"President Above-It-All"

Rich Lowry:  President Above-It-All

It’s natural, then, that his speech at the National Archives on national security should superficially sound soothing, reasonable, and even a little put-upon (oh, what President Obama has to endure from all those finger-pointing extremists).

 But beneath its surface, the speech — given heavy play in the press as an implicit debate with former Vice President Dick Cheney, who spoke on the same topic at a different venue immediately afterward — revealed something else: a president who has great difficulty admitting error, who can’t discuss the position of his opponents without resorting to rank caricature, and who adopts an off-putting pose of above-it-all self-righteousness.

Obama has reversed himself since becoming president on detaining terrorists indefinitely and on trying them before military commissions. Once upon a time, these policies were blots on our honor; now they are simple necessities. Between the primary and the general election, candidate Obama changed his mind and embraced Pres. George W. Bush’s terrorist-surveillance program. In recent weeks, he countermanded his own Justice Department’s decision not to contest a court decision that would have led to the release of photos of detainee abuse.

A less self-consciously grandiose figure might feel the need to reflect on the fact that his simplistic prior positions had not fully taken account of the difficulties inherent in fighting the War on Terror.  . . . . 

Consider Obama’s breaks with Bush: We have stopped using enhanced interrogation techniques for now, but Obama reserves the right to use them again; we will have military commissions but with four procedural changes; we’re going to close Gitmo but find some equivalent detention facility for that category of detainees who, Obama says, are dangerous but can’t be tried or released. These are matters of degree and therefore questions of prudence, not principle. If Bush violated our fundamental beliefs, then Obama is violating them, too, only a little less so.

Obama's words are almost always sweet and soothing.  He can be quite eloquent and persuasive and completely wrong.  He can be melifluous and yet dangerous in his national security naivete and his socialistic impulses.

Look to his actions.  Look to their results.  Look to the economic and national security shambles the U.S. is rapidly becoming on his watch.

We have an issue with Obama, America.  We have another problem with the Democrats who took control of Congress two years before his election and who have already begun unraveling the previously-unparalleled economic greatness of the United States.

Finally, I have an issue with the voters who elected all of them.  Voters usually get a "pass" in politics.  We direct our ire at the public officials who enact bad laws and policies.  But at some point we have to look at the individuals who put were self-centered enough or naive enough to elect one of the most damaging, country-destroying crop of politicians America has ever seen.

People, what were you thinking?  How much worse will it have to get before you realize that we're headed for the shoals and change course?

Comments

[rrobin]

To all of the many, many patriots here, it's time to please stand up and make your voices HEARD, in every venue in the land. I am going to stand up in church this Sunday and speak, and I am going to ask everyone in church to stand up and speak to everyone they know. Then I am going to visit other churches, and stand up and speak.
We DO have a voice.
We're just not using it.
Don't just sit there and listen this Sunday. Stand up and speak. (No teleprompter needed).
You CAN do it.
PLEASE stand up for God, and stand up for America.
This is an E mail below that I just sent out to everyone I know, all over the country.

First this short video: http://marcorubio.com/

This video is incredible.
I wish he was our president.
That is how a United States president should speak.
We have got to get rid of this muslim usurper, worthless to his very core, and it is becoming more and more evident that he is not even an American citizen, and he is simply intent on destroying our American republic.
If he didn't have to something to hide, after all, why would he spend over a million dollars so far to keep his documents hidden and sealed away??!
That's simply not even common sense.....

A lot of reading, but this man makes it very clear, if you'd like - http://nobarack08.wordpress.com/

Hope you're all doing well.
God loves you.

[Gary]

All very well said. However, I have the gut feeling that all of us who see the truth count for naught. America is on a deep Obamaniacal kool-aid binge and is just hoping the Big Man and his Congressional Henchmen provide lots of freebies (since the Republicans robbed them of their retirement accounts). Most of those who voted for Obama even think that he'll waive his magic wand and say the magic words and health care will be "free." Worse, where is our 21st-century Ronald Reagan with the words and vision to slay this dragon of socialism and un-freedom? We're doomed.