In historical review, America has a long history of presidents. Some better than others, many more outspoken than their predecessors, some having been extraordinary leaders for their moment in history and others having failed to live up to their presidential capabilities or the people's expectations of the office. During my lifetime, the one president who has stood out as a complete failure in my opinion has been Jimmy Carter. At least until the present holder of the office.
Carter was a complete failure on all measurable scales in my observation. From domestic policy, to foreign policy, to the middle east to the economy and jobs. I once seriously believed that it would be quite difficult for anyone to surpass the poor performance of Carter as a US president, but I was wrong. Barack Obama has surpassed the Carter record and worsened it by far in my estimation and observation.
Obama seems to be a man who wants to rule. Someone who is bored with the day to day mundane requirements of an elected presidency. He seems to me, to be someone who feels more comfortable just giving orders and expecting others to follow them. Barack Obama has demonstrated his record repeatedly of not wanting to be in the crucial decision making loop when the crisis' of his administration have arisen. Some would readily call his actions of inaction as nothing short of plausible deny-ability. If he isn't in the loop or in the Situation room when these decisions are being made by staff and cabinet officers, it affords him the appearance of no direct involvement, should the situation or issue sour with the public.
This may be an agreeable position for Barack Obama, but it is not and agreeable position for the American people and those who look to a president for both leadership and protection from the myriad of threats present in today's world. We saw what happened in Benghazi. The president was nowhere to be found. Decisions were apparently being made by Hilary Clinton and State Department staffers, even to the exclusion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military. As a result, the US Ambassador was murdered by terrorists, along with three other Americans who tried and failed in the face of insurmountable odds, to protect the ambassador and the sovereignty of our embassy in Libya.
The same has been true with every other scandal of this administration. Be it the goings on at the State Department under Hilary Clinton, or the goings on at the IRS under Lois Lerner, or the goings on at the Justice Department under Eric Holder involving the Fast & Furious Scandal, or the Black Panther voter intimation complaints of the last two general elections. In each and every instance, this president has sought to dodge and avoid all involvement in any responsibility for his administration or the actions of those he personally chose to head these vital positions of our government during these crisis'. The question was rightfully asked back during the 2008 campaign: "who do you want taking the phone call at 3 am in the white house?" We now know who isn't taking them.
Barack Obama from any objective review of the last six years, seems far more content to rule by executive order and leave the details of democracy and the balance of powers amongst the three branches of government to liberal pundits and those in the media who regularly report on the arrogance of the white house under Barack Obama as if it were sport. This president may believe that it is safer to step back and away from his presidential responsibility, leaving cabinet officers and white house aides to better fill his purposely created void of leadership, but the people of this nation and the Constitution that he swore an oath to uphold and protect differ.
Former President Harry Truman said it best when he said: "The buck stops here." As did former President Theodore Roosevelt, when he said: "No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it." Truman's poignant observation strikes directly at the heart of the responsibility of presidential office. A sitting president cannot hide behind lack of knowledge or lack of direct involvement in any issue where those in his administration or on his staff have taken an action or failed to take an action. It's not an issue of plausible deny-ability. It is an issue of presidential accountability and responsibility. Watergate and the Nixon presidency clearly stand as evidence to those facts and realities.
The same holds true in the direct observations of President Teddy Roosevelt, when he rightfully assigned accountability to every American at every level, regardless of their individual status as it concerns law. No man is above and no man is below and no man or woman should gain special dispensation from the law, regardless of their position, simply by becoming and office holder. I have a feeling that this is one of many standards of accountability and leadership Barack Obama takes exception to.
Pay no attention to those other two branches of government or to the US Constitution and its requirements of law and rights, this president has gone on record on several issues inferring and stating directly through his press secretary, that "the constitution law professor in the white house disagrees," with both the rulings of the US Supreme Court and the United States Congress.
The most recent action of precedent apparently to be established by this president, is to send prominent members of the white house staff to the funeral of a young man who died during and altercation with police in Ferguson Missouri this month. Aside from already having sent Attorney General Holder to Ferguson to interject Federal jurisdiction into an investigation that has yet to be completed surrounding the death, Barack Obama has now gone a step further by sending members of his staff to attend the funeral. There are many lawyers far more well versed in law than I, who will immediately recognize the chilling effect this type of presidential action and precedent interference unnecessarily creates by these actions. Many Americans may rightfully ask: "what members of the president's staff or cabinet have been sent to attend the funeral or funerals of police officers killed in the line of duty in the last six years.The outright bias and prejudice of this president and those in his administration, like Eric Holder and Lois Lerner and others is palpable and this nation will not long endure the actions of a president who acts more like a ruler than an elected president.
Stay tuned and pay attention to what ultimately happens in Ferguson Mo. as it concerns the death of the young man shot and killed by the police officer he had violently assaulted. There are many others directly involved in this putrid caldron of stirring up trouble. Those involved in direct race baiting of the community are among the most despicable in my observation. Those like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, each of which having called for a rush to judgement in the case and each of which having sought to inflame the racial tensions there and the existing violence and threats of violence. There has also been the presence of Eric Holder in Ferguson Mo. The US Attorney General. A man who obviously is more concerned with standing in solidarity with those of color, than he is is in upholding his office, the principles of due process under the law or his oaths to the US Constitution and all of the people of these Untied States, regardless of color.
Watch closely as our enemies are watching. Those in the leadership roles of Islamic terror are not missing a beat with this president. Those members of ISIS or ISIL or Al Qaeda have called out the US president. They have told him they will kill more US citizens and they have promised a major terrorist attack on a US city. What will be this president's plausible deny-ability then? That he was too focused on the events of Ferguson Missouri? What ever it is, you can count on the fact that Barack Obama will back pedal away from responsibility and accountability faster than Michael Jackson's Moonwalk on his Billie Jean video thirty years ago.
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