Part 7, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Miscellaneous Failures and Disappointments

As we near the end of the Obama Presidency, I thought it would be a good idea at the 100 day mark to review what he has done to and for this country over the past eight years. Before we do that, though, let me repeat my previous background statements on my past political actions:

• I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in my life and I have been voting since the the Nixon era.
• Until 2010, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life.
• I am not affiliated with nor do I associate myself with the Republican Party, conservatives or people like Donald Trump.

Okay, now that we understand where I am coming from, let me just say that in my opinion Barack Obama has been the most inept, most divisive, most narcissist and worst diplomat in my lifetime to reside in the White House. From the economy, to race relations, to the national debt, to foreign relations to government operations, to blatant disregard for existing laws and the Constitution, in just about any measure we are far worse off as a nation than prior to him coming into office.

We will breaking down the failures and disappointments of this administration into some broad categories that will take us a number of days to cover as we analyze “The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error.” Over the past week we have touched on a number of broad categories of Obama’s failures:

Broken Promises and Lies: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-1-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Broken Laws and Constitution Violations: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-2-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Once a Community Organizer, Still A Conmmunity Organizer:  http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-3-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Disasters: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-4-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

The Unimpressive Set Of Obama "Firsts:" http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-5-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Gross Economic Management: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-6-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Today, will be our last review of the many, many failures of the Obama administration and we will focus on a bunch of miscellaneous failures and other stuff that I have found trivial, repugnant, and embarrassing from this administration over the past eight years. These topics are in addition to the failures we have already discussed over the past six posts including Obama Care failures, foreign affairs failures, economic failures, and the scores of broken promises and lies from this President.

Miscellaneous Failures and Other Stuff 

When Obama spoke at the funeral of the Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye, a decorated World War II soldier and long time Senator, Obama's ego and narcissism was so large that he mentioned himself far more times than he mentioned the Senator. 

When Neil Armstrong died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he sent out a picture of himself looking up at the sky with no visual of Armstrong at all:

When Rosa Parks’s bus rebellion was being celebrated, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he posted a picture of himself sitting in the bus seat where Rosa Parks sat but with no visual of Rosa Parks at all:

When Muhammad Ali died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he published a picture of himself underneath an Ali picture:

While on the Tonight Show, Obama joked that his bowling talents were the equivalent of a Special Olympics kid: “It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." Class act, not.

Obama exchanged an Army deserter, Bowe Bergdahl, for five high valued and dangerous terrorists who were imprisoned at the Guantanamo terrorist prison, endangering the lives of innocents all over the Middle East and the world.

He then turned around and invited the deserter’s parents to a White House press event and a private meeting with himself while ignoring the families and soldiers who were wounded and killed when they went out to rescue the deserter Bergdahl.

When a Ferguson, Missouri African American young man assaulted a store owner, stole from the store owner’s store, and tried to assault a police officer, actions that resulted in his fatal shooting by the police officer, Obama sent three members of his administration to the funeral. When a young, Caucasian woman in San Francisco was killed by an illegal immigrant who had been arrested multiple times and deported multiple times but allowed to roam the streets by the Obama administration, the Obama White House was silent and sent no members of his administration to her funeral.

While over two dozen Americans were fighting for their lives in Benghazi, the President went to bed and then rose early to fly to a political fundraiser in Las Vegas.

His administration cooked up a lie about the cause of the Benghazi attacks in order to protect a campaign talking point and then lied to the world and the country via a United Nations speech.

He belittled and taunted millions of common American citizens that have legitimate scientific concerns and doubts about the whole global warming/climate change myth.

He played over 300 rounds of golf, attended a record number of political fundraising events, and went on many, many lavish vacations, after promising to have no personal life during his first Presidential campaign.

He took time off from work, despite the wide amount of issues and problems facing Americans today, to waste vast amounts of time to annually go on ESPN to discuss his college basketball March Madness picks, film an TV advertisement for a comedy show, he allowed himself to be interviewed by a lady who once filmed herself taking a milk bath filled with Fruit Loops, and wasted vast amounts of other Presidential time to go on many other TV shows.

Although he constantly promised to fix the broken processes and procedures at the dysfuncitonal Veterans Affairs Agency (VA), years later the VA was still totally dysfunctional with veterans not getting the medical help they need and were pronmised.

He enjoyed multiple vacations, rounds of golf, and political fundraisers while millions of Americans near the Gulf Of Mexico were fighting for their livelihoods and homes as a result of a massive oil platform disaster.

When American James Foley was gruesomely beheaded in the Middle East, Obama treated this event as an inconvenience that was interfering with his golf tee time, throwing together a half ass press conference after which he immediately headed to the course, never consoling Mr. Foley’s family like he did for Army deserter Bergdahl.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists practice genocide against religious minorities across the Middle East he is silent.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists enslave and torture religious minority women across the Middle East he is silent.

He conducted secret nuclear weapons negotiations with the terrorist Iranian regime that resulted in secret side deals in addition to a horrible public nuclear arms treaty.

He paid a $400 million cash ransom for the release of four Americans being illegally held by the Iranian regime, simultaneously violating the current and long standing U.S. policy of paying ransom to terrorists and likely giving a cash infusion into Iranian terrorist activities around the Middle East.

He allowed his Secretary of State to operate a crime syndicate that traded U.S. interests and assets for massive personal financial gain of that Secretary of State.

His administration interfered with several ongoing FBI criminal investigations to ensure that his former Secretary of State never went to jail or was held accountable for her crimes and transgressions.

After declining steadily for decades, the national level of violent crime has reversed this long term trend and may be starting to rise again.

He allowed several members of his cabinet to use secret email accounts and processes in direct violation of government regulations and laws.

Over six years since the Dodd-Frank legislation was passed, whose intent was to ensure that the conditions that caused the Great Recession never occurred again, his administration has still not completed the necessary government regulations and rules to implement that legislation, rendering it useless.

The following failures of the Obama administration are also common to recent Presidential administrations. However, just because other, recent administrations were not successful in these areas does not mean that the Obama Presidency was also not a failure. Keep in mind that these failures occurred despite the Obama administration spending about $30 TRILLION during its tenure, in other words, about $25 TRILLION spent and we have only the following failures to show for it:

• We are still under educating our kids relative to the kids around the world.
• We still have no effective and overarching energy strategy to wean us off of foreign energy sources.
• We still have no fair, comprehensive, and effective immigration policy.
• Our borders are still not secure allowing illegal drugs, foreign criminals, and quite probably terrorists to enter the country, endangering the lives of Americans.
• We are still losing the “War on Drugs.”
• Government operations are still inefficient, ineffective, wasteful, criminally infested, and expensive.
• Our country’s infrastructure is still falling apart.
• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are still rushing towards financial insolvency with no plans proposed or in place to prevent their financial collapse.
• The possibility of peace in the Middle East has never been further out of reach.
• Health care costs are still rising dramatically despite Obama Care with no solution to this debacle proposed or likely.

Now, please do not come back to me and say Obama cannot be blamed for these failures because Republicans impeded him at all times. This is a bogus argument for three reasons:

1. In the first two years of his term, his political allies controlled both houses of Congress and he still was unable to get any of the above issues resolved except for passing the failed Obama Care legislation and the still incomplete Dodd-Frank regulations.
2. He has not proposed any solutions to the impending failure of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he has not proposed any comprehensive plans to bring peace to the Middle East, he has not proposed any solutions for our failing public schools, etc., so the Republicans could not have blocked any of his plans and solutions since he never developed and presented them inthe first place.
3. Did I mention that his administration spent over $25 TRILLION and still could not resolve any of the above issues?

That will do it for our summary of the many, many failures of the Obama administration. They touched on just about any imaginable topic and area, from lies and lack of integrity to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care to a completely failed foreign relations and diplomatic effort, etc., etc., This is the most ineffective, wasteful, and dysfunctional Presidency of my lifetime.

As we said previously in this series, eight years ago a community organizer with little international and Washington experience became President. Eight years later we have a soon to be ex-President who never matured into an effective leader, leaving office as the same small minded community organizer of eight years ago.

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

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

The Obama Era, Part 7 - Memories From The Worst Presidency Ever?

Late last year I thought it might be a good time to review everything that I remember about the Obama administration. He has been in office for seven years, seven long years that in my opinion have been horrific in so many ways. This was someone who entered office with approval ratings that were above 70% and who represented the so-called “hope and change” that many Americans were seeking.

This theme unexpectedly took four days to cover, that is how many failures, lies, threats, and narcissism examples we could list out from this President. The first post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-obama-era-part-1-memories-from.html

Seven years later, hope has become very scarce and change has almost always been for the worst. Now, before someone says that I am just a sour grapes Republican, conservative, or neo-con, understand that I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life (I started voting in the 1970s). Up until 2010, I had never voted for Republican for national office in my life. I fully support gay rights and respect a woman’s legal right to an abortion. Thus, none of what you are about to read over the next few days comes from a Republican sour grapes perspective.

But unless you have had completely had your head in the sand or elsewhere, this has been the worst Presidency that I have experienced in my lifetime. From horrid legislation (e.g. Obama Care) to a failed foreign policy (e.g. Syria) to daily lawlessness on the part of this administration (e.g. use of unsecured email accounts by high ranking administration members), the ineptness and ineffectiveness of this administration is mind boggling.

Today, we will discuss more things that I remember from this Presidency, including the latest Pew Research results, in addition to the horror stories and disasters we already talked about, starting with the link listed above:

- I will remember that the American public rate “gun policy” and “climate change” as the 16th and 17th (out of 18 issues) most important issues in their lives while this President seems to focus only on these two issues most of the time, a bad misalignment with what Americans want him to do.

- I will remember that this President worked hard on a trans pacific trade agreement even though Americans rated that the least important (18th) issue in their lives.

- I will remember that Americans rated the “economy” as the most important issue in their lives even though this Presidential administration has been doing a horrible job at developing and implementing effective economic policy, given that 45 million Americans still receiving monthly Federal food assistance, 14 million Americans who are still unemployed or underemployed, national annual economic growth has never come close to attaining the long term annual average, and household income and wages have been completely stagnant during the life of this Presidency.

- I will remember that dealing with immigration has steadily jumped up over time to become the 11th most important issue to Americans, indicating that they are not happy with Obama’s immigration performance.

- I will remember that as Obama has weakened our military and meddled in military decisions that only experienced military veterans should deal with, Americans desire to “strengthen our military” has grown 8%.

- I will remember how the number of Americans view “protecting the environment” as a top issue has dropped 5% during the Obama Presidency despite the President’s obsession with the potential myth of manmade climate change.

- I will remember how this President promised “hope and change” but 51% of Americans now think that his failures will now outweigh his accomplishments with only 39% thinking his accomplishments will outweigh his failures.

- I will remember how independent voters have a massive 16 point difference between those thinking that his failures will outweigh his accomplishments.

Thus, the Pew results show that America also has a lot of bad memories of this Presidency, that I am not an outlier in my memories of how bad the shortcomings have been of this Presidency.

P.S. One last set of memories, based on the fact that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently passed away and the President of the United States did not attend the funeral. The funeral was held Washington DC, not an inconvenience for the President. It was held on a weekend, traditionally not a work day for anyone in Washington. Previous Presidents have attended funerals of Supreme Court justices so there is a precedent. It is not in the heat of an election season.

Thus, I will remember how this President refused to attend the funeral of a very important person in this country but did attend, and speak at, the funeral of others whose importance and contributions to the country was far less important:

• Less than two months before the 2012 Presidential election, Obama took time out of his schedule to attend and speak at the the funeral service of Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye, which much like the Scalia funeral, is being held in D.C.
• The President attended and spoke at the funeral of Democrat and former Ku Klux Klan member Senator Robert Byrd.
• The President attended and spoke at the funeral of Reverend Clementa Pinckney who was one of the nine people killed in a mass shooting in South Carolina in 2015 even though he had never met the reverend.
• Just six months after skipping the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and in doing so insulted our British allies, Obama attended and spoke at the funeral of former Democratic Speaker of the House Tom Foley. 
• Obama traveled to New York for the memorial service of Walter Cronkite, where he spoke, although he had never met Cronkite. 
• Obama traveled to South Africa to attend the funeral of non-American Nelson Mandela.

But this President cannot travel across town to the funeral of a Supreme Court justice. And this is so typical of what I will remember of this Presidency: if any event, including an important funeral of an important American, did not support an Obama political situation or feed his ego, he reverts back to being the community organizer that he has always been, whether in Chicago or in Washington.

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

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w