Friday, July 11, 2014

Part 4, Why The Obama Adminsitration Deserves The Ranking As The Worst Presidency Since 1945

A recent public opinion poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, a traditional and unbiased source of public opinion, asked a sample of Americans who they thought operated the worst Presidency since 1945. Barack Obama won a plurality of votes in that poll for being the worst U.S. President since 1945. 33% of respondents named him as the worst President over the past seven decades with George W, Bush finishing second at 28%. 

Both of them far outpolled who I generally consider the two worst Presidents of the past hundred years, Jimmy Carter (8%) for being a President who was clueless and totally ineffective, and Richard Nixon (13%) for simply being a vindictive crook. America has to be pretty disgusted with your Presidential administration when you are mentioned 2-4 more times than either Carter or Nixon as the worst president since 1945.

Over the next few days we are going to explore the overwhelming number of reasons while this result for President Obama is not only rational but is well deserved. Before anyone starts with their counter arguments or disputing my list of Obama policy failures, criminal acts, economic ignorance, violations of the Constitution, and broken promises, keep in mind the following facts:
  • I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life and I am over 60 years old.
  • Up until November, 2010, I had never voted for a Republican for national office.
  • In the first two years of his Presidency, Obama’s party was in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate with filibuster proof majorities in both places, I.e. he could have done anything he wanted politically and legislatively without any assist from any Republican.
  • I am not saying that anyone else would have resolved all of the issues listed below but it is difficult to think that at least some of these issues would have been resolved by people such as Truman, Kennedy, or Reagan. The Obama Presidency has been so bad that just about every issue and problem listed below is actually far WORST rather than BETTER since the onset of the Obama administration.
  • Consider an old saying: “Don’t tell me how rough the seas were, just tell me you brought the boat safely into the harbor.” In other words, a true leader takes the blame and gives the credit. No one forced Obama to become President, he knew the situation he was getting into. He should be judged on how well he managed the situation he inherited going forward. Unfortunately, instead of leadership and looking forward, he chose instead to whine, look backwards, and to blame others for his failures rather than focusing on moving forward from whatever adverse situation he inherited.
Okay, so that sets out the preliminaries: I am not a conservative, a Republican, or a neocon trying to tear down this President. This President could have done anything he wanted in the first two years of his tenure, he cannot blame the Republicans for blocking anything he failed at since he had a historic window of political opportunity. Instead of leveraging the window and leading the country, he chose to blame the previous President, the Japanese tsunami, ATM machines, and a whole host of other factors in the absence of Presidential leadership.

Thus, without any further delay and in no particular order, consider the following, next set of reasons why the Quinnipiac public opinion poll is probably an accurate view of why America rates the Obama administration as the worst Presidential administration in the past 70 years or so. Beware that these reasons carry a lot more weight than the first 62 reeasons we discussed over the past three days. Those reasons deal with Presidential administration indifference, incompetence, and vindictiveness. The following 60 reasons discussing why this is deservedly ranked as the worst administration since 1945 points out the many, many instances of Presidential behavior that are truly grounds for impeachment and removal from office:

63) President Obama led the United States into a major military action against the country of Libya, spending well over a billion dollars of taxpayer wealth and placing our armed forces in danger without the approval of Congress, violating the War Powers Act and Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

64) He refused to fire James Clapper, a high ranking member of the President’s national security team after Clapper lied to Congress about how much electronic information the National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting on every American citizen, becoming an accessory after the fact in Clapper's lying to Congress.

65) He signed the latest NDAA legislation whose sections 1021 and 1022 allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, without trial, who the government considers terrorist suspects until the vague “end of hostilities,” which violates the habeas corpus protection of American citizens under Article I Section 9 of the Constitution.

66) He personally signed off on the assassination of American citizens in foreign lands, e.g. the killing of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki via a drone attack in Yemen, denying him and other citizens a fair trial by their peers, negating the rights, and lives, of al-Awlaki and at least three other American citizens, violating their right “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the Fourth Amendment, and the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution.

67) He has repeatedly and in varied ways denied members of our armed forces to their right to personally celebrate, follow, and take comfort in their personal Christian religion and faith, violating the First Amendment to the Constitution.

68) His administration’s development and deployment of the Fast and Furious gun running operation to supply weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels has violated any number of laws including:
  • The illegal shipment of weapons to criminal organizations. 
  • Violations of international treaties regarding illegal gun smuggling. 
  • Abetting the violence of those cartels who used Fast and Furious weapons to kill innocent Mexican civilians and a U.S. border agent, Brian Terry. 
  • Denying Congress and Congressional investigators access to pertinent Fast and Furious executive branch documents needed to investigate the alleged transgressions by claiming executive privilege.
These actions ignore and/or break existing laws and thus, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

69) He unilaterally delayed the small business (SHOP) mandates from his own Obama Care legislation, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

70) He unilaterally delayed the employer mandates, without Congressional approval, from his own Obama Care legislation without Congressional, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

71) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that Obama Care enrollees in states using only the Federal health care exchange, i.e. those states that did not set up their own Obama Care exchange, would also be eligible for Obama Care subsidies, violating his own Obama Care legislation and violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

72) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that those personal insurance policies that insurance companies had to legally terminate as a result of Obama Care could indeed stay in effect, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

73) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, to change out many more tenets and deadlines of the Obama Care legislation (e.g. delaying the caps on out of pocket medical expenses, waiving the income proof requirement for subsidies, waiving the criminal background checks on Obama Care navigators, etc.), violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

74) His administration has hassled, spied on, harassed, and threatened a multitude of journalists including, but not likely limited to, Bob Woodward, Lanny Davis, Fox News employees James Rosen and Mike Levine, Sheryl Atkinson, Audrey Hudson (whose home was ransacked by Department of homeland Security armed personnel who confiscated her journalistic files despite serving a court order that was restricted to only looking for guns), Associated Press reporters, and others, violating their First Amendment rights.

75) When a the Egyptian military staged an coup and overturned a democratically elected government, he refused to cut off aid to that military ruling junta as required by U.S. law, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

76) His administration allowed lucrative taxpayer funded financial credits to Congressional members and their staffs to pay for Obama Care policies in violation of the Obama Care legislation, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

77) His Obama Care legislation forced individuals, companies, and charities to violate their own religious beliefs relative to contraception and birth control, violating those citizens’ and organizations’ First Amendment rights. 

78) He illegally made government appointments to high level government positions while the Senate was still in session, violating Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. 

79) He ignored the ruling of a Federal judge in Louisiana regarding the administration’s illegal moratorium on Gulf oil drilling, resulting in the following stinging rebuke from the judge: 

“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.” 

80) His administration’s unparalleled invasion of citizens’ privacy via the warrantless and groundless interception and storage of just about every citizens’ electronic and other communications via the National Security Agency and other government entities is a gross violation and insult to every citizens’ First and Fourth Amendment rights. 

81) He unilaterally decided not to enforce the DOMA law, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

82) He illegally violated immigration laws by ignoring certain aspects of standing immigration law and forbidding the deportation of illegal aliens, without the approval of Congress, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

83) His administration illegally used the IRS to harass and minimize the impact and activities of conservative and other contrary political action organizations, violating those citizens’ First Amendment rights.

84) He secretly exchnaged five high ranking Taliban terrorists for one Army deserter without notifying Congress at least thirty days in advance of such a transacton, violating a law that he himself signed several years ago.

The reasons listed out today are much more serious than what we had been discussing up to this point. These reasons fall into the spectrum of illegal activities and impeachable offenses, probably even stronger reasons why law abiding and Consitution loving Americans continue to downgrade this Presidency to a point where a plurality of them rank it as the worst since 1945.

And the truly depressing news, we still have another set of reasons to review tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

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Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
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