Is the President a Whipping Post?

Recently a friend posted a blog opposing the public blame & criticism directed at our President, insisting that it was misplaced as the dysfunctional blame should be on Congress. I got pretty wordy in my reply, so I thought it was time I resurrected this blog.

First of all, our President (and his First Lady) set this hostile tone, in both the 2008 campaign and this administration’s term. The two of them have called us mean and selfish and lazy and racist and dangerous and the list goes on. He should not be surprised we reciprocate. Can you ever remember a time when the President of our country criticized it’s citizens and called them names? Repeatedly? In public? In front of cameras? He is supposed to be our leader, he is supposed to love and cherish our country, not spank success and complain about his lack of power to control things …. particularly since he is the most power man in the world.

Congress is a mess … particularly during President Obama’s first two years when he had Democratic majorities in both houses and every piece of important legislation he wanted was passed. When that legislation didn’t do what he said it would, he blamed the Republicans. Right now we are looking at a Democratic Senate that hasn’t passed a budget in three years. The Republican led House has. President Obama presents budgets so ludicrous even his own party won’t vote for them. He blames the Republicans. The Republican led House has passed 15 different bills to promote job growth. Harry Reid (D) immediately tables them, allowing neither a vote nor discussion. Obama blames the Republicans. The President consistently blames others for his own failures. This does not befit a good leader, a strong leadership, and it makes him look weak to both our allies and our enemies.

In some ways, President Obama has done what he said he would … reformed health care, created a stimulus … and has not accomplished other things …. closing Gitmo, immigration reform. Like all politicians he takes credit for his successes. Sadly, President Obama consistently blames the Republicans for his failures. Also, he also takes credit for things that he did not do … troops are leaving Iraq on President Bush’s agreed upon timeline with the Iraqi government, Osama bin Laden was killed using intel gathered under President Bush that Senator Obama voted against. All Presidents do this, but this assumes Americans are too stupid or too uninterested to remember what he said in the last election or even 15 minutes ago.

All that said, President Obama’s biggest fault is that he has not led. Congress is a mess because he will not lead, and by lead I don’t mean tell them to do what he says then go on vacation. He set the tone his first month in office, “I won, do what I say.” That is not leadership, that is tyranny. He leaves the room, sometimes he doesn’t even enter the room, and he clearly has no concept of what compromise is between opposing political factions. His real work experience was in “community organizing,” which essentially means he bullied businesses into doing what he wanted them to do or minorities would show up in droves to protest their unfair practices. It used to be called a shake down. That is his skill set and he continues to use that in his 24/7 televised blame-o-thon.

Being President is a difficult job, but so is serving in Congress, and Congress during this administration … particularly the Republicans …. get far more blame than they deserve. Obama is not the General of Congress, he is an equal branch of our government and as such should work to reconcile the three branches, not boss them around like they are petulant children. He has proven he believes he is above them all in how he looks down upon and openly & publicly criticizes both Congress and the Supreme Court while making no attempt to mediate or work with them. He then has the chutzpah to complain that it’s easier to rule in China and point at how the founding fathers made his job so hard with that pesky Constitution.

It's difficult to take a whipping post accusation seriously when this is the representation we are getting from our President.

We still live in the greatest, most prosperous, most generous country in the world, no matter how our leaders spit and spat with one another. If we don’t like our representatives, we have the right to replace them. However, if our current President continues to appoint czars and regulating boards and changing the rules to his liking, we may ultimately lose that right. Our founding fathers wrote a brilliant Constitution that has withstood more than 200 years of interpretation. For our own President to criticize them because they didn’t make his job easy is unconscionable to me and an example of his “blame everyone else” leadership.

Overall, I disagree with both vilifying and canonizing our President. I disagreed with it when President Bush was in office, and President Clinton, and Presidents Bush 41 and Reagan as well. However, to hear the mainstream press rail about it, President Obama receives more than hi share, and this is just not true. President Bush received infinitely more criticism and outright hateful vitriol in his last two years (while trying to compromise with a fully Democrat majority Congress) than President Obama has in three years. Calling the President names …. whether it be cowboy, Hitler, warmonger, weak, or socialist … does not advance the causes or reputation of our country. However, our own leader blaming everyone but himself and calling his own citizens names is much more damaging, in my humble opinion. If I were on a GOP Presidential campaign, all my ads would include the long list of names he has called us.

We deserve better and we deserve a better leader.