Let's face it, the toughest job in the free world is just not an entry level position. Mr. Obama's background consisted mainly of academic teaching, community organizing and voting "Present" hundreds of time in the Illinois Legislature. Despite his "Not Ready for Prime Time" posture, I remained hopeful, optimistic even, that as President, Mr. Obama would be an inspirational, unifying leader, bringing our nation together in a post-partisan era of all Americans seeking consensus and fair compromise for the common good. I based my trust in Mr. Obama's leadership prowess (when he was thrust upon the national stage at the 2004 Demo. Convention) on his vow to stop the DC vitriol and bring us all together as one people:
"The pundits like to slice and dice our country into Red States and Blue States
... But I've got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue
States and we don't like federal agents poking through our libraries in the Red
States. There are patriots ...in both the Red and Blue States. We are ONE PEOPLE,
all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United
States of America." Keynote Address; 7/27/04.
That was then, this is now: Yesterday, President Obama on the campaign trail:
"If Latinos sit out the election, instead of saying: 'We're going to punish our enemies
and we're going to reward our friends'. [Republicans] aren't the kind of people
who represent our core American values." 10/25/10 Univision Radio Speech.
I know, as an absolute historical truth, that Richard Nixon earned his designation as the most reviled and mistrusted President in my lifetime because he was a hater, a divisive pol who created the infamous "Enemies List" of people he directed his Administration to punish, corruptly using the IRS, DOJ and other federal agencies to harass his policy opponents.
It is for this reason that I am so disappointed in Mr. Obama's offensive political rhetoric. He is not bringing Americans together in post-partisan unity to confront our mutual challenges. Getting down to the level of Dick "Everyone not supporting me is an Enemy" Nixon was just too retrograde, too inside the Beltway business-as-usual for this "First Citizen of the World" new style American President. Now, u might also have a fuller understanding of my opposition to unfettered Presidential power to terminate with extreme prejudice designated enemies of the state. Just saying...
"
Amen, Brother (in-law)
ReplyDeleteWhen does a blog become a rant? Really, I very much agree that active participation in a democratic campaign can be very rewarding and is , ifact, very helpful in our achieving the liberty and freedom for which our founders strived. On the other hand, it's difficult to separate one form of mindless prosthelatizing from another. I, too, have actively worked for a political candidate in the past. And I certainly understand that negative campaigning works. B ut, honestly, I'm so sick of the negative political ads that have taken over my tv screen. Also, I've received a very negative print ad from Jon Runyan about Adler. Perhaps you stuffed the envelope. I think you should know, in the interest of full disclosure, that I've begun to keep a list of every negative ad I see, hear or read. I intend to vote for the target of every one of those attacks. I This way, perhaps those negative ads won't be nearly as successful. Perhaps candidates will think twice before spending their limited campaign funds on those reprehensible attack ads. I especially like the fact that our elected representatives have exempted political phone calls from the Do Not Call lists. Our phone is on the State and Federal lists, but that hasn't stopped Mr. Runyan from calling here at all hours. He hasn't broken the law.
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