PC Obama Wrong on Ebola

PC Obama Wrong on Ebola

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

October 24, 2014

Once again, Barack Obama’s myopic fecklessness has put Americans in harm’s way. This is not a race issue. This is not a public relations issue. Instead this is a health issue that knows no bounds, does not discriminate amongst the races or genders, and has no cure.

Obama could have done the right thing – the same thing that 30 African nations did; the same thing that countless other countries did – ban travel to the United States from West Africa, the home of the latest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

With the latest revelation that Dr. Craig Spencer, working with Doctors Without Borders, returned to the United States and had been wandering around the Hamilton Heights section of New York City in recent days is the latest victim of Ebola, now more than ever it is incumbent upon Obama to take action – real action.

Spencer had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea. Make no mistake, Spencer is selfless for his actions as a doctor, putting others before himself, but as a doctor he should have known better than to return to the United States and inflict himself among the general population of this nation’s largest city – or anywhere else for that matter.

Spencer is now the fourth person in the United States to contract the deadly virus, putting potentially hundreds of thousands, if not more in a precarious health situation. This could have been prevented had Obama not taken the politically correct path – a path well worn out by now, and shut the doors to all those traveling to the United States from West Africa.

Obama should have taken the advice of US Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) who wisely suggested, on the heels of Obama’s refusal to institute the travel ban, that those traveling to the United States from countries such as Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone be automatically quarantined for the 21 day period prescribed by the CDC. People exhibiting symptoms of the virus would either get better or die – a short menu when there is no cure. This is precisely what happened to Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan. “Ebola symptoms can take up to 21 days to appear — a dormancy period that allowed Duncan to enter the U.S. undetected. Ebola patients are not contagious until symptoms arise.” (www.thehill.com 10/09/14)

Calls for travel bans are bi-partisan, reaching across the aisle as among those speaking out include two Democrats from Florida. Senator Bill Nelson and US Rep. Dennis Ross both called for travel bans.

"My constituents and I do not want to begin the venture of quarantining those living in our country. Unfortunately, by allowing travel to and from countries that have been infected with this deadly virus, we could be heading in that direction. This is the only way to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the United States and its citizens is preserved," Ross said. (www.thehill.com 10/09/14)

Obama initially said it is “unlikely anyone with Ebola will reach our shores,” on September 16. A month later his sentiments were echoed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who after Spencer was identified as an Ebola carrier, said, “There’s no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed.” Yet the bowling alley Spencer patronized this week has been shut down.

There is a difference between being “cautiously optimistic,” as Obama declared himself, versus simply being blinded by political correctness and not wanting to offend the African nations in question. At one point the Obama administration determined the economic cost to the African countries would be too great were a travel ban imposed. If it’s a choice between their money or our lives, there is no contest. (It’s the latter, Mr. Obama, in case you needed a hint.)

Wake up, Mr. Obama, this is a life and death situation and if 30 African countries can impose travel restrictions, so can the United States – a nation that should be leading, not following. But this is a typically tepid Obama reaction. Reactive, once again, not proactive. This is not leading from behind, as Obama famously likes to claim, it is simply being behind. Obama is not leader of the world, in spite of what he and his genuflecting acolytes like to believe. He is supposed to be leader of the United States and looking out for what is best for the American people.

Lead by leading, Mr. Obama. Impose the travel ban. Require all those exhibiting symptoms of Ebola be quarantined for the 21 day period as recommended by the CDC and demonstrate that you give a damn about the American people – for once.

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

This IS War, Mr. Obama

This IS War, Mr. Obama

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

September 3, 2014

Semantics be damned, Mr. Obama, this is WAR. You and that twit of a spokesperson at the State Department Jen Psaki can tap dance all day long about how you won’t assign labels, but to paraphrase a scene from the hilarious film Blazing Saddles, labels, we don’t need no stinkin’ labels.

ISIS is lopping off heads at a rate faster than you can get back to the golf course after a vacation speech where you feign concern over whatever crisis you are ignoring, Mr. Obama. Yes, Mr., not President, as I respect the office of president far too much to sully it by referring to you in that title. First James Foley, and now Steven Sotloff – American journalists who put themselves in harm’s way to ensure the world knew what dastardly, barbaric deeds the enemies of decency were perpetrating.

And as ISIS continues marching toward its goal of a global Islamic caliphate, you, Mr. Obama continue to dither and stick your finger in the air to determine which way the wind is blowing while fecklessly announcing to the world that “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but we don’t have a strategy yet.”

Obama’s idiotic admission to the world brings to mind another brilliant cinematic quote when Vito Corleone told his oldest son, the hotheaded Santino in The Godfather, “Never tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking.” Obama is no Sonny Corleone; sadly, Obama is more reminiscent of Fredo, a useless lounge lizard of a family traitor who can barely accomplish the simplest of tasks. What Obama did accomplish is returning to the golf course and attending numerous fundraisers.

And while Obama continues to glide emotionless through his second term in office, the national leader acting most like an actual world leader is Great Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron raised the terror threat level to “severe,” the second highest in the UK and he returned home from holiday, unlike his American counterpart, who remained on Martha’s Vineyard and did not cut short his vacation.

Cameron then issued a statement about ISIS that did not mince words. We “must confront it [at] home and abroad – and defeat it at its source,” calling Muslim extremism and terrorism a “poisonous ideology pre-dating 9/11.” Its roots even predate the Barbary Wars of 1801-05 during the Jefferson administration and 1815 during the Madison administration, as well as the Crusades spanning the eighth through 15^th centuries.

That same day all Obama could muster was his announcement of a need for a strategy. Two weeks later, Obama, while in Estonia, could not even manage to offer a consistent plan within the same speech. First Obama said it was necessary to “degrade and destroy ISIS,” then backtracked mere sentences later indicating the need to make this “a manageable problem.”

Obama called for bringing the ISIS murderers to justice. Justice should be nothing less than a bullet to the head. There is only one way to deal with ISIS, ISIL, Hamas, or any other terrorist outlet, Mr. Obama, and that is to take Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) advice – “Kill them.” US Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) said he will introduce a bill authorizing the use of force.

This is not a partisan issue. Florida Senator Bill Nelson (D) supports giving Obama the tools by which to destroy ISIS and there are strong words from Vice President Joe Biden who said, “We will follow them to the gates of Hell… because Hell is where they will reside.” For once, Joe being Joe is a good thing! Lawmakers are demanding a clearly defined strategy in combating ISIS sooner rather than later.

ISIS is a terrorist organization making al-Qaeda look like a Boy Scout troop. If a hand of peace or friendship is extended to them, they will not only cut it off, but then slap you with the bloody stump. This is not a group with which to negotiate as their end goal is a Muslim caliphate including Sharia Law and hordes of dead Christians, Jews, and other so-called infidels.

Cameron is leading with confidence while Obama isn’t even leading from behind as he oft claims he will do. Obama is not leading, and he is most definitely behind, as this administration has had more than a year to generate a battle strategy. Obama, and by proxy, the United States, is a disrespected laughing stock on the world stage. Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McInerny said that Obama’s inaction and lack of a clear strategy is “approaching dereliction of duty.”

Where are leaders like Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan? Neither that Democrat nor that Republican would take any crap and were presidents of action.  Action that would restore the United States to its rightful place in the global arena as a leader to be feared and respected as well as one that could be counted upon by its allies in times of distress. We are beyond the point of distress, Mr. Obama. Man up and do your job.

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

What Southern Border?

What Southern Border?
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

June 13, 2014

The confluence of just some of Barack Obama’s failings – Obamacare, the Veterans Administration scandal, and now the tens of thousands of children teeming across the southern border of this country, illegally, now held in refugee-like conditions are actually related as part of Obama’s pledge during his 2008 campaign to fundamentally change the United States of America.

This administration is pledging $2 billion to help the thousands and thousands of children who have no legal right to be in the United States – including legal aid to help what many in the so-called mainstream media are calling “young immigrants,” as if they were somehow forced by this country to come here.

Being held in deplorable conditions in places like Nogales, AZ and McAllen, TX where border agents are now being used as intake human resource administrators instead of doing their job, which, as it is, is damn near impossible as the resources they need have been sliced and diced as if by a Ginsu Knife ®, the children are both economic and political pawns in a dangerous chess game that can only be lost by all involved.

Illegal aliens, because the term undocumented immigrants suggests they have a right to be in the United States, but simply forgot to fill out some form, do not have legal standing in this country, yet Attorney General Eric Holder is undertaking a precedent-setting course of action to treat these people as welcome residents.

“We’re taking a historic step to strengthen our justice system and protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society,” said Holder. Holder seems to have forgotten a little something called the rule of law. One would think the highest ranking attorney in this country would understand and uphold the laws of the land – this land – the United States; not Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, or any other country whose children have come here for purposes unknown.

Giving rights to the illegals does not strengthen the American justice system. It weakens it by delivering the message that those who can sneak into the United States can make their way through the legal system with the hopes of remaining in this country, claiming sanctuary in some form or another. And what rights are we protecting? Holder said we are protecting the rights of these children here illegally.

This current flood of unaccompanied children in the United States illegally has reached nearly 50,000, with predictions of another 50,000 before year end. This is a product of Obama’s open borders belief. While not saying he supports open borders, his actions have certainly spoken more loudly by the cuts made in border patrol agents.

Such an influx of unaccompanied minors will only lead to parents and other relatives clamoring for entrance into the United States to be with and claims to support their children. But in reality, they are coming here for the entitlements they know they can steal from the taxpayers of this country – both citizen and legal resident alike. Free education, but they won’t learn English – they’ll demand to be taught in their native language; food stamps they did not earn; welfare which they also did not earn; and of course medical care.

Doctors are being sent to the border, when instead they should be sent to every VA hospital in these United States to provide the long overdue medical care and attention the brave men and women who don the uniform of this country putting their lives on the line every day deserve – immediately. The disastrous way our veterans are being treated, or mistreated, is simply a microcosm of the abomination that is Obamacare.

Instead, what Obama should be sending to the border is the National Guard to rein in the chaos and havoc being wreaked by those who have no legal right to be here – a concept that can’t be stressed enough. These children, who somehow got to the United States, can certainly go back.

This is an issue that should not be emotional, but logical and pertaining to the rule of law. Those who cross the border without permission are here illegally, have broken the law, and must be returned to their country of origin. Yet, by nature of the fact that these are unaccompanied children, it becomes an emotional issue as painted by the far left media. The American people are seeing pictures of what look like Third World refugee camps in the Middle East, but are actually in the American Southwest, and yes, they not only tug, but yank at the heartstrings. How could they not?

But the United States cannot, should not, absorb any or all of these children. Yes, it is a sad story, but there is still the rule of law. Allowing the children will ultimately set a poor precedent for permitting their parents or other relatives to add to the welfare rolls, compete for jobs when unemployment continues to remain over 10 percent when considering those who have removed themselves from the job hunt.

The economic ramifications will be severe as greater job loss will be incurred, demands for entitlements will soar, further crowding will occur in hospitals, and schools as demands for free breakfast and lunch becomes even more costly than it already is. There will also be the health risks. We don’t know what infestations these children are bring across the border and how that will affect the children with whom they interact in the schools and elsewhere.

This administration will never deport these children; for they are the political pawns alluded to earlier. They will eventually be absorbed with their families, as Obama’s lawlessness will become a unilateral and illegal granting of amnesty for this current crop of invaders along with the other 12 to 20 million already in the United States. Those granted amnesty will eventually become voters pledging their allegiance to the Democrats, who would loyally vote for candidates who forever keep them as a permanent underclass with the promises of entitlement and cradle to grave government care.

The emotionality of this issue must be removed and the rule of law enforced. Those here illegally must be fingerprinted, photographed, and sent home – yes, deported. There it is – the dirty magic word – deportation. This is not the 1930s and 1940s Nazi-era-style deportation. Under the Nazis, millions of legal Jewish citizens were deported to concentrations camps leading to certain slaughter. They had not invaded any country seeking entitlements and unearned benefits, as this crop of illegals is doing.

We, the law abiding citizens and legal residents of the United States welcome legal immigrants who come to the United States through the front door the way our own ancestors did via Ellis Island and other legal ports of call.

They came with a dream of a better life through education and hard work. They did not demand that the rest of America learn Italian, Greek, Russian, Polish, Magyar, or Yiddish. They struggled to learn English and did so with pride. Today it is just the opposite with demands for government documents to be printed in myriad languages. The legal immigrants of the late 1800s through early 1900s came with the promise of a job and a sponsor or they were sent back. Today it is just the opposite with demands for welfare. The legal immigrants of the late 19^th-early 20^th centuries were required to submit to a medical examination. If they failed, they were either sent back to their country of origin or quarantined until able to join their family and/or sponsor. Today it is just the opposite as we are told we can’t discriminate against those with disease or illness. They come demanding free health care, only ratcheting up the costs to the taxpayers – costs which Obama claims would be reduced under a single-payer, European-style system that is failing on the other side of the Atlantic.

But make no mistake, the issue of illegal aliens and amnesty was not born under the Obama administration, he simply waved the white flag of surrender. President Ronald Reagan, one of my three political heroes, unfortunately granted what was supposed to be the amnesty to end all amnesties in 1986. That clearly failed and the floodgates remained open. Liberals take great joy in citing the Reagan amnesty, but in their ignorance simply perpetuate the reasons as to why amnesty is terribly wrong.

All presidents since John Adams inherited the problems of their predecessors. How they handle them is part of what defines them and their legacy. Reagan handled Carter’s failings, and there were many, by not complaining, but instead by rolling up his sleeves and getting to work on day one fixing the economy, restoring pride and dignity to the United States, and returning us to the status of global leader and world power.

While Reagan lifted the United States out of the malaise that was the Carter administration, Obama is doing all he can to diminish the United States in the eyes of the world, and sadly, he is succeeding. This is not his failing, but instead, his goal as per the Rules for Radicals written by his mentor Saul Alinsky.

Obama continues to be on the wrong side of the most important issues facing the American people, and at costs too great for the United States to sustain. He must be held accountable – even via impeachment for the laws he has broken – the cover up pertaining to Benghazi (addressed in a previous column), the cover up pertaining to the VA hospitals (to be addressed in an upcoming column), as well as the failure to give the Congress the appropriate 30 day notice regarding the trade of GITMO detainees in the unconscionable Bowe Bergdahl deal with the Taliban (also to be addressed in a future column).

Obama’s continued threat to use his telephone and pen to enact the executive orders in place of legislation he knows would never pass the House of Representatives must be silenced. The House must have the temerity to do what is right, and not what may be expedient or popular simply because the media declares it to be so.

Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) just lost his seat in an overwhelming primary defeat at the hands of Dave Brat because Cantor was too in bed with Obama on amnesty for illegals as well as losing touch with his constituents back home, a mere two and one half hour drive from the Capitol Building. It is not racist to follow the rule of law.

The establishment had better be paying attention or they will also find themselves unemployed, but if that means electing new members possessing a backbone, bring them on, and send the illegals home. With the drive and determination that they used to get to the United States, they should strive to make their home countries places to stay, work, play, and prosper.

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

Phony Scandals, Phony Leadership

Phony Scandals, Phony Leadership
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
August 2, 2013

With Bill Clinton, it was a steady stream of deny, deny, deny. Barack Obama has learned at the knee of his predecessor mastering to a new art form of divide, divide, divide – the country; distort, distort, distort – the truth; and deflect, deflect, deflect – the blame.

“An endless parade of distractions, political posturing, and phony scandals,” has been Obama’s oft-repeated mantra of late. The distractions have been the machinations of Obama and his minions themselves to take the American people away from the still failing economy, the embarrassing manner in which America behaves on the global stage, the “train wreck” (Sen. Max Baucus [D-MT]) that is Obamacare, and the all too real scandals.

Are the slaughter of four patriotic Americans and the subsequent cover up a phony scandal? Try selling that pile of steaming detritus to the families of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, along with information officer Sean Smith, massacred in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. Let Benghazi be your moral compass when considering former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.

For nearly a year the Obama administration has done more to cover up this terrorist attack on American soil – the embassy, than Nixon and Watergate. And while not defending Nixon or the Watergate cover up, at least no one was murdered. No, no, Benghazi is a real scandal for which Obama and Clinton must answer – perhaps the same way Carlo had to answer for Santino.

Is it a phony scandal for a now former National Security Agency (NSA) to leak government information while the Obama administration loses, first track, then control of the traitor? Now Edward Snowden has been granted asylum in Russia, further embarrassing Obama. This is a genuine national security scandal.

Is it a phony scandal when the IRS specifically targets, snoops on, and violates the privacy and Fourth Amendment rights of conservative and pro-Israel groups and organizations? Is it a phony scandal to do likewise to members of the Associated Press and Fox News Channel as well as their families? Not only are these scandals, but a breach of faith between government and the fourth estate.

“Without a free press there can be no free society.” – Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1954

Is it a phony scandal for the United States to put weapons in the hands of Mexican drug lords in an attempt to track and capture them later? Try explaining that to the parents of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry who was murdered under the auspices of the Fast and Furious gun trafficking scandal.

Is it a phony scandal that Obama’s Justice Department, under the tepid leadership of Eric Holder, allowed members of the New Black Panther Party to intimidate potential voters in Philadelphia without penalty? Try telling that to the voters who left the polling places having not cast their precious votes and received no support from the so-called color blind Justice Department.

Obama can divide, distort, deflect, and even throw members of his own administration under the bus, or in his case, Air Force One, denying the adage of former President Harry Truman whose desk sign read “The buck stops here” all he wants.

Obama can posture all he wishes, denying the reality of these very real scandals, but he would do well to remember President Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

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

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 3^rd 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 2^nd, 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 2^nd 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.