Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Obama's Bumps in the Road

Obama’s Bumps in the Road
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
October 9, 2012

Following his unmitigated audacity of referring to the September 11 terrorist murders of US Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three of his patriotic colleagues as “a bump in the road,” Barack Obama et al denied terrorism was the root cause then went on an excuse-laden rant for his poor performance in the October 3rd presidential debate with Gov. Mitt Romney.

Even after UN Ambassador Susan Rice and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who should both be fired, denied the murders of Stevens, Air Force veteran Sean Smith, and Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods was the work of terrorists for more than two weeks, mounting evidence proved otherwise. In fact, Rice appeared on five Sunday morning news programs with the same party line practically verbatim, that the murders were the product of a reaction to an anti-Muslim video – a video for which Obama repeatedly apologized.

Gov. Romney immediately called the horrific murders disgusting and the work of terrorists to a cacophony of criticism from both the media and the administration accusing the GOP presidential hopeful of shooting first and asking questions later, when instead, it was Romney who looked  presidential, while Obama steadfastly asserted it was too soon to determine the cause. Wrong, Mr. Obama. Was this merely a bump in Obama’s road?

And just where was Obama on September 11 and 12, the day of and after the Libyan atrocities? Campaigning and fundraising in Las Vegas instead of returning to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where he belonged at least giving a symbolic show of leadership. No sense of urgency by Obama and on the wrong side. Another bump in Obama’s road?

How about the cover up? Called Benghazi-gate and condemned by the likes of CNN and liberal talk show stalwart Jon Stewart and compared to Richard M. Nixon’s Watergate, it is important to remember in Watergate that while Nixon lied, in Benghazi-gate, Obama lied and people died. In fact, it has been proven that not only was the security for Stevens et al “substandard” according to US Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Committee on Intelligence, and an administration admission, the pullback of security required a Clinton sign-off. Certainly, this is more than a bump in the road, by leaving the ambassador and his colleagues out to dry, or in this case, die.

(Simultaneously, it should be noted that Obama confidant, Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor and assistant for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, receives taxpayer-funded Secret Service protection. Why?)

What about Obama’s fledgling debate performance? That was the unvarnished Obama – alone, unscripted, sans teleprompter – his true unremarkable self. His debate presentation was easily predictable, and not because of anything suggested by the political pundits – liberal or conservative. Nor could it be chalked up to Romney’s stellar performance.

No, it was Obama’s own words on October 2nd, one day prior to that fateful first debate. While visiting campaign call center Obama volunteered to make a few calls of his own – no doubt a real treat for the lucky recipients – yes, really.

Yet, it was during one of those phone calls Obama admitted his disdain for the labors of the job. “They’re making me do my homework,” Obama said to one call recipient referring to debate preparation. “It’s a drag,” Obama then responded to the person with whom he was speaking.

This is classic Obama – disengaged – enjoying the trappings of the office, but not the daily grind. I genuinely wish Obama well in his future career endeavors beginning January 20, 2013, be it in entertainment, as a radio talk host, or lecturer at the University of Chicago, but for now as Commander in Chief, he must face up to his own bumps in the road.

During the first debate Romney noted a friend of his said Obama is fond of picking winners and losers. Romney corrected his friend, saying Obama just likes to pick losers.

Clearly Obama would rather spend time with BeyoncĂ©, Jay Z, David Letterman and other so-called A-listers instead of the diplomatic duties of meeting with heads of state. Following his UN speech in September, Obama met with exactly zero foreign leaders – 13 fewer than the previous year. Couple that with his personal snub of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as a clear lack of a sense of urgency where the fate of the Jewish state hangs in the balance as the Islamic Republic of Iran continues forging ahead in its quest to secure nuclear capabilities and weaponry.

Obama, as usual, on the wrong side of most issues, remains unconvinced that a nuclear Iran would follow through on its promise to “wipe Israel off the map,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has oft-repeated. The flip side of Obama snubbing Netanyahu is Obama bowing before Saudi princes and making his first foreign trip to Egypt while still not setting foot in Israel. Obama’s relationship with Israel has been less than tepid, at best – the worst relations between the two nations since Israel’s founding in 1948.

Additionally, Obama could not have been more wrong when in May 2011, during a speech before the State Department, he suggested Israel return to its borders prior to the Six Day War in 1967 when Israel was attacked by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Having defeated their attackers, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights. (www.breitbart.com) Returning to the 1967 borders would make Israel indefensible, demonstrating Obama’s ignorance and lack of concern for the nation he downgraded to “an ally in the Middle East,” instead of the previously referred to “greatest ally in the Middle East.” More than a bump in the road, this was a calculated slap in the face of Israel by Obama.

Conversely, while continuing to err on the side of wrong, Obama supported the ousting of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi with no plans for the future of either nation in place. What happened? Both countries and others in Northern Africa and Western Asia imploded and have been ablaze. No American is safe in those countries or Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. Granted Mubarak and Gaddafi were never going to win humanitarian of the year awards, but better the devil you know. They kept the peace at home. Again, Obama chose the losing side, as he did by allowing the slaughter of tens of thousands of Syrians by their own leader Bashar al-Assad to go unabated.

Calling the November 5, 2009 Fort Hood terrorist shootings of more than 40 and the murders of 13 Americans by US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan “work place violence” seriously demonstrates Obama’s disconnect with the reality of the age of terror in which we live, both domestically and abroad. A bump in the road or typical Obama ambivalence and an attempt to sanitize a massacre with politically correct euphemisms?

Killing Osama bin Laden – great. Taking personal acclaim for it – totally a loser idea for Obama. You didn’t kill bin Laden, and while you’re at it, don’t rest upon your laurel – yes, just one – for although bin Laden is dead, al Qaeda is alive and well, as are the Taliban. This is more than just a bump in the road – it’s a tactless lack of leadership.

Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder – one of the worst in American history – are clearly on the losing side of the Operation Fast and Furious gun scandal – a scandal that put American guns in the hands of Mexican drug lords and were since turned on US border patrol agents. This is the much investigated scandal by Congress that caused the murder of border patrol agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010 at Peck Canyon, Santa Cruz County, AZ, 11 miles short of the Mexican border.

Two more border agents were shot on Tuesday, October 2nd five miles north of the Mexican border near Naco, AZ, southeast of Tucson – one fatally – Nicholas Ivie. Ivie, 30, and the other agent, since released from the hospital, responded to an alarm signifying smugglers were in the area. Just another bump in the road? Seems the bumps in Obama’s road are American corpses.

Obama’s mandate coopting healthcare, unpopular with the majority of American citizens, is being shoved down our throats with a tax should the rank and file not capitulate. While counting bodies, the number of deaths attributed to Obama’s continuing scheme of total governmental control over Americans’ lives and the usurping of our freedoms, remains to be seen.

That the government continues issuing exemptions from Obamacare and that insuring millions more people caused the hiring of 16,000 IRS agents and not more doctors, demonstrates the failing of this program to come. With Obamacare, is the mandate requiring any business with 50 or more fulltime employees to cover them with health insurance.

Companies like Darden, parent company of Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Lone Star Steakhouse is fighting back by hiring more part-time employees. This has the unintended consequences of slowing down the economic recovery because fewer people will be employed fulltime and more people will remain underemployed. Once again, the bump in Obama’s road is paved with disaster.

Obama’s continuing commandeering of our freedoms is part of his socialist, redistribution of our wealth, lack of American exceptionalism that will plunge this nation into Third World status – a status that will be deleterious to the entire world. Labeling Obama is not just bombastic hyperbole.

Without American wealth who will provide food and medication to African nations? Especially AIDs medication. Or earthquake relief to Haiti? Or tsunami relief to Japan and other Asian nations? Poor countries and debtor nations cannot easily be humanitarian. Are the poor nations of the world bumps in Obama’s road? Certainly a losing proposition.

Bailouts and redistribution of wealth are intrinsically supportive of losers. Failing companies should simply fade away. Did the country go into apoplectic shock when Oldsmobile closed their doors? No. Other automobiles took its place. How are sales of 8-tracks these days? Some new invention comes along to replace the antiquated or failed business. Propping up a failing business only prolongs its misery. It is temporary help. If people are not buying a product, go back to the drawing board. Failure is the mother of invention. It’s the American way – trial and error, not trial and bailout. Government bailouts, a loser idea supported by Obama and another bump in his road.

“We celebrate success and we ultimately find out who we are in failure.” Those words were spoken by baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. on September 6 at a Camden Yards’ ceremony unveiling his statue in Baltimore. There is nothing political about Ripken or his words, but they ring true in all walks of life.

Success is to be celebrated, not condemned or chided or ridiculed, yet that is the common ploy of the Obama administration in its continuing goal of dividing the nation and playing class warfare. Taking the side of condemning success and seeking to destroy it with increased taxes and more regulation limiting people’s ability to succeed is a bump in Obama’s road that will lead to further economic disaster.

Wealth redistribution is just as harmful – it takes money out of the hands of the productive and puts it – albeit temporarily – into the hands of the non-productive. The productive see their efforts “rewarded” by fiat of penalty – continuously told to pay their fair share. The top 10 percent of earners pay more than 70 percent of the taxes, and the bottom 47 percent pay nothing.

Clearly this is unsustainable and the productive may decide to become less productive. Once their wealth is redistributed to the slothful, and it is spent, it is gone – the slothful still unproductive. Another loser idea supported by Obama and more than just a bump in his road as the economy will continue to falter.

Other Obama bumps in the road include the billions of taxpayer dollars sunk into Solyndra, Tesla, Fisker and other failed green businesses. This is a clear case of Obama picking losers and losing taxpayer dollars in the process. Ever hear of Ener1? Beacon Power? Abound Solar? Amonix Solar? Spectra Watt? Eastern Energy? All went bankrupt after Obama’s and taxpayer’s support. All losers not reported by a complicit left-wing media protecting their choice for president since he announced his candidacy in 2007 after serving fewer than a mere 150 days in the US Senate. Bumps in the road? Yes; paid for by the American people to the tune of more than $90 billion.

And while on the subject of energy, Obama unilaterally rejected the Keystone Pipeline that would have put thousands of Americans back to work and help break the cycle of energy dependence upon the Arab and Muslim nation’s oil cartels. Again, Obama chose the losing side of this issue to the detriment of the American workers. Add to the mix, the Obama administration constant condemnation of the coal industry, also to the disadvantage of the out of work coal miners.

Moving from the Obama Energy Department to his Justice Department, both he and AG Holder have campaigned vigorously against photo identification for all voters claiming such a requirement would disenfranchise minority voters. Not only is this absurd and a loser idea, this bump in the road has been smoothed over by the Supreme Court upholding Indiana’s voter ID law in 2008 – Crawford et al. v. Marion County Election Board et al.

The Indiana case can be coupled with the Justice Department with Holder at the forefront supporting the voter intimidation perpetrated by the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia during the 2008 election. Not only are Obama and Holder picking the losers here, this is a major bump in the road for Obama claiming to be the post-racial president, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Obama picked the wrong side of the Wisconsin recall election, supporting Tom Barrett over incumbent Scott Walker in June. Likewise, Obama picked wrong by his silence during the Chicago teachers’ strike in September by not siding with his former chief of staff and Mayor Rahm Emanuel wishing to quash the strike. Two losers.

Mandating the Catholic Church and its supportive institutions such as schools, hospitals and charities to fall prey to Obamacare in violation of the separation of church-state protections is a major loser idea supported by Obama – a bump in the road of Constitutional proportions.

The United States cannot continue down this path of surrendered rights and freedoms, capitulation to presidential edicts and executive orders unaccountable to the people. It is neither fiscally sound nor constitutional. Obama’s schemes and machinations to forever corrupt American ideals and convert a democratic-republican, capitalist nation into a racially divided, class divided socialist country beholden to government from womb to tomb must cease immediately.

Obama’s bumps in the road are leading him down his own road to perdition. Join me in making this administration a one-term proposition this November 6. Under a Romney administration the bumps in the road can be smoothed over by a leader with the experience in both the public and private sectors, understands the Constitution and appreciates the greatness and exceptionalism that is the United States of America.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.