We are stunned at the complete fecklessness exhibited by the Obama administration.
The Obama administration that’s been elected in two solid Electoral College landslides.
The Obama administration that holds the bully pulpit of the planet’s most powerful office as well as one half of the legislature, at least 20 percent of the Supreme Court and the head of every administrative and regulatory agency in Washington. That one.
We’re not just talking about this week’s follies: the IRS stalking of antitax groups — which actually seems logical, if excessive; the warrantless blanket seizure of reporters’ phone and email records; or the ongoing Benghazi sideshow, though those incidents, put together, do paint a picture of a president disinterested if not disdainful of the art of effective management.
What we’re really talking about is his complete failure to enact a proactive agenda, his knuckling under to boisterous minority groups on key issues, and a general demeanor that perhaps he has no right to be in the Oval Office.
What part of the word “ mandate” is unclear to this president? And why isn’t he moving to cement a legacy beyond just “fixing a tattered economy”?
Let’s go back to the State of the Union speech. We were promised movement on a laundry list of progressive priorities. Climate change. Protecting government “entitlements.”
And stricter gun laws. With 90 percent of Americans supporting background checks, Obama couldn’t even get Senate Democrats from conservative-leaning states to back him up, and lost badly to the National Rifle Association in a giddy demonstration of reckless minority rule.
The sequester? No one is happy with it, and he’s been unable to unravel it. So kids and the elderly suffer with cuts to Head Start and Meals on Wheels.
Taxation? Sure, he won a levy on millionaires during the “fiscal cliff ” circus in December, but he then let the payroll tax expire — essentially raising taxes on anyone who earns a paycheck — and has said he would consider altering eligibility rules for Social Security and Medicare, essentially green-lighting an attack on the fixed incomes of the elderly.
Climate change? Does anyone seriously believe he’s shown the courage sufficient to take on ExxonMobil or the utility industry?
On gay rights, he’s been a follower. Only when the polls started breaking heavily in favor of same- sex marriage did he “evolve” into supporting it.
Obama has not vigorously pursued the agenda items he outlined in his inaugural address. As a two-term president elected with solid majorities, these should be his prerogative to enact.
The luster of being the nation’s first black president and the heat of economic crisis from his first term both have abated (the latter to his credit).
He’s been to the mountaintop. But if he has a dream, it’s time to make it a reality because it’s starting to look a bit like a nightmare.
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