After observing and analyzing the first three years of President Obama’s time in office, I have come to the conclusion that the country cannot endure, heal, or grow if he is allowed to serve a second term. His behavior and results, as viewed from many different perspectives, have come up short relative to facing, addressing, and resolving the major issues facing America today. On each of those issues, America is not better, and on many cases is worse off, then we were three short years ago.
In fact, I have easily identified 88 reasons why the Presidency of Barack Obama needs to end after one term. Those 88 reasons are listed below in broad categories or syndromes. These syndromes capture his way of thinking, his approach to his duties in office.
It is unlikely that these failed approaches will change any time soon. If they were to change, we would have seen those changes already. Thus, not only his first three years been a failure, there is no indication he will break out of these syndromes and somehow miraculously change his approaches to problems and challenges in the future.
Before reading these 88 reasons, consider the following facts that underlie these conclusions.
- Prior to the midterm elections in 2010, I had never voted for a Republican for national office in my life (I am 57 years old). Thus, I am not a Tea Party member, a Republican, a social conservative, a neo conservative, or a regular viewer of Fox News.
- All of my assertions and facts laid out in these 88 reasons come from the most nonpartisan news sources I could find. These sources include the Associated Press, CNN, Washington Post, Reuters, and others and do not include Fox News.
- My educational and professional background is in quantitative analysis (including a Masters of Science in Statistics) so I am well grounded in problem solving techniques and quantitative analysis. This has allowed me to look at the past three years from the viewpoint of failed problem solving skills and the misuse or non use of quantitative analysis to solve any problem worthwhile.
- I am not asserting that John McCain could have done any better than Barack Obama over the past three years. I am not asserting that Barack Obama’s predecessor was a great President. If George Bush or John McCain had this same record as this President, I would still be writing down these same 88 reasons.
- I am not a racist and I come to these conclusions as a result of observation, analysis, and logic and not bigotry.
Barack Obama came into office promising to unite the country, to overcome divisions. Consider an excerpt from his acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention back in 2008:
“But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator (his Presidential opponent, John McCain) takes his positions for political purposes, because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and each other's patriotism. The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.”
Nice words that have meant nothing to this President during his term. He has remained silent as other Democrats have slandered, demonized, and verbally abused any American citizen who dared to express a contrary opinion to any of this administration’s positions and views. Silence is not golden in this case, it is divisive:
1) When Democrat Nancy Pelosi questioned the patriotism of Americans who honestly and intelligently opposed the tenets of Obama Care by calling them un-American, Obama was silent.
2) When Democrat Charles Rangel likened citizens who honestly and intelligently opposed the tenets of Obama Care to the racists who opposed the civil rights movement back in the 1960s, Obama was silent.
3) When Democrat Shelia Jackson Lee stated that all Tea Party members, nearly all of whom are sincerely, honestly, and deeply concerned about out of control government spending, our loss of freedom, and our skyrocketing national debt, used to wear Ku Klux Klan sheets, Obama was silent.
4) When Democrat Nancy Pelosi said that all Americans who honestly and intelligently opposed the building of a mosque at Ground Zero needed to be investigated, Obama was silent.
5) When Democrat Alan Grayson said that all Republicans were knuckle dragging Neanderthals, Obama was silent.
6) When his own green jobs czar, Van Jones, stated Republicans were a__h___s, Obama was silent.
7) When Democrat Harry Reid insulted all Americans when he asserted that all Americans sightseeing in our nation’s capital in the summer physically smell, Obama was silent.
8) When several Democrats, allegedly including Vice President Joe Biden, likened Republicans to terrorists, the same type of people that attack and kill innocent people, during the debt ceiling debate last summer, Obama was personally silent.
9) When Rep. Steve Cohen likened Republican critics of Obamacare to the Nazis and their propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Obama was silent.
10) When labor leader Jimmy Hoffa threatened violence against Tea Party members and Republicans, threatening “war” and threatening to “take theses sons of bitches out,” Obama was silent.
11) When Americans expressed outrage and concern about our skyrocketing national debt and were called barbarians by several Democrats for having this legitimate opposing opinion, Obama was silent.
Looks like the President came up short in his promise when he said “one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and each other's patriotism.” Standing passively aside and allowing your political allies to call ordinary American citizens terrorists, racists, and other slanderous names and questioning their patriotism is certainly not Presidential. The President should be the President of all Americans, not just the one who voted for him. Silence is not golden, in these cases it is divisive and bigoted.
The “Constitution is Merely A Set Of Suggestions, Not Hard and Fast Rules” Syndrome
As President of the United States, President Obama took an oath to uphold the tenets of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and to enforce the laws of the land. However, he seems to have misinterpreted these responsibilities, treating the Constitution and the rule of law as mere suggestions:
12) He inserted the United States armed forces into the Libyan civil war and into danger in violation of the war making powers given to Congress by the Constitution and in violation of the War Powers Act. While his war strategy may have been the right thing to do, his disdain for the rule of law does not make the means justify the ends. If he had been doing his job, he would have had enough time to do the Libyan warfare action in the right, lawful manner.
13) When his Gulf of Mexico oil drilling moratorium was deemed illegal and a Federal judge told the administration to rescind the moratorium, the administration did just that and, in defiance, replaced it with a second moratorium that was almost identical to the one that the judge ordered to be halted. Consider what Judge Feldman, the presiding judge had to say about this blatant disregard for the rule of law:
“Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance, Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt.”
The Constitution set up three branches of government to keep each other branch in check. Ignoring a ruling from the judicial branch is the same as ignoring the Constitution, it is the same as holding the Constitution in contempt.
14) The Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) was signed into law by a Democratic President, Bill Clinton, and it legislated that the Federal government recognizes that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, not two gay or lesbian individuals. It is a repugnant law and should be terminated, the Federal government and politicians should not be in the business of regulating and defining what is proper personal behavior. However, it is the law of the land and President Obama, as he was sworn to do, is responsible for upholding the law of the land.
However, he violated this Constitutional responsibility when he unilaterally decided not to defend the law in any court cases. The Constitution provides an orderly process for terminating bad laws through legislation. He should have terminated this law within the first year of his term, within the rules and boundaries of the Constitution, when the Democrats controlled the White House and both parts of Congress. Unilaterally ignoring the law of the land now is a blatant violation of the Constitution and the oath he took.
15) Obama is the first President to set up a “shadow government” within the White House. His system of “czars” sets a dangerous precedent by establishing a potential ruling junta that bypasses the checks and balances of Congressional review established by the Constitution.
16) His recent illegal “recess appointments” of someone to head the newly formed consumer protection agency, that came out of the Dodd-Frank legislation, and three people to the National Labor Relations Board are a continued symptom of his desire to bypass Constitutionally mandated Congressional review and approval when it comes to appointing people into high ranking government positions.
The excuse and flawed rationale that Bush did the same type of appointments does not make it okay. No matter who executes this type of behavior, it is a violation of the Constitution‘s spirit and intent.
17) The disastrous “Fast and Furious” DEA gun running operation that allowed thousands of military grade weapons to easily cross the U.S. border into Mexico and into the hands of Mexico’s violent drug cartels is a gross violation of domestic laws and international treaties. As President, Obama was sworn to uphold the laws of this country which also includes enforcing the valid treaties we have with other countries. Allowing his Justice Department to haphazardly operate “Fast and Furious” is a clear violation of that responsibility.
18) Earlier this year, the California solar panel company Solyndra went bankrupt and endangered the $530 million taxpayer investment that the Obama administration had granted the company. The only hope that the American taxpayer had of recovering even a fraction of the half of billion dollars was to exercise its legal right to be first in line when the bankruptcy proceedings sold off the remaining Solyndra assets. That was a legal condition of the loan guarantee: in the event of a Solyndra default, the Federal government lawfully got first crack at recovering money.
However, Obama's Energy Department illegally moved the Kaiser Foundation, another Solyndra investor, ahead of the American taxpayer in the bankruptcy proceedings. This action was done without the knowledge of the Justice Department who is supposedly responsible for enforcing the laws of the land like this one. As a result of this leapfrog move, any assets and money from the sale of Solyndra assets were illegally used up before it was the American taxpayers' turn to receive anything. However, the Kaiser Foundation did recover much of its investment.
Oh, and by the way, the Kaiser Foundation has strong family links to a gentleman called George Kaiser. George Kaiser has been a very important, successful and prolific fund raiser for Obama's past political campaigns. A law ignored, a political ally satisfied.
19) President Obama signed off on the extensions of the Patriot Act, the worst legislation regarding the destruction of personal liberty and freedom and growing the Orwellian power of the Federal government. He did not even bother to try and staff a panel of people to review and control government abuses that might occur under the Patriot Act, a panel that is mandated by the law.
The “I Did Not Major In Economics Bit I Did Stay At A Holiday Inn Express" Syndrome
It is no secret that the economy has been in a bad funk for many years now. High unemployment and higher underemployment, anemic economic growth, skyrocketing national debt, a stagnant stock market, a housing market in a ditch, etc. Now, most Democrats would blame Bush for the entire economic mess. However, this argument is a crock for two reasons.
First, if we look at the last five years of government, the years 2007 through 2011, the Democratic Party has controlled 80% of the Federal government’s functions. They have controlled the Senate for all five years (2007 to 2011), they had controlled the House of Representatives for four years out of five (2007 to 2010) and they controlled the Presidency for three years out of five (2008 to 2011). Republicans were in charge of a Federal government function for only three years, Bush was President for two years and the Republicans controlled the House for one year.
Thus, while Bush may be responsible for a lot of the economic problems we face today, the Democrats have at least as much culpability and possibly quite more, given their 80% control of government from 2007 to 2011.
Second, if you look at the actual economic data and not believe the economic Democratic Party hype, the domestic economy was doing quite well until the Democrats took over Congress, starting in 2007.
Consider the following graph:
As you can see, using official government data, Bush budget deficits are not to blame for our current economic malaise. The deficit picture was actually improving under Bush, up until the November 2006 midterm elections (the vertical line). It is only when the Democrats take over Congress in 2007 does the deficit problem deteriorate significantly. The horizontal line is the average annual budget deficit that was incurred during the Clinton Presidency.
No matter what data you graph, e.g. unemployment rate, deficits as a percentage of GDP, deficits as a percentage of budget, etc., the U.S. economy was in pretty good shape until the Democrats took over Congress. Thus, blaming Bush does nothing to let the Obama administration off the hook for the following economic disasters:
20) Cash For Clunkers - Failure
21) Cash For Caulkers - Failure
22) Cash For Appliances - Failure
23) Small Business Tax Incentives - Failure
24) HAMP Mortgage Relief Program - Failure
25) $800 Billion Economic Stimulus Program - Failure
26) Unnecessary Auto Company Bailouts Costing the Taxpayers Billions Of Dollars - Failure
27) Unnecessary Bank and Financial Institution Bailouts
28) Persistently high unemployment three years after Bush left office and three years into the Obama administration.
29) Gas prices that have consistently been about double what they were since the Obama administration began.
30) Average household income levels have fallen in the three years after Bush left office and all three years into the Obama administration.
31) Several years ago, Senator Obama decried the Bush administration when it requested a debt ceiling raising from Congress, correctly categorizing it as “failure in leadership.” As President, the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress have added almost as much to our national debt than all Presidential administrations prior to the Obama administration COMBINED, certainly a failure in leadership.
This is enough for one day, 31 unique reasons why President Obama does not merit, deserve, or is worthy of a second term. We will cover the remaining 57 reasons in the next two days. If anyone has any additional reasons, please share them. If anyone has any reason why President Obama should be reelected, please share them also. It is a worthy and adult conversation and discussion we all need to have before it is too late and our freedom and liberties are lost forever.
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