| Current Poll |
Are you keeping your New Year's resolutions?
View Results
|
|
Story Archives: An unqualified president?
- 2013 - 334 articles
- 2012 - 1160 articles
- 2011 - 1177 articles
- 2010 - 810 articles
- 2009 - 779 articles
- 2008 - 949 articles
|
An unqualified president?
Last fall more people voted for Barack Hussein Obama than any other presidential candidate in the history of the Republic.
At the same time, a record number of people said they believed Obama was not qualified to serve as president. That was according to polling conducted near Election Day 2008.
Qualified or not, Obama took the oath of office Tuesday to serve as the 44th president of the United States of America. He took the oath amid an era of great economic uncertainty, and he took over as commander in chief with our nation embroiled in a war on terror on at least two fronts—Afghanistan and Iraq. Meanwhile, the Israelis recently flexed their muscles in their most recent run-in with militant Muslim extremists, reminding us the Middle East is as volatile as it was shortly after the United States recognized Israel as a state some 61 years ago. Harry Truman, a Democrat like Obama, was president then.
When Obama kicked off his presidential bid in January 2007, he stressed change was needed in America. More specific, he touted "Change We Can Believe In," for whatever that means.
At the very least, we were told so-called rich Americans would be expected to pay more taxes under an Obama administration. The oil and gas industry would face a windfall tax. "Green," or living in an environmentally friendly manner, would be chic. And the money generated by the higher taxes the so-called rich forked over would be passed around to people who hadn't earned it. Spread the wealth comes to mind. Welfare, or a government handout, sounds more accurate.
American troops would be pulled out of Iraq as soon as possible, Obama told us, abandoning a commitment the United States made to the region some six years ago. Obama also hinted the federal government would embark upon a vast spending spree to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, though he offered not one scintilla of information on how our government would pay for it. Not one. Not even higher taxes levied on so-called rich Americans. Remember, that money—in Obama's world—would be handed to people who had not earned it.
Something occurred along the way, though, that changed Obama's tune. In other words, most of the promises Obama made on the campaign trail disappeared not long after Election Day in November, including all of that talk about soaking the so-called rich.
It probably had something to do with the state of the economy in America. It's in bad shape thanks to a mortgage banking industry "gone wild" and a free-spending Congress that threw caution to the wind long ago. And raising taxes in the midst of a recession is not a wise thing to do.
Yet, Obama maintains he has the answer for our economic ills. His answer entails driving the country, including every man, woman and child, deeper into debt, spending some $800 billion on everything from highway construction projects to installing broadband Internet in public schools. In the meantime, the specter of another bailout for the banking industry looms large.
Even the richest, most successful man in the world, Warren Buffett, who Obama says is his friend, could not offer an opinion on whether the $800-billion "Obama Deal" would serve as a catalyst to reenergize the nation's economy. He answered "I don't know" when asked if the "Obama Deal" was what the country needed. What does that tell us?
It tells me the "Obama Deal" is nothing but a tool the new president will use to lay the groundwork for his re-election campaign in 2012, creating an atmosphere, or a mindset, that Obama's government lifted the country out of an economic paralysis.
That's exactly the intent of the "Obama Deal," though the die-hard Obamaites will never acknowledge or admit it. After all, weren't they left out of the loop for the past eight years?
Still, Obama is the president of United States.
If he governs in the spirit of the promises he made as of late, I hope he fails miserably. If Obama is successful otherwise, I'll be the first one to applaud the most unqualified man ever to hold the office of the president.
|
|
|