|
A 100-Day Report Card Across the nation, Obama Kool-Aid drinkers in the mainstream media are attempting to put the best possible face on Obama’s first 100 days in office. It’s not an easy task. For example, on Friday, April 24, the Associated Press carried a story by writer Liz Sidoti that is so far removed from reality that it bears closer analysis. In her piece, Ms. Sidoti assures us, "It didn't take long for Barack Obama – for all his youth and inexperience – to get acclimated to his new role as the calming leader of a country in crisis.”
Reality: Yes, Obama has apparently become acclimated to his new role. He has put more miles on Air Force One in just three months than any of his predecessors have in an entire year. If Michelle needed a quart of milk we could expect Obama to fly out to Wisconsin to pick it up. Let’s hope she doesn’t develop a craving for Chinese carryout.
"A calming leader of a country in crisis?” Reality: Where but in Washington, DC would anyone see Obama’s impact as being "calming.” The truth is, as Americans watch his radical agenda unfold they are scared senseless over what this neophyte is doing to the country. They can’t wait until 2010 when they can neuter him with a solidly Republican Congress... as they did with Bill Clinton in 1994. Now that Hastert and Delay are gone, Republicans can be trusted again.
Sidoti quotes Obama as saying, "I feel surprisingly comfortable in the job. The challenges are big, but one thing that I'm absolutely convinced about is that you want to be president when you've got big problems...”
Reality: Yes, it’s easy to feel comfortable when you are narcissistic enough to blame all of your failures on your predecessor, but only a fool would feel "comfortable” in the presidency after just 100 days. It tells us one important thing about Obama, which is that he is not bright enough to understand that he is in way over his head. Only a man of modest intellect and questionable character, who guards his IQ scores as closely as he guards his birth certificate and his college records, would hide behind a false veil made up of criticisms of his predecessor.
Two rules in an article
titled The Blocks to Creative Problem Solving are applicable to
Obama: 1) You simply cannot see clearly if you are controlled by preconceptions, and
2) If you do not understand the problem, then you can’t work on it.
Anyone who has read either or both of Obama’s memoirs understands that Obama’s thought processes are controlled by preconceptions and misconceptions, and that he simply does not understand the problems that face our nation.
Sidoti asserts that, "Obama has applied the same ‘no drama’ leadership and calculated approach to governing that he did to campaigning.” Reality: Obama has stopped campaigning? When? The fact is, people in the Europe, Turkey, Mexico, and Venezuela still have their heads spinning from his latest campaign swing. They’re still trying to figure out if he’s ours or one of theirs.
Sidoti tells us that, "As an audacious candidate, Obama meticulously built a powerhouse organization and fundraising juggernaut to engineer his victory. As a fledgling president, he similarly has mapped out a big-risk agenda that he's methodically begun to execute..."
Reality: Fundraising juggernaut? That’s a kind way of describing a fundraising effort marked by $300-400 million in illegal foreign contributions from sources he refuses to identify. And what about the more than 67,000 individual contributions in odd amounts, such as $735.47, $1,103.97, $886.15, etc. etc.? These are obviously foreign currency conversions, but who are the donors?
Ms. Sidoti is right about one thing... Obama has "mapped out a big-risk agenda.” For example, who in their right mind, in the midst of a worldwide recession, would impose a heavy burden of new taxes on those in the investor class... those who provide the investment capital for plant expansion and job creation? Who in their right mind would, in the midst of a recession, impose heavy new taxes on energy users... the rich, the poor, and the middle class... promising to "drive electricity costs through the ceiling” and to "bankrupt” coal-burning power plants? And who in their right mind, in the midst of a recession, would propose bailing out homeowners who acquired mortgages they could not afford... with tax dollars from those who work hard and who manage their personal finances in a responsible manner?
Reality: No one in their right mind would do any of those things. Nevertheless, Obama is doing ALL of them... and more. They are but a few of the items on Obama’s "big-risk” agenda. The man is more than a fool... he is a dangerous fool.
Ms. Sidoti writes that, "Confident almost to a fault, he could seem aloof, even arrogant at times in the campaign. He's kept that focused attitude in the White House, while exhibiting few flashes of any off-putting, self-important tone.”
Reality: Yep! It must be the absence of a "self-important tone” that causes his staff to schedule a speech or a press conference every day of the week. And it must be his boundless self-confidence that causes his staff to give him a preselected list of reporters to call on at each press conference. And are we to assume that, since Obama is told in advance which journalists to call on, those reporters are not told in advance what questions to ask? We have to wonder.
Sidoti writes, "For the past three months, Obama has spoken in firm, yet soothing tones. Sometimes he has used a ‘just-folks’ approach to identify with economically struggling citizens.” Reality: As a former "community organizer,” Obama is highly skilled in patronizing and talking down to the lower classes... including, of course, those who are Special Olympics contestants.
She continues, "He has struck a statesmanlike stance, calling for a renewed partnership between the United States and its allies.”
Reality: Is that why he gave such cheap gifts to the British royal family and to Prime Minister Gordon Brown? Is that why he insisted that the Brits take back the bust of Winston Churchill that has occupied a place of honor in the Oval Office for so many years? He can call for a "renewed partnership” between the United States and its allies for as long as he likes. Sooner or later he will learn that the "partnership” is going to be exactly what our allies want it to be, not what he wants it to be.
Ms. Sidoti attempts to convince us of Obama’s self-deprecating "contriteness.” Referring to the failed nomination of former Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) as Secretary of HHS, she gives Obama high marks for saying "I screwed up.”
Reality: So why was Daschle tossed under the bus while other senior appointees, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CIA Director Leon Panetta, and a dozen others, all with seriously flawed backgrounds, were allowed to sneak through? Were they not "screw-ups” as well?
Now Obama expects the Senate to confirm Harold Koh as State Department Chief Counsel, a man who once advocated the use of Sharia law in U.S. courts, and Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius as HHS Secretary, a woman who has apparently lied to members of the Senate about the contributions she has received from a notorious partial birth abortion practitioner.
Ms. Sidoti tells us, "Stylistically, this is a careful president who uses a teleprompter even during news conferences...” Reality: Yes, we all understand that Obama was apparently born with a teleprompter growing out of his chest. And it is clear that he cannot speak in more than two or three word phrases unless he is reading from a teleprompter. But is there any truth to the rumor that he uses a teleprompter to sing in the shower? Probably not.
Ms. Sidoti quotes an Associated Press poll which shows that most people in the U.S. consider their new president to be a "strong, ethical leader who is working for change as he promised in his campaign.” Reality: That may be true, but only so long as the people who’ve been "drinking the Kool Aid” haven’t figured out what change he has in mind, and that whatever ethics he has he learned in Chicago politics. When they do, Obama will be a lame duck from that day on.
Ms. Sidoti fails to mention Obama’s role in declassifying top secret CIA memoranda regarding techniques used to extract information from terror suspects... techniques that most U.S. Army and Marine Corps veterans will recognize as part of their daily basic training regimen back in the 1950s and ‘60s. However, she does quote Obama’s Rasputin, David Axelrod, as saying, "I just don't think when you have two wars and an economy in turmoil you want a conflicted president. I think you want a thoughtful president; you want a president who is willing to consider all the options. You also want a confident president, someone who is willing to make decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions, and that is the kind of president he is.” Reality: No, Mr. Axelrod, Barack Obama may claim that he is willing to live with the consequences of his decisions, but that’s not the way it works. It is the American people and all the other nations of the Christian world who will have to live with the consequences of his giving aid and comfort to our enemies during time of war. God help us, one and all. |
