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 Beyoncé, 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.
