There is in Barack Obama a certain recklessness, both in word and deed.
Take ObamaCare. The president and his party ran a straight partisan operation, forcing the 2,700 page bill through Congress. It only passed by one vote in the Senate and only by a few votes in the House. No Republicans voted for it and a number of Democrats from moderate districts in the House got to vote against it to assist in their reelection. So it wasn't a consensus bill, it wasn't really debated, and it wasn't negotiated with the opposition. I call that reckless. I call it a jam-down. I call that naked force.
And beyond the recklessness, I don't think that it is good politics. In politics you want to avoid making the opposition so mad that they come out in their tens of millions to vote against you.
Now we have President Obama, before the Supreme Court has even ruled on ObamaCare, doing the "nice little Supreme Court you got there" number. It is frank intimidation, no doubt directed at Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing member. I call that reckless.
And beyond the recklessness, there is the unseemliness of dissing the Supreme Court, as the president already did in his 2010 State of the Union speech over the Citizens United case.
We can argue about the source of the president's recklessness. You could say it comes from his being "wafted aloft" all his life, never having to dig out of a hole, and never really having to think about who he is pissing off. Or you could say it comes from his left-wing beliefs. Your properly trained community organizer is always trying to prompt ordinary citizens out onto the streets against their interest. Very often, as in Zola's Germinal or in the real-life strikes of 19th century, the radical strike leaders caused in the ruin of the local strikers. But the community organizer just headed out of town onto his next gig.
The statesman is not a community organizer. He really needs to be prudent. He is, with his day-to-day political power games, playing with peoples' lives. You always got the feeling that President Bush was deeply affected by the responsibility of the office. It is not clear just how President Obama feels about the office. His image is so crafted that it is hard to know what he thinks about anything. It does seem that he is piqued by the resistance to his agenda--beyond the normal Democratic party tactics of branding anyone opposed to big-government programs as mean-spirited and racist.
But the American people really expect the president to be prudent. They expect him to be the president of all the people, and not be a cheap partisan. With President Obama, you get the feeling that the cheap partisan shots are the man, and the "we're all in this together" rhetoric just an act.
Put in this way. With President Bush you always felt that he was very careful in his partisan moments to keep the partisanship down to the minimum needed. When he said that he was a uniter, not a divider, you felt that he meant it, and that he would try the keep the divisiveness that is necessary in any politics down to a low roar. It was just the right thing to do.
But President Obama is a man of the left. Ever since Marx the left has used over-the-top rhetoric to make its case, and the president seems to fit right in with the Marxian approach to politics.
It would be nice if the American people sent a message to Washington about the president's recklessness. Because if you are one of the "little people" the one thing you don't want is recklessness. Reckless political failures fall hardest on the little people.
Beyond ObamaCare there is the recklessness of the current Fed inflation, the president's reckless budget, the recklessness of the green energy policies, and the recklessness of the huge tax increases scheduled for January 1, 2013.
We need a prudent president to guide the ship of state into the future. We won't get it from the policies of President Obama.
Take ObamaCare. The president and his party ran a straight partisan operation, forcing the 2,700 page bill through Congress. It only passed by one vote in the Senate and only by a few votes in the House. No Republicans voted for it and a number of Democrats from moderate districts in the House got to vote against it to assist in their reelection. So it wasn't a consensus bill, it wasn't really debated, and it wasn't negotiated with the opposition. I call that reckless. I call it a jam-down. I call that naked force.
And beyond the recklessness, I don't think that it is good politics. In politics you want to avoid making the opposition so mad that they come out in their tens of millions to vote against you.
Now we have President Obama, before the Supreme Court has even ruled on ObamaCare, doing the "nice little Supreme Court you got there" number. It is frank intimidation, no doubt directed at Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing member. I call that reckless.
And beyond the recklessness, there is the unseemliness of dissing the Supreme Court, as the president already did in his 2010 State of the Union speech over the Citizens United case.
We can argue about the source of the president's recklessness. You could say it comes from his being "wafted aloft" all his life, never having to dig out of a hole, and never really having to think about who he is pissing off. Or you could say it comes from his left-wing beliefs. Your properly trained community organizer is always trying to prompt ordinary citizens out onto the streets against their interest. Very often, as in Zola's Germinal or in the real-life strikes of 19th century, the radical strike leaders caused in the ruin of the local strikers. But the community organizer just headed out of town onto his next gig.
The statesman is not a community organizer. He really needs to be prudent. He is, with his day-to-day political power games, playing with peoples' lives. You always got the feeling that President Bush was deeply affected by the responsibility of the office. It is not clear just how President Obama feels about the office. His image is so crafted that it is hard to know what he thinks about anything. It does seem that he is piqued by the resistance to his agenda--beyond the normal Democratic party tactics of branding anyone opposed to big-government programs as mean-spirited and racist.
But the American people really expect the president to be prudent. They expect him to be the president of all the people, and not be a cheap partisan. With President Obama, you get the feeling that the cheap partisan shots are the man, and the "we're all in this together" rhetoric just an act.
Put in this way. With President Bush you always felt that he was very careful in his partisan moments to keep the partisanship down to the minimum needed. When he said that he was a uniter, not a divider, you felt that he meant it, and that he would try the keep the divisiveness that is necessary in any politics down to a low roar. It was just the right thing to do.
But President Obama is a man of the left. Ever since Marx the left has used over-the-top rhetoric to make its case, and the president seems to fit right in with the Marxian approach to politics.
It would be nice if the American people sent a message to Washington about the president's recklessness. Because if you are one of the "little people" the one thing you don't want is recklessness. Reckless political failures fall hardest on the little people.
Beyond ObamaCare there is the recklessness of the current Fed inflation, the president's reckless budget, the recklessness of the green energy policies, and the recklessness of the huge tax increases scheduled for January 1, 2013.
We need a prudent president to guide the ship of state into the future. We won't get it from the policies of President Obama.
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