he was deemed illegitimate, unworthy


17 posted on 02/17/2015 5:40:34 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: knarf

Amen.


18 posted on 02/17/2015 5:42:36 AM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: P-Marlowe

Cal Thomas grew up in eschatological, evangelical Christianity. Is he saying something more with “Nero” than meets the eye? He has to know what he’s paralleling.


19 posted on 02/17/2015 5:42:50 AM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Forward the Light Brigade

the pompous sanctimonious self righteous are pleased with themselves. they stuck to their principles...... to hell with America, what I think is all that matters. That is their dogmatic credo


20 posted on 02/17/2015 5:44:25 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson