Last Update: Tuesday, 18 August, 2009 18:59
Putting a Child in Charge
By Alan Caruba on (Mar 17, 09)
The last time America elected a young President it was John F. Kennedy, age 44
when he took office…
The result was the Bay of Pigs fiasco involving an ill-fated invasion of Cuba to
overthrow Fidel Castro and the decision to step in for the defeated French in
Vietnam. Other comparable decisions were cut short by his assassination. We
remember him mostly for his stirring inaugural speech, but his choice of Lyndon
Johnson as his Vice President gave us the escalation of the Vietnam War and
Great Society social spending that proved to be a waste of billions.
Now we have a President who is 47, a very young age to be running the greatest
economic and military power in the world. He had, on taking office, already
written two autobiographical memoirs, but people are slowly becoming aware of
the fact that there is virtually no paper trail by which to measure him. His
birth certificate and legal standing to be President are in dispute. Records
from his college days are hidden from view.
His record as a one-term Illinois legislator is replete with “present” votes
that revealed little about his political positions. He did not even wait to
complete a full term as a U.S. Senator before almost immediately beginning to
run for the highest office in the land.
In terms of political leadership, he is a child among grownups and a petulant
one at that.
His first months in office have demonstrated an astonishing lack of judgment
regarding those who he appointed to office, many of whom were revealed to be tax
cheats and others who have since demonstrated a distinct lack of competence or
preparation for positions of critical importance. Why, for example, would he
appoint a longtime political operative like Leon Panetta to be the Director of
the CIA?
His initial policy decisions and statements panicked Wall Street and were it not
for grownups like Ben Bernacke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the steps
taken by President Bush prior to his taking office, the economy might have
suffered even greater damage. His decisions in office, however, are widely
decried as a repetition of all the errors made by the FDR administration that
prolonged the Great Depression.
While babbling endlessly about “energy independence” he has again banned any
offshore exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas. His preferences for
solar and wind energy ignore the fact that, while heavily subsidized by taxpayer
funding, these two “clean” energies provide barely one percent of the
electricity the nation requires and are the two least efficient and impractical
means of generating power.
While deploring “earmarks” he signed an “imperfect” stimulus bill that contained
nine thousand of them.
Foreign policy under President Obama has been characterized by ignoring the
human rights and security needs of nations like Poland, Tibet, and Israel.
Despite more than a half century of resisting the communist domination of Cuba,
he has softened that and is likely to abandon it.
He has insisted on a swift withdrawal of troops from Iraq despite the obvious
need to provide vital protection against the forces that would undermine its
newly minted democracy. He insists on transferring troops to Afghanistan in a
war that few regard as anything other than a prolonged insurgency with little
prospect of a successful outcome.
Obama may be our first President with Attention Deficit Disorder. He went from
declaring we faced an economic “catastrophe” to saying the economy was still
strong in just over a month. Maybe that accounts for his dependence on the
TelePrompter which, we’re told, goes everywhere he does.
We’re watching an already long list of fatally flawed decisions and I suggest
that we are looking at a combination of his socialist ideology, his youth and
inexperience, and a narcissism that cannot tolerate criticism no matter its
source.
His greatest support comes from a younger generation of Americans with virtually
no knowledge of the nation’s history, no grasp of the economic issues affecting
it, and no more political insight than to rely on “hope and change” without
understanding that these are not, nor ever were sufficient to the task of being
in charge of a great nation with great challenges.
Politically, emotionally, and intellectually, Barack Hussein Obama is a child.
This has become increasingly evident with every passing day.
It is not too soon to demand those hidden documents. It is not too soon for the
Democrats in Congress to realize that supporting his policies represents a grave
danger to the nation and their reelection. It is not too soon to begin working
to neutralize him by electing a Republican controlled Congress in 2010.
The military’s meritocracy is based on experience that comes with age and proven
leadership. We require that our police act in a disciplined and mature way when
dealing with law-breakers. We don’t put children in charge of our schools.
We don’t believe or support people who regard carbon dioxide—vital to all life
on Earth—to be a “pollutant” that must be regulated and used to raise billions
for a profligate government while wrecking its economy.
“The secret of eternal youth is arrested development,” said Alice Longworth
Roosevelt, a keen observer of life and the politics of the nation’s capitol. She
passed away in 1980, but she would reaffirm the truth of that opinion if she was
watching the Obama administration at work.
Caruba blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com and weekly on the
website of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com
By Alan Caruba on Mar 17, 09