We certainly can’t say that the President of the United States lacks self-confidence. When asked to grade his performance as President, he gave himself a B+. Can’t imagine what kind of curve he was using to come up with that grade. Obviously our citizen king knows better than we do about, well, everything, so his falling ratings have nothing to do with the great job he’s doing. Got that, fellow citizens? Also, he has the hardest Presidential job ever of any administration, because President Obama had to follow the flawed administration of George W. Bush. There’s no question that President Obama has faced tough challenges, but his reaction to them hasn’t even been close to getting these problems fixed.
Forget about grades. Let’s talk about objectives.
“You don’t get rid of poverty by giving people money.” – P.J. O’Rourke
How about fixing the economy? One way to help with that is to support American businesses by creating conditions that allow American businesses to succeed, prosper, and add critical new jobs for the American people. What has he done about that? Nothing. The stimulus has not gotten the job done, and besides that, I think Bush deserves most of the blame / credit for the end results of the current stimulus package. Instead of rolling back the Bush spending, and spending less taxpayer money, the Obama administration is spending MORE. Odd way to prove your differences from the previous President. While President Bush wasn’t exactly known for his fiscal discipline (which I have pointed out on numerous occasions – look it up), President Obama also knows that there is no money for all of these ambitious programs he plans to implement. There is no money for health care “reform” as he would like to see it, or for the greenies’ fave – cap and trade. You don’t fix an economy by raising taxes on the few productive taxpayers who still have jobs and the employers who supply these jobs. That’s what this administration has in mind. The common phrase we most hear is “taxing the rich”. Well, who exactly is rich? Eventually, the answer will be YOU.
FIXING THE ECONOMY SHOULD BE THE MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITY OF THIS ADMINISTRATION. IT IS NOT.
But maybe I’m being unfair. Maybe the reason President Obama was elected had more to do with his foreign policy views than with his ambitious domestic agenda. Let’s see how he’s progressing with the kinder, gentler America through non-cowboy diplomacy, shall we?
The desirable objective is for our allies to be able to trust us and for our enemies (rogue states, terrorist sympathizers, and similar other bad actors) to fear and respect us. I don’t think this is the perspective of our current President. He doesn’t seem to make the distinction between countries who can be legitimate partners in our struggle against the jihadists, and countries who need to be controlled in their quest for world domination through nuclear power. Without any sticks in sight, the bad actors will continue to be bad actors, because they know the threats of the UN and of the United States are worthless.
The disregard of our allies, especially the Brits, is a glaring mistake when we consider that there are only a few countries left in the the world who share our views on potential nuclear opponents like Iran and North Korea. We need all the support we can get in trying to keep Iran and North Korea from extending their nuclear capability into dangerous weapons that threaten the security of the United States and our allies. President Obama, with all his grand rhetoric about America being a friend to the world, needs to spend more time talking to our allies than proposing grand schemes to single-handedly talk rogue states out of their nuclear ambitions. Right now, our allies don’t trust us. That has more to do with the fluid foreign policy strategy of President Obama, and not as much to do with Bush and the Iraq war.
How are we doing with stopping the bad guys? As far as Iran / North Korea is concerned, it’s a push. But Iran is getting more vocal and belligerent day by day, and at some point, it will be too late to stop them from getting nukes. It may already be too late. North Korea is still out there, although we haven’t heard much from them lately. Afghanistan is still a struggle, and I hope that the additional troops Obama is sending will be enough to get the job done.
Both the left wing and the right wing have reasons to be frustrated with the Obama administration. I just pray that someday there will be enough Americans who disagree with current administration policies that they will vote out the Democrat Congress in 2010 and President Obama in 2012. It can happen. The Republican Party just needs to get its own house in order first.