This is what is called preaching to the choir. We only tell those who believe as we do, and that is the reason so many voted as they did in the last election. Sunday on In Touch, Dr. Charles Stanley's program, he had a guest speaker who was more of a historian than a biblical speaker, but he knew historical facts as well as the biblical truths. Dr. David Barton is his name and he is a constitutional lawyer. He was so wonderful on the subject of whether or not the United States were founded as a Christian nation.
Respect the Office? Yes. Respect the Man in the Office? No.
I have noted that many elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, called upon America to unite behind Obama.
Well, I want to make it clear to all who will listen that I AM NOT uniting behind Obama!
I will respect the Office which he holds, and I will acknowledge his abilities as an orator and wordsmith and pray for him, BUT that is it.
I have begun today to see what I can do to make sure that He is a one-term President!
Why am I doing this?
It is because I do not share Obama's vision or Value system for America ; I do not share his Abortion beliefs; I do not share his radical Marxist's concept of re-distributing wealth; I do not share his stated views on raising taxes on those who make $150,000+ (the ceiling has been changed three times since August); I do not share his view that America is Arrogant; I do not share his view that America is not a Christian Nation; I do not share his view that the military should be reduced by 25%; I do not share his view of amnesty and giving more to illegals than American Citizens who need help; I do not share his views on homosexuality and his definition of marriage; I do not share his views that Radical Islam is our friend and Israel is our enemy who should give up any land; I do not share his spiritual beliefs (at least the ones he has made public); I do not share his beliefs on how to re-work the healthcare system in America; I do not share his Strategic views of the Middle East, and certainly do not share his plan to sit down with terrorist regimes such as Iran.
Bottom line, my America is vastly different from Obama's, and I have a higher obligation to my Country and my God to do what is Right!
For eight (8) years, the Liberals in our Society, led by numerous entertainers who would have no platform and no real credibility but for their celebrity status, have attacked President Bush, his family, and his spiritual beliefs!
They have not moved toward the center in their beliefs and their philosophies, and they never came together nor compromised their personal beliefs for the betterment of our Country! They have portrayed my America as a land where everything is tolerated except being intolerant!
They have been a vocal and irreverent minority for years; they have mocked and attacked the very core values so important to the founding and growth of our Country!
They have made every effort to remove the name of God or Jesus Christ from our Society! They have challenged capital punishment, the right to bear firearms, and the most basic principles of our criminal code; they have attacked one of the most fundamental of all Freedoms, the right of free speech! Unite behind Obama? Never!
I am sure many of you who read this think that I am going overboard, but I refuse to retreat one more inch in favor of those whom I believe are the embodiment of Evil!
PRESIDENT BUSH made many mistakes during his Presidency, and I am not sure how history will judge him. However, I believe that he weighed his decisions in light of the long established Judeo-Christian principles of our Founding Fathers!!!
Majority rules in America , and I will honor the concept; however, I will fight with all of my power to be a voice in opposition to Obama and "his goals for America ."
I am going to be a thorn in the side of those who, if left unchecked, will destroy our Country!! Any more compromise is more defeat! I pray that the results of this election will wake up many who have sat on the sidelines and allowed the Socialist-Marxist anti-God crowd to slowly change so much of what has been good in America !
"Error of Opinion may be tolerated where Reason is left free to combat it." ~ Thomas Jefferson
God bless you and God bless our Country!!! (Please, please, please. Pass this on if you agree.)
Thanks for your time, be safe. "In God We Trust."
'If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.' ~ Ronald Reagan
Assuming you go back 100 years I am with you. But if you really want to get somewhere you better vote for Obama again and for every freaking liberal new deal guy/ gal out there. You don't want anyone with a brain on the ticket until this **** is crumbled down to nothing.
I saw a bumper sticker today and I couldn't believe my eyes. This is what it said..... "Rednecks for Obama" "The working man votes for the man working for the working man"
Well said Norm, I couldnt agree with you more.....
I want my country back as well. I want the whole way of life back. I want my bread and circus. lol.
It is all going to change and nothing can be done. I dont think enough could unite for our cause...
I just pray, I pray every day and every opportunity I pray. NO ONE will take God from my life and I pitty the one who tries. dustin
Not to discourage or disparage prayer, but I'd like to suggest something even more powerful you should be sure you do...VOTE! Send them a message in 2010 and 2012.
In July I wrote a commentary titled, “Electing a Moron” and cited a number of actions by President Obama that were already raising questions about his judgment.
Since then nearly a million people showed up in Washington, D.C. on September 12 to let the President and Congress know they really, really hate Obamacare and the newly renamed “Cap-and-Trade” bill which now has an even more stupid title having something to do with “reducing pollution that contributes to global warming.”
Sen. Kerry said he didn’t understand what cap-and-trade was, but for his information it is about the sale of “carbon credits”, currently selling for about a dime each as the market for them has disappeared due to a decade of cooling temperatures on planet Earth. This moron once ran for president. The less said about his choice for the vice president slot, the better.
One might think that was a low point for the Democrat Party in its choice of candidates, but no, they selected a mystery man named Barack Hussein Obama who actually won the presidency in 2008. He promised “hope and change”, but was a tad vague about what we should be hoping for and what the change would be.
Americans were mostly hoping to get a quick end to a recession brought on by years of congressional meddling in the nation’s mortgage market; mostly by encouraging loans to people who could not afford them. Don’t blame Wall Street. They were just being the greedy bastards they have always been. What Americans got, however, was a huge bill filled with pork and passed off as a “stimulus” to the economy.
It is one thing for Americans to criticize their president, but you have to begin to really worry when the media and leaders of foreign countries begin to coalesce around the generally held view that he is an idiot.
We share a planet with these people and their opinions shape their decisions whether to throw their lot in with America or to play ball with others while protecting their own interests.
One of Great Britain’s most widely read columnists is Melanie Phillips who writes for The Spectator. In a recent column titled “Who does he think he’s kidding?” Ms. Phillips noted that “On Wednesday Barack Obama addressed the UN. If this was supposed to be a triumphal projection of the wonders of his foreign policy, his timing was singularly unfortunate. It was as if he had unveiled his shiny new bus after the wheels had come off and the engine had fallen out.”
Noting that Obama was elected primarily as the anti-Bush, she characterized his foreign policy as “Swords would be beaten into plowshares, genocidal lunatics would swap recipes and holiday snaps with their erstwhile victims and there would be peace on earth and the brotherhood of man. But we can see that everywhere Obama has applied this policy approach it has failed, humiliating America by revealing it to be weak, incompetent and naïve to the point of imbecility, and thus strengthening the enemies of America and the free world.”
A September 28 edition of The Pioneer, a New Delhi, India newspaper, lamented that “He may not relish the comparison, but it is now becoming increasingly obvious that Mr. Barack Obama is the most hostile American President for India since Richard Nixon.” It gets worse. “There has been a remarkable absence of clarity on Mr. Obama’s strategic goals. In the early months, it was easy to pretend he was making up his mind. Now, it would seem he has no mind.”
It is no secret that French president Nicolas Sarkozy regards President Obama as a lightweight when it comes to international affairs. No doubt the leaders of Russia have concluded that Obama can be rolled, given his withdrawal of a missile defense system from Poland and the Czech Republic. The Israelis, from the top down, regard him as the first U.S. president in history who is genuinely hostile to their defense and indifferent to the growing threat from Iran.
While western nations like Germany and, soon, Great Britain are abandoning the socialist model, President Stupid, aided by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, is desperately trying to convert America into a socialist nation, transferring all power to the federal government.
I could take you on a world tour of media who all express the same misgivings about Obama. It is abundantly evident that the only newspapers that think Obama is the greatest thing since sliced bread and canned beer are those in America. And some of them are beginning to have doubts.
The car wreck called Obamacare has managed to divide his own political party and the renamed Cap-and-Trade bill will contribute further to that, along with the growing tsunami of fear among Americans that he is a dithering idiot.
As this is being written, Obama still has just over 1,200 days ahead in office. Just over a year from now when the midterm elections are held, the only hope for the nation is an electoral transition of power in Congress to the Republican Party.
Meanwhile, President Stupid will continue to lay waste to the national economy, stymie our need for more energy resources, encourage the nation’s enemies, and stimulate worldwide derision as he stumbles from one speech to another in a vain effort to make up his mind.
It’s not that long ago that former President George W. Bush was being characterized as a dimwit. In truth, because he was not a smooth talker, he often came across as less than a deep thinker. I am not sure the job requires a deep thinker because those who fit that description often turned out to be a disaster. The job’s best description is “leader.”
It is important to remember that the decade in which Bush served was one of consumer confidence, a healthy economy, marred initially by 9/11 and later by the decision to invade Iraq and depose a vicious despot who had warred with Iran and invaded Kuwait. Many Americans grew tired of the war and the subsequent occupation.
Only at the very end of Bush’s term, September 2008, did the nation suddenly encounter the financial turmoil that the mortgage “bubble” generated. It was long in coming and fearful in its immediate consequences. Congress voted a $700 billion bailout program for banks and insurance companies.
Candidate Obama had almost nothing to say about the crisis, but all during the campaign the mainstream media kept telling us that he had a giant IQ. He had already written two books even if both were about himself.
And, yes, he had taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, but few on the faculty have any recall of him. Indeed, his college transcripts, as well as his birth certificate, are all still carefully hidden from public view.
So we have only the last six months by which to judge him by his actions. A delightful blog by Theo Sparks has posted two lists demonstrating that just over half the voters in 2008 elected a moron.
So far on Obama’s watch:
He has doubled the national debt.
Announced the termination of the space defense system the day after the North Koreans launched an ICBM.
Against the advice and urgings for his own CIA director and the prior four directors, he released information on intelligence gathering.
Announced that he would close Guantanamo without having any idea what to do with its detainees, all of whom are hard-core jihadists. Several of those released have since returned to the terrorist trade.
Spent a lot of time in foreign nations apologizing for things about which most Americans take pride.
Told Mexicans that the violence in their country was our fault because some of the guns they use to kill each other had been purchased in the U.S.
Appointed an Attorney General who orchestrated the forced removal and return to Cuba of a nine-year-old whose mother died to give him a life of freedom in America.
Caused panic in New York by authorizing the flight of Air Force One over New York for a photo you can purchase with Photo Shop for less than a dollar. The flight cost $400.000.
Told the Iranian protesters in the streets of Tehran that the U.S. would not “meddle” in the affairs of their nation, but did not hesitate to tell the Prime Minister of Israel that his nation had to stop building new settlements to house its growing population.
Initiated the nationalization of the U.S. auto industry and gave a lot of money to insurance giant AIG without any pre-conditions.
Intends to nationalize the health insurance industry.
Is pushing a Cap-and-Trade bill that would be the largest tax in the history of the nation.
When the Honduran Supreme Court deposed a communist president, he sided, along with Cuba’s Raul Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, with the exiled president.
President Obama, a former community organizer, claimed through a spokesperson that he was unaware of the initial nationwide “tea party” tax protests involving thousands. On July 4, an estimated million Americans participated in still more protests coast to coast.
Among his choice of friends, he was unaware that he started his political career in the living room of a former domestic terrorist, a member of the Weather Underground.
He was unaware that the pastor of the church he attended for twenty years was a racist who hates America.
He was unaware that his own aunt was living in the U.S. illegally or that his brother lives on pennies a day in a hut in Kenya.
Among his first choices for cabinet positions, he was unaware that he nominated a man to be Secretary of Commerce who was under investigation in a bribery scandal.
He was unaware that his choice for Secretary of Treasury was a tax cheat. Indeed, he was unaware that several of his top choices fit that description.
As President and the representative of the American people, he managed to offend the Queen of England, insult the British people by returning a bust of Winston Churchill, and make a deep bow to the King of Saudi Arabia, something no President in history has ever done before any monarch.
It is evident to all that President Obama is (a) incapable of delivering any kind of speech without the use of a TelePrompter and (b) incapable of answering any question from a member of the press in under ten minutes’ time.
So what do we know about the people who voted for him? According the Rasmussen Consumer Index, among Democrats confidence is up from 53.7 a year ago to 79.5 this year. Among Republicans, it has dropped from 99.4 last year to 68.6 today,
Democrats apparently think the economy has improved despite the loss of more than 2.5 million jobs in the first quarter of 2009. Under Obama, the U.S. unemployment rate has risen from 7.6 to 9.5%, the highest in 26 years.
To put it another way, the U.S. has lost 16,000 jobs each day since Democrats passed a multi-billion dollar “stimulus” bill. The nation’s Gross Domestic Product fell at 5.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
The stock market is down 3,000 points from a year ago.
This means that Democrats, voters and members of Congress, are either deluded and/or as moronic as the man they elected President.
The only justification for the debacle the President has offered thus far has been to blame everything on George W. Bush.
Meanwhile, his Vice President is candidly telling anyone who will listen that the geniuses Obama selected to advise him are clueless, having failed to grasp the gravity of the situation or offer solutions other than those that will put more people out of work, raise taxes, increase inflation, and further bankrupt a bankrupt nation.
How do I know it’s bankrupt? Because President Obama is on record saying, “We’re out of money.”
This means that Democrats, voters and members of Congress, are either deluded and/or as moronic as the man they elected President.
This is the real problem. They will not face reality because they "won". They refuse to listen to anything negative about their elected leader and representatives. He might as well move them all to Guyana and call himself Jim Jones. His followers have had their fill of Kool Aid and refuse to see the truth. No matter how bad it is they just don't care and they won't do anything to remedy this. Trying to get them to see the error of their ways only angers them and makes them do more harm.
[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 10-26-2009).]
Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson.
In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China.
George Bush Jr didn't fail so much as he was perceived to have been too much of a patrician while being uncomfortable with his more conservative allies. Yet George Bush Sr is still perceived as a man of uncommon decency, loyal to the enduring American character of rugged self-determination, free markets, and generosity. George W will eventually be treated more kindly by historians as one whose potential was squashed by his own compromise of conservative principles, in some ways repeating the mistakes of his father, while ignoring many lessons in executive leadership he should have learned at Harvard Business School. Of course George W could never quite overcome being dogged from the outset by half of the nation convinced he was electorally illegitimate -- thus aiding the resurgence of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.
But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?
No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.
But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task-- all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.
In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."
Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.
Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.
[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 10-27-2009).]
Delusion is in the air, as media supporters of Presidnet Obama grapple with his accumulating record of failure.
"With problems for the president in Afghanistan, health care and unemployment, some critics on both the left and right are asking: Is the president essentially ‘too nice' to make the important decisions?"
That is how David Kerley of ABC News opens his recent piece titled, "Is Obama ‘Too Nice' to Make Tough Decisions?"
You've got to love it when liberals use the words "some critics," or "critics say," to voice what they believe without substantiation. Please tell us Mr. Kerley, which critics on the right are asking whether the President is "too nice" to make important decisions?
If critics on the right are asking such a misguided question, then they, like Mr. Kerley do not know the real Barack Obama. And, inasmuch as ABC News failed to vet Candidate Obama we would not expect the organization to know much about Obama beyond the shiny narrative.
Just a few days before the 2008 presidential election, Tom Brokaw appeared on the Charlie Rose show. Here's a brief excerpt:
Rose: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.
Brokaw: No, I don't either.
Rose: And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?
Brokaw: You know that's an interesting question. . . . I don't know what books he's read.
Rose: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
Brokaw: There's a lot about him we don't know.
Not to worry though. Our esteemed journalists knew that Obama was the perfect candidate. They knew he read a mean teleprompter. They knew he looked good and had a good looking family. They knew he had a nice looking smile. They knew he was black and was the one to make history.
He seemed like a really nice guy.
If they had done their homework, however, they would have known that Obama was a Chicago-machine politician who had used bare-knuckles tactics against his opponents.
Apparently, Kerley still doesn't know how Obama began his political career. No, I'm not referring to Obama's fundraiser for state senate in the home of former United States terrorist and present-day radical, Bill Ayers.
I'm referring to the manner in which Obama won his first election. Alice Palmer had been an Illinois state senator since 1991. In 1995 a U.S. congressional seat had become available and Ms. Palmer tossed her hat into the special election race. Barack Obama endorsed Palmer for Congress and she blessed him with an endorsement for the state seat she would leave open.
It was a simple plan: Palmer would go on to Washington and Obama would fill her seat in Illinois. The only problem was that Jesse Jackson Jr. would enter the congressional race and outspend Palmer almost two to one. After losing her congressional run, Palmer assumed that Obama would step aside and allow his elder to resume her post unchallenged.
But Barack Obama had no plans of stepping aside. That wasn't the not-so-nice part. He certainly was entitled to stay in the Democratic primary. Convicted fraud artist, Tony Rezko raised over $15,000 for Obama's campaign. That wasn't the mean part either -- though it was a little slimy. The not-so-nice part of Obama's election victory was his treatment of Palmer. Obama had Palmer disqualified from the primary.
David Freddoso reports in his book, "The Case Against Barack Obama," that Palmer collected nearly 1,600 petition signatures to get back on the ballot for reelection and submitted them well ahead of the deadline.
But rather than leaving the outcome to the voters, Obama decided to take the matter into his own hands. He decided to use Chicago hardball tactics against Palmer. Obama had his team painstakingly examine each of the 1,580 signatures, searching for technicalities. Freddoso writes:
One by one, Obama's ‘petitions guru' [Ronald Davis] disqualified Palmer's signatures for one reason or another. According to one local newspaper at the time: ‘Some of the problems include printing registered voters name [sic] instead of writing, a female voter got married after she registered to vote and signed her maiden name, registered voters signed the petitions but don't live in the 13th district.'
At the end of the day, Obama disqualified enough signatures to kick Palmer out of the race. "While they were at it," notes Freddoso, "Obama's campaign got the other three candidates disqualified as well."
Learning about the real Obama shatters the media-created image of Obama in an instant. Maybe, that's why our brave journalists close their eyes, plug their ears and utter, "la, la, la, la." Gee, Charlie, there's a lot about him we don't know.
In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Kerley, Obama doesn't tolerate opposition well. His treatment of Palmer is sort of consistent with his treatment of his current opponents. I can think of words to describe Obama, like controlling and authoritarian. But nice doesn't come to mind; unless you're only looking at the polished image.
Remember some of Obama's first words to his opponents just three days after taking office. "I won," announced Obama, "I will trump you on that [the so-called stimulus bill]." In the same meeting the new president also warned Republicans about listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Brad O'Leary predicted before the election that a President Obama would effectively tell traditional Americans to "sit down, shut up, and pay the bills." Well, he was close. Mr. Obama would actually say in August of 2009, that, "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess."
I don't think Obama was very nice in trying to ram through over a thousand pages of unread health care law before the congressional break back in August. And, I'm not seeing the niceness in the way Obama responded to his critics. Initially, he characterized their honest dissent as "chatter." He vowed to pass health care anyway, even before anyone had read the "bill," including himself. Then his administration turned to calling the bill-reading, town hall protesters spiteful names. And, lastly Obama resorted to characterizing his opponents as liars, before a joint session of Congress.
Mr. Obama seems to have quite an enemies list. The latest target of the disqualification machine is Fox News. Rather than engage in transparent debate, the name calling has begun, with David Axelrod childishly maligning Fox as "not really a news station." And Obama's dictatorial attempt to ban Fox News from the White House Press Pool just might be the serendipitous eye-opener for many journalists in the "mainstream" media.
Mr. Obama's indecisiveness on certain issues may be explained by any number of factors; but I don't believe being "too nice" is one of them.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13 (see trends).
Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove.
October 29, 8:57 AM - Investments Examiner - Nancy Tengler
I have been watching the U.S. markets and the economy for 25 years. And I can tell you with confidence: There is no such thing as a recovery when unemployment is rising. I can also tell you that over those twenty-five years (during which I managed billions of dollars) never have I seen a media so determined to call an end to a recession only to declare with the next bit of economic news that the so and so indicator "unexpectedly" came in below expectations...Unexpected? Only to the wishing-on-a-star crowd.
Look at the chart attached. It is a government chart that shows unemployment registering 7.5% in January of this year. That is the unemployment number (among other things) that prompted Mr. O to declare the worst recession since the Great Depression. We were advised that Congress must pass the economic stimulus package to the tune of some $870 billion dollars to ensure that unemployment not rise above 8%. Well, nine short months later we are hovering at 10% and rising. Stimulus of the sort the Obama Administration (and Bush before him) has advocated and employed obviously does not work.
Now, take today's GDP number. Hip, hip hooray. The Gross Domestic Product rose by a seasonally adjusted 3.5% - greater than expectations. Why? Because consumer spending rose 3.4% during the third quarter and added 2.4% to overall growth. Why? Because the Cash for Clunkers program borrowed demand from the future by incenting consumers to make car purchases during the quarter. What has happened since then? Auto sales have fallen off a cliff. This will happen every time sales are managed through government programs that borrow demand from the future. Look at the housing market if you need further confirmation. There is one thing that is certain from today's report. The consumer is critical to GDP growth. And without jobs consumer won't sustain spending.
Here is one prediction you can take to the bank: Until the Obama Administration embraces fiscal responsibility, which includes reigned in spending and tax cuts to incent true growth, the end to this recession will continue to surprise the economically naive.
As Fort Hood Tragedy Unfolds, Obama Is Politician in Chief http://www.newsmax.com/fran...09/11/06/282652.html [QUOTE]Former Vice President Dick Cheney was castigated widely when he declared two weeks ago that Barack Obama was “dithering” with respect to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s urgent request for the dispatch of additional troops to Afghanistan.
President Obama’s astonishing response to the murderous attack at Fort Hood suggests the commander in chief is not merely a ditherer, but someone who reflexively subordinates national security to political considerations.
I appeared Thursday night on Lars Larson's terrific nationally syndicated talk radio program. He pointed out something probably missed by those who did not catch in real-time the president’s first public comments on the Fort Hood attack in which 13 members of the armed forces were killed and more than 30 others wounded. Mr. Obama delivered them during a previously scheduled appearance at the White House “Tribal Nations Conference.”
Lars remarked that, as the Nation and the world waited to hear the President’s response to this horrific incident — what light he could shed on who did it and the motive, as well, of course, as an expression on behalf of all Americans of sympathy and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones — the commander in chief’s focus was elsewhere.
From the outset and for fully two minutes, Mr. Obama did what he does best: He pandered to a special interest of political value to him and his agenda. In this case, the panderees were Native Americans. Following is what the president felt compelled to say before he got around to addressing the act of home-grown terror at one of America’s most important military installations, according to the White House transcript,.
“Let me first of all just thank [Interior Secretary] Ken [Salazar] and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, so I wanted to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor [actually, Dr. Crow received the Presidential Medal of Freedom] winner. It’s good to see you. (Applause.)
“My understanding is that you had an extremely productive conference. I want to thank all of you for coming and for your efforts, and I want to give you my solemn guarantee that this is not the end of a process but a beginning of a process, and that we are going to follow up. (Applause.) We are going to follow up. Every single member of my team understands that this is a top priority for us. I want you to know that, as I said this morning, this is not something that we just give lip service to. And we are going to keep on working with you to make sure that the first Americans get the best possible chances in life in a way that's consistent with your extraordinary traditions and culture and values.
“Now, I have to say, though, that beyond that, I plan to make some broader remarks about the challenges that lay ahead for Native Americans, as well as collaboration with our administration, but. . . ”
It was only at that point, roughly half-way into his remarks, that Mr. Obama finally turned to what he called “a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.” He then proceeded to take about the same amount of time to note that the details were not fully known but that “a number of American soldiers have been killed, and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence.” He sympathized and promised to keep those lost and harmed and their loved ones in “our thoughts and prayers.”
(When Lars Larson pointed out this extraordinary sequence of presidential comments, my immediate reaction was to hearken back to the relatively few seconds it took George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001, to internalize and respond to the first news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
(Michael Moore's virulently anti-Bush film “Fahrenheit 911” damningly transformed that brief moment in a Florida classroom into an agonizingly protracted period of indecision and cynical calculation. I mused on air whether Moore and his ilk would now find similar fault with The One, whose initial public reaction to the Fort Hood attack made W’s to 9/11 seem a model of swift decisiveness, even though the former had had several hours to take aboard reports of the attack and to decide how to address it. Fat chance.)
Then, with a final pandering promise — “I am confident that this [conference] is going to be resulting in terrific work between this government and your governments in the weeks, the months, and years to come” — the commander in chief was off to his next pressing engagement.
Perhaps the president publicly handled this attack as he did because he was unsettled by the fact that the alleged shooter is a devout Muslim, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who evidently adheres to the theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls “Shariah.”
Now, Shariah requires its adherents to engage in jihad — the imposition of Islam, by force wherever possible. This reality was characteristically obscured by Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood front and unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism financing conspiracy.
During a news conference, he preposterously declared: “No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence.”
Actually, Shariah not only justifies such violence but also demands it.
To cite but one example of the requirement for individual Muslims to wage jihad, Shariah expert Andrew Bostom observes that the influential Ottoman cleric, Sheikh Shawish, wrote in 1915:
“To whoever kills even one single infidel of those who rule over Islamic lands, either secretly or openly, there is a reward like a reward from all the living ones of the Islamic world. And let every individual of the Muslims in whatever place they may be, take upon him an oath to kill at least three of four of the ruling infidels, enemies of Allah, and enemies of the religion. He must take upon him this oath before Allah Most High, expecting his reward from Allah alone, and let the Muslim be confident, if there be to him no other good deed than this, nevertheless he will prosper in the day of judgment and we ask the Most High to extend the People of the Faith by the favor of their Lord.”
In short, the Fort Hood “outburst of violence” (to use the president’s formulation), looks like the first successful incident of jihadist mass murder in America since 9/11. This could not be a message happily conveyed by a chief executive committed to “outreach to the Muslim world” and so deprecating of his predecessor, who had managed for seven years to prevent such incidents here in America.
Whatever Mr. Obama’s motivation for his conduct Thursday, it provides an important insight into the inadequacies of his wartime leadership. However much he tries to cloak his administration’s protracted dithering over Afghanistan with a laudable determination to “get the decision right,” however much he denies the toxic reality of Shariah and both the violent and stealthy jihad it requires, this president’s preoccupation with politics — and, in particular, with currying favor with his base — seems an integral part of his genetic code.
Unfortunately, to the extent such a hard-wiring interferes with, or at least takes precedence over, his responsibilities as commander in chief, the lives of more Americans — probably civilian, as well as military — are likely to be lost unnecessarily, at home and abroad.
The president does not plan to travel to Germany to attend the 20th anniversary celebration Monday of the fall of the Berlin Wall, drawing heated criticism from those who say he's ignoring a shining triumph of American-inspired democracy.
President Obama squeezed in a trip to Copenhagen last month to lobby, unsuccessfully, for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. He plans to travel to Oslo next month to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that even Obama has said he does not deserve. And this coming week, he sets out on a weeklong tour of Asia.
But the president does not plan to travel to Germany to attend the 20th anniversary celebration Monday of the fall of the Berlin Wall, drawing heated criticism from those who say he's ignoring a shining triumph of American-inspired democracy.
"A tragedy," is how former House Speaker Newt Gingrich described Obama's absence.
RELATED LINKS Clinton: Berlin Wall Anniversary a Reminder of Threats Some question whether the decision not to go was a nod to Russia, with which the Obama administration is trying to mend relations, or just another attempt to play down the perception of the United States as an exceptional superpower.
For its part, the administration is citing a scheduling conflict. The White House says the president simply does not have the time to go, with the trip to Asia starting Wednesday.
"Obviously we have a lot to work on here and we have commitments for an upcoming Asia trip," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday, noting that a "very senior delegation" of U.S. officials would attend.
That delegation is led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who traveled to Berlin Sunday ahead of the festivities -- the first stop for the secretary on a trip through Europe and Asia.
Obama acknowledged the anniversary of the fall of the wall last week during his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"We are now moving towards the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down and Germany being reunified after so many painful years," Obama said. "And this is a special moment for Chancellor Merkel, as somebody who grew up in East Germany, who understands what it's like to be under the shadow of a dictatorial regime, and to see how freedom has bloomed in Germany, how it has become the centerpiece for a extraordinarily strong European Union."
He said the U.S.-Germany alliance is an "extraordinary pillar of the transatlantic relationship."
But some saw Obama's decision not to travel personally to Berlin as a snub to Merkel, Germany and the history behind the anniversary.
"Barack Is Too Busy," Germany's Der Spiegel magazine declared in a headline last month, writing that Obama had declined Merkel's invitation.
While Obama has traveled to Germany since taking office, he has not as president traveled to Berlin -- the site of his major speech in July 2008 during his overseas campaign tour. During that speech, he acknowledged Berlin's struggle, saying, "This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom."
Why then, critics asked, would the U.S. president not revisit that site to mark the culmination of that dream? After all, he has established himself as an intrepid traveler in office, setting off on a slew of overseas trips during his first 10 months on the job.
On several of the stops he has expressed regret for past American behavior, but the Berlin Wall anniversary was seen as an opportunity for the president to honor an American and Western victory for which the U.S. need feel no regret.
"It is a true shame that the president of the United States -- this man who cloaks himself in the rhetoric of hope -- won't be pausing to remember," Gingrich wrote in a column last week in The Washington Examiner.
The National Review's Rich Lowry wrote that the decision speaks to Obama's "dismissive view of the Cold War as a relic distorting our thinking."
"John F. Kennedy famously told Berliners, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.' On the 20th anniversary of the last century's most stirring triumph of freedom, Obama is telling them, 'Ich bin beschaftigt' -- i.e., I'm busy," he wrote. "Obama's failure to go to Berlin is the most telling nonevent of his presidency. It's hard to imagine any other American president eschewing the occasion."
Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens’s election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”
Wow. Here's some incredible irony. From this article
"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that she is concerned about Afghanistan's "corruption, lack of transparency, poor governance (and) absence of the rule of law."
Hello I read today that he is thinking of using TARP funds to offset the deficiet, now isnt that like getting a second loan from the same bank to help pay of your first loan from. Is this crazy or what!
Obama administration is dodging the real meaning behind the Fort Hood massacre. http://www.newsmax.com/news...al&promo_code=90D7-1 "Regarding the in-depth probe being called for by members of Congress, Morris declared: "I think we clearly need a probe. But I think what we need is an attitude adjustment, where we stop vilifying those who are trying to defend us and stop bending over backwards to accord every kind of sensitivity and presumption of innocence to those who are trying to attack us and kill us."
[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 11-12-2009).]
Hello I read today that he is thinking of using TARP funds to offset the deficiet, now isnt that like getting a second loan from the same bank to help pay of your first loan from. Is this crazy or what!
Yup. Obama is using his credit card to pay of Pelosi's, but both are federal government issued cards.
Ya think Obama will not go to the wall is because Reagan will have to be mentioned, and that would be too much for this socialist to bear. Sorry for having put Bear and Obama in the same sentence. Damn, did it twice.
George W. Bush will go down in history as the worst president if the history of the United States of America.
Laying aside the question of whether Bush deserves such a designation, Obama isn't finished yet. If the things he wants, such as National Health Care and Cap and Tax pass, and the negative ramifications of both are felt, Obama will almost certainly take the title of worst ever.
Obama is in the lead as worst president ever for the "little" he has done so far. His trippling of the national debt in 9 months, the government take over of banks, car companies, and now the attempted take over of our healthcare system is going to be hard to top by any past or future president. It's seems he and his cronnies are intent on destroying America, the constitution, and burdening many future generations with the bill for this mess. Read my fourth reply, on this page above, for further details on why he is going to be the worst president ever.
[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 11-13-2009).]
George W. Bush will go down in history as the worst president if the history of the United States of America.
Hello not to be rude, but youre getting off the track in this thread. Though if you wish to start a new thread with that as youre title Im sure you will have a better response. Thanks Norm
Hello I didnt write this though I wish I had. The only item that is not correct is thatt it was legal for him to travel to Pakistan at that time with a US passport, just not recommended.
Saturday 14 November By thomasHighest Rank --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This takes a few minutes to read, but you will be astounded when you see all of these facts in one document.. Please take time to read it and then pass it on..
A brilliant summation regarding the great mystery of WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?
By Joe Crews and Harvey Wysong Wednesday, July 8, 2009 “It is a great pity when the one who should be the head figure is a mere figure head.” -- Charles H. Spurgeon
Barack Obama is less of a person than an image — a brand. People see whatever they want as they do on a Rorschach test. But does anyone really know him?
In fact, he is: An empty suit. A man with no birth certificate. A man who was deserted in childhood by his biological father. A man whose birth records, both in the United States and Kenya , are sealed by government order.
A man whose childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, spied on U.S. military installations in Hawaii for the Soviet Union, edited a communist newspaper, authored pornographic novels, and wrote poetry in praise of Joseph Stalin. A man mentored by and still supported by radical Muslims. A man who promised transparency in government, but has spent over a million dollars in legal fees hiding information that would determine his eligibility to be President. A former drug user. A man whose academic records are sealed from kindergarten through law school. A man who arrived in New York in June of 1981 without enough money to get a hotel room, but one month later flew to Indonesia and Pakistan . Why did he go? Who paid his expenses? A man who traveled to Pakistan when it was illegal for U.S. citizens to do so. So what country’s passport did he use?
A man whose Law School Admission Test scores and grades at Columbia University are known to have been mediocre, but was admitted to Harvard Law School through the intervention of a Saudi named Khalid al-Mansour. A law review editor who never published an article in any law review. A lawyer with no significant accomplishments in the law and no reputation in the legal community. A former State and U.S. Senator, who never authored a piece of legislation. A disciple of the Marxist Saul Alinsky. A product of the Chicago political machine—the most corrupt political organization in America .
A man who selects Marxists, corrupt politicians, and criminals as his close political associates and personal friends. A man whose presidential candidacy was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, the Socialist International, and the Workers International League. A man lauded for the literary brilliance of two memoirs, both of which were ghostwritten by others. A so-called Christian who says that knowing when human life begins is “above his pay-grade,” but somehow knows that abortion is permissible at any stage.
A man who thinks “waterboarding” is immoral, but that partial-birth abortion is moral.
A man who publicly laments slavery in America—which was abolished 150 years ago—but praises Islam, which still practices both slavery and the sexual mutilation of young girls. A man who speaks endlessly about helping the less fortunate, but gives almost none of his sizeable income to charity—not even to his half-brother, who is living in squalor in Kenya. A man who had the most left-wing voting record in the United State Senate, but was predicted by the press to “govern from the middle.”
A man who has never created a job, met a payroll, or even operated a lemonade stand, but wants to tell Detroit how to make cars. A President who has never before served as an executive in either the private or the public sector. A Commander-in-Chief who doesn’t know how to shoot a rifle, throw a hand-grenade, drive a tank, fly a plane, or con a ship. A Commander-in-Chief who has publicly divulged some of our nation’s most important intelligence secrets.
A man who has been put in charge of the largest economic engine that ever existed, but has never invested in the stock market and admits total ignorance of it. A President who says that science will guide his administration, but has no education in the sciences.
A man who is proficient in reading what is written for him on a teleprompter, but jerks and stammers his way through any off-the-cuff speaking. A man whose health records are sealed from childhood to the present day. A man whose educational records are sealed from childhood through law school.
A man who spent 20 years in a church whose pastor espouses Marxist Liberation Theology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Semitism, but claims he never heard his pastor utter anti-American, and anti-Semitic statements. A man who added more to the National Debt in 100 days than all other Presidents did in the past 220 years, yet feels qualified to lecture Americans about “fiscal responsibility”.
A man who publicly expressed disdain for the U.S. Constitution on a Chicago radio station because it limited the government’s ability to “redistribute wealth.” The first American President to bow before a foreign head of state—a Muslim dictator. A man who sits and listens submissively while his country is castigated by Daniel Ortega—a Communist thug whose own daughter accused him of raping her.
A narcissist who gave the Queen of England a20present from the United States --an iPod containing recordings of his own speeches. A so-called Christian who officially declared “Pride Month” for a lifestyle that the Bible calls an abomination. A man who wanted Americans to ignore his Muslim name during his election campaign, yet boasts of his Muslim name when he travels to Muslim countries.
A man who can name hundreds of America ’s shortcomings, yet none of its great accomplishments. A President who claims the moral high ground by closing Gitmo yet supports the transfer of terror suspects to countries where horrific torture is certain.
A President who scoffed at being called a socialist yet acted to nationalize the auto industry, the banking industry, and the insurance industry . . . and now seeks to nationalize the healthcare industry. A President who violates private property rights, the sanctity of contracts, and the rule of law—three essential principles that go back over a thousand years in the Common Law tradition. A man who promised 95% of all Americans a tax cut, but is increasing taxes on 100% of the population through inflation—the cruelest tax of all.
A lawyer who represented ACORN—an organization now indicted in several states for voter fraud—whose stated goal is to get as many people on welfare as possible in order to destroy our financial system. A President who cheated GM’s bondholders by giving their property to the UAW in a political payoff. A n American President who frequently criticizes his own country when speaking in foreign countries, but never praises America ’s generosity, goodness or greatness.
A President whose Secretary of the Treasury cheated on his taxes—as did several other appointees and advisors. A President who, despite the current federal debt of 100 trillion dollars, wants to add the greatest debt ever by nationalizing healthcare. A President who scoffs at being called a socialist, yet has appointed 28 “Czars” to circumvent constitutional government, including: A “Science Czar” who has advocated compulsory abortions for American women and the “surrender of sovereignty” to a “comprehensive Planetary Regime.”
A self-professed communist as his “Green Jobs Czar”. A “Pay Czar” to regulate the pay of corporate executives. A President who swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic,”yet has nominated a domestic enemy of the Constitution to the Supreme Court. A President whose Homeland Security Chief classified pro-lifers, veterans, and supporters of traditional marriage as terrorists.
A President who stood silent while the Iranian government hacked unarmed protestors to death with axes, because it was an internal matter, but freely offers his opinions about the internal affairs of Israel and Honduras. A President who decreed that true acts of terrorism must now be described as “man-made disasters.” A President who cracks hurtful jokes about Special Olympians. A President who refused to intercept or inspect a North Korean ship virtually certain to be carrying Weapons of Mass Destruction to Burma.
A President who wants to cancel all missile defenses while rogue nations are developing long-range ballistic missiles. An American President who blames the violence in Mexico on America . A Commander in Chief who claims to have been unaware that Air Force One was taken on a terrifying, low-level photo-op over Manhattan
A President who berates American CEO’s for flying in private planes at private expense on company business, but whose wife spends hundreds of housands tax payer dollars flying to Paris for a shopping spree. A President who promised a transparent administration, but requires all questions be screened before “impromptu” appearances. A man who freely admitted that his energy policies are designed to bankrupt the American coal industry.
A President who has presided over the loss of 14.7 million jobs and whose “energy policy” will cause the loss of another 1 million jobs. A President whose “energy policy” will increase the average American’s utility bills by over $2,000 a year in the middle of the Great Recession. A man about whom liberal journalist Tom Brokaw said, “There’s a lot about him we don’t know,” just one week before the election.
The vast majority of Americans do not know who he is, but someone surely does. Someone paid for his travel expenses to Pakistan and Indonesia . Someone engineered legal challenges to all of his election opponents for the State Senate and had them disqualified. Someone straightened and leveled his path to the U.S. Senate when a Democrat Judge made public the child custody records of his Republican opponent. When he was a candidate for the U.S. Senate, someone arranged for him to speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Someone saw to it that all of his records were sealed, both at home and abroad. Someone assembled the massive organization
I used to have a friend with a few screws loose. But you'd never know it.
Barbara dressed impeccably in designer wear, and her house resembled a museum. She was a professor, tops in her field.
But behind the impressive image, all wasn't right. She said she loved her son, Noah, but acted like he didn't exist. A single parent, Barbara wouldn't hesitate to introduce Noah to her boyfriend of the month. She skipped some of his meals, claiming that she was too busy to cook.
Barbara called me her best friend. But she'd cancel dates at the last minute for no good reason. And she always flaked when I needed her.
Even though Barbara looked perfectly normal, there was something awry. Perhaps the neurons in her brain weren't firing properly.
I've been thinking about Barbara since Obama came on the scene. Like Barbara, Obama professes concern for people, but treats many with utter disregard. Since both are charismatic and successful, it's easy to get fooled.
Some would say Obama's cool detachment is narcissism. But narcissists are charmers; they know exactly what to say and do, even it's all hot air.
Others think that Obama is disengaged because he's elitist, arrogant. The day-to-day grunt-work is beneath him. His motto: I'd rather be golfing.
All of the above may be true, but it's something else: he seems off to me.
During a "60 Minutes" interview with Steve Kroft when the stock market was sinking, Obama giggled. He wasn't embarrassed afterward, or apologetic. More worrisome than his bizarre behavior was that he didn't regard it as strange.
Then, last week, we're faced with a national crisis: soldiers killed and gravely injured by an apparent Jihadist in the guise of a military doctor. When announcing the catastrophe, what does Obama do?
He drones on and on for three minutes about Native American health issues, even doing a shout-out. In a monotone voice, Obama then reports that soldiers have been shot. He's nonchalant, flat, as though he's reporting the weather.
Afterwards, the opinions roll in. Some say that Obama looks down on the military. He views our soldiers as the great unwashed, trashy and ignorant, like Sarah Palin.
Others assert that Obama's sympathies lie with the Muslims. Thus, he wants to avoid our burning questions: Why wasn't Major Hasan put on leave after he made anti-American remarks and surfed the web for information about Jihad? Most importantly: what is the government going to do to keep our military people and civilians safe?
True, Obama's disinterest could be related to all of the above. But there's one more possibility: he may not have the foggiest idea what to feel or say or do.
He may not realize that after dozens of our soldiers are shot, he should be angry. Sad. Worried. He should feel something. Or at least pretend to.
When Obama isn't prepped and rehearsed, he flails around like a blind man. He's clueless, lost in space.
Obama wrote in his autobiography, Dreams From My Father, that he's not comfortable around people. This speaks volumes about his disengagement.
People who cannot relate to humans, who are made nervous by close proximity, shut down. They isolate and hide, like a snail inside its shell.
This is when my therapist mind goes into overdrive trying to figure out what's wrong with Obama.
Is he schizoid (a detached, asocial person)? Bipolar (manic depression)? Does he have a brain syndrome? What about Asperger's (high-functioning autism causing a defect in social skills)?
Is something wrong medically -- a hormone or blood-sugar imbalance, a head injury, too many drugs in his youth?
Or is his disconnect caused by damage from childhood, from being raised by freaky people?
Barack, Sr. was an abusive alcoholic and a bigamist. Obama's mother, like my former friend Barbara, made decisions about little Barry that showed little parental concern, like schlepping him to Indonesia, then back to the States, then wanting to return with him to Indonesia (he stayed with his grandparents).
Obama's grandfather Stanley was impulsive and volatile; he was expelled from high school for punching his principal.
Stanley weirdly named Obama's mother "Stanley" because he wanted a boy. He anointed Frank Marshall Davis, an alleged pedophile and avowed communist, as young Barry's mentor. In his autobiography, Obama reports feeling uncomfortable at having to listen to sexually charged, drunken trash-talk between Stanley and Frank.
Did Obama start sealing himself off in childhood? It would be understandable: who would want to bond with people so disturbing? And why form emotional ties when you'll soon be leaving?
Obama may have felt continually out of place and alien: black in a white family, American in Indonesia, middle class with average grades at a rich kids' prep school, and child of an odd, Communist-leaning family.
In Dreams, he reveals how he started detaching. About living with his grandparents from preteen on, he writes, "I was to live with strangers." And: "I'd arrived at an unspoken pact with my grandparents; I could live with them and they'd leave me alone so long as I kept my troubles out of sight."
All grown up, Obama remains hermetically sealed. Although he's been a media star for a couple of years, we have no idea who he is inside.
I've often wondered why people haven't come forth to say, "I knew Barry when..." We live in a media-saturated, exhibitionist world where everyone wants his three minutes of fame.
So where are all of his school chums, best friends, and old flames? The groups he hung with? His teachers, neighbors?
Where are the anecdotes of what Obama was like, his interests and predilections? Was he friendly, funny, insightful? Did he win any prizes or trophies? Pen any papers?
Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review. Yet from his former colleagues we find no accounts of putting out the journal together under his leadership.
He was a lecturer on constitutional law. Why hasn't a single student come forth and offered evidence like a good attorney?
Why the silence? Could it be that Obama left no dent, not even a single footprint? Is there nothing there?
When I envision the youth of other public figures, my impressions are vivid:
Little Bill Clinton: people-pleaser, Mama's boy, showoff.
Young Hillary: brainiac, smartest girl in school, bossy.
W: wisecracker, class clown, smart-aleck.
McCain: impetuous, volatile, ornery.
Sarah: sweet, popular, every teacher's favorite, Miss Congeniality.
Young Barry: _________________. Blank.
Only this: stranger in a strange land.
Obama's identity seems to have been formed when he found his clan: Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, and Bernadine Dohrn. But these are disconnected people, misfits who aren't comfortable in their own skin. Their radical ideology arises from rage and alienation.
They, like Obama, treat people with disdain. Rev. Wright damned us after 9/11. Ayers and Dohrn bombed us, even masterminded a failed plot to kill U.S. servicemen attending a dance.
Obama's indifference and distaste are on display every day. He golfs while unemployment surges. He pontificates after an attack against America.
Why the "let them eat cake" attitude? Is it because he's pleased that the Left's long-laid plan to decimate capitalism is working nicely? Is he stubborn, not wanting to do what he doesn't want to do?
I'd say yes. But there's something much more unsettling.
He may have a limited ability to care.
Sure, Obama loves his wife, children, dog Bo, and himself -- especially himself. And he relishes his far left ideology.
But the working stiff, the heart and soul of this country? I don't see it. The United States? I don't think so.
And that's why Obama should never have been elected president.
A man or woman can be a decent president without getting As in school or graduating from the Ivy League. He or she does not need to have had a Brady Bunch childhood.
The person can even lack experience if he or she is committed to working 24/7, learning the important stuff, and seeking expert advice.
But there's one requirement that is nonnegotiable: Any viable candidate for president needs to be able to care about us.
And, frankly, I don't know if this president is capable of it.
