So Wrong About So Much At The Expense Of So Many

I have not written as many BeeLine posts this year as I have in the past. I have tried to determine exactly why that is. Three possible reasons come to mind. By coincidence or not, all of my reasons begin with the letter "D". I guess that letter is on my mind because I am just hoping we can get to a "D" grade level in Presidential leadership right now.

Discouragement- Quite frankly, the news every day is not encouraging. I find it harder to write and comment on the issues of the day when everything seems to be unraveling. It is especially discouraging knowing that a lot of this was avoidable. The American people had a choice two years ago about our leadership and our future and made the wrong one.

I wrote this the day after the 2012 Presidential election.

The results of yesterday's election clearly show that we are in The Fourth Turning. History is not made by events but by the reaction of human beings to events.  We saw clear evidence of that yesterday. We are hurtling down the road for a rendezvous with history of our own making.  Two clearly marked paths were there for choosing.  The American people made their choice.   We all will have to deal with where it leads.

Choices have consequences.  We will learn what they are together.  For better or worse. Our only hope now is that the President we elected yesterday is not the same leader we had for the last four years.

The sad truth is that we are all finding out that the President we have is actually much, much worse than was even evident in his first four years. No wonder I am discouraged.

Disinterest- I care a lot about our country, my fellow Americans and our future. I have spent hours pondering the issues of the day and hours more crafting and formulating perspectives and prescriptions for solutions to some of our problems in these pages. However, when the President of the United States seems more interested in playing golf, attending political fundraisers and playing endless political games than dealing with the issues in front of him, it is easy for everyone else (including me) to put my time and attention elsewhere.

If the President can play golf over the weekend while Iraq implodes and we still don't know what he was doing the night of the attack on the Benghazi consulate than more important than four American lives (including an American ambassador), I don't feel so bad in not cranking out two or three BeeLine posts per week.

I am reminded of this quote by Harry S. Truman that seems apt today.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."

Courage? Skill? Seizing opportunity? Using this definition, Barack Obama is the antithesis of a leader. Our society is not standing still, it is in retreat.


Deja Vu- I also can't shake the feeling that I have seen and experienced all of this before. It seems like I am living it all over again.  After all, I was around when Nixon and Carter were Presidents. I saw the corruption of the Nixon administration and the incompetence of Carter. ( I am also happy to report that I did not vote for either one).  It is hard to believe but the Obama administration seems to have combined the worst aspects of both of these failed Presidencies and combined it into a colossal conglomeration of corruption, chicanery, circumvention of the Constitution and clear-cut incompetence.

I like how former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz, put it in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today.

Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. 

Am I being too critical?

Consider the following that have come from the headlines in just the last few days.

White House Honors 10 Young Illegal Immigrants
If this is not bad enough, President Obama does it at the same time there is a flood of young, illegal immigrants overwhelming our border authorities.  Of course, all this will do is incentive more illegal immigrants to do the same. The operative word here is "illegal". What happened to the rule of law? What happened to faithfully executing the laws of the United States of America in accordance with the Constitution?

Obama Administration Suggests U.S. May Join with Iran to stop ISIS in Iraq 
Does anyone remember that Iran is probably directly responsible for at least 1/3 of our combat deaths in Iraq?

Obama's Unbelievable Lost IRS Emails For Lois Lerner and Six Others
Richard Nixon was impeached and ultimately resigned due to an 18.5 minute tape erasure on a key piece of evidence about the Watergate coverup and for using the IRS for political purposes.  What more can be said?

I have said it before and I will say it again, I believe than in the fullness of time the history books will judge President Barack Obama very harshly. Future generations will likely wonder how the American people could have let themselves be bamboozled by someone who when, viewed in retrospect, was not much different than a 19th century snake oil salesman.  Articulate and personable with a nice smile who was great on the stump.  However, in the end, that was all there was.

So wrong about so much at the expense of so many.  It is a long way from hope and change.

And do you understand why it has become so much harder to write this blog?