DOES AMERICA REALLY HAVE A PRESIDENT?

DOES AMERICA REALLY HAVE A PRESIDENT?
by Andy Weddington
Friday, 14 September 2012

"The price of greatness is responsibility." Winston Churchill

 

On Wednesday, the day after attacks on America in Egypt and Libya on the anniversary of 9/11, President Barack Obama, during an interview with CBS, criticized Mr. Romney, candidate for President, for taking the initiative to make public statements condemning the attacks.

Mr. Obama...

"You know, Governor Romney has a tendency to shoot first and aim later...As president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that. It's important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts. And that you've thought through the ramifications before you make them."

Those were remarkable words. For Mr. Obama clearly enjoys a memory of convenience. 

For example...

Mr. Obama conveniently forgot 'shooting first and aiming later' when he prematurely made a public statement wrongly accusing Cambridge, Massachusetts police of acting stupidly when arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates (who appeared to be burglarizing a home and became disorderly when police confronted and tried to establish identity).  

Mr. Obama conveniently forgot 'shooting first and aiming later' when he prematurely made a public statement saying that had he a son he'd look like Trayvon Martin - the hoodlum shot and killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. 

No, Mr. Obama, what Mr. Romney did was not shooting first and aiming later and he did have his facts in order.  

Mr. Romney acted like an American president.

Mr. Romney spoke like an American president.

Mr. Romney was angry yet controlled, clear, and strong with his words. What he did was absolutely necessary.

And, after speaking out, Mr. Romney stood his ground and patiently answered inane questions from a colluding press pool more concerned about his actions than the lack of engagement from Mr. Obama or the escalating violence in Egypt and Libya and elsewhere in the region.

Mr. Romney appeared the American president the majority of sensible Americans expect to see and hear from during times of crisis.

Mr. Romney knows, and so his actions demonstrated, that leadership means truly taking a step "Forward."

In contrast...

Mr. Obama spoke only after Mr. Romney spoke - twice.

Mr. Obama's brief statement was weak.

Mr. Obama did not take questions.

Mr. Obama flew to Las Vegas for a fundraiser - greeted by a rambunctious crowd that had no idea what had happened in Egypt and Libya. And his unprepared and inadequate brief account of what happened in the Middle East, to include the murders of four Americans, was sophomoric while moronic supporters chanted "We love you." 

Let's get this straight.

Mr. Obama's foremost responsibility, as President of the United States of America, is protecting America and Americans. 

Mr. Obama is responsible for what happened in the Middle East on the anniversary of 9/11. 

Mr. Obama is responsible for the deaths of those four Americans in Libya.

Mr. Obama is responsible for the safety of all Americans in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Mr. Obama has a record of talking - words of convenience for the time and the audience. Consistency of message there is not. And we are witnessing the consequences, again.

Whatever Mr. Obama may say, he bears responsibility for what America does and fails to do in response to the attacks.

Americans better be damn angry.

Americans better be thinking.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, an influential politician, lawyer, orator, philosopher, and leader, left something for any citizenry to think about.

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."

An American citizen's pledge pertains...

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands; one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

That is, allegiance is to country; not man.  

An American military officer's oath of office pertains...

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

That is, why did America's most senior military officer, an Army four-star general and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, telephone an America citizen a few days ago and attempt to silence freedom of speech?  

And, why did Mr. Obama refuse to meet with the President of Israel, an ally, whose country is facing imminent danger and survival at the hands of Iran but agree to meet with the President of Egypt whom Mr. Obama is not sure is an ally or not?

Now, about that title question?

Post Script 

53 days...

Forever may she wave!