OPINION:
Barack Obama is indeed incompetent as president, notwithstanding his intelligence and verbal slickness (“Our incompetent president,” Commentary, Thursday). Part of the problem is his inventive take on American history and America’s role, under his aegis, in the contemporary world.
While it is true he is uncomfortable with the concept of American exceptionalism, he most certainly accepts American primacy at this point in history, especially now that he is the primary point man. His foreign tours of apology thrilled throngs early on, but chill us now as it becomes apparent the good guys lack the wherewithal to pick up our slack and the bad guys are feasting on the earnest groveling the president assured us was the antidote to cowboy diplomacy.
Do he and his fans in progressive think tanks and ivy-covered campuses truly want a foreign policy based on perceived weakness? Offering a hand to our enemies may be worth a try, but giving the back of the same hand to our allies is just plain silly.
On the domestic scene, the president forces through health care legislation the majority of the people don’t want while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that “we must pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.” Mr. Obama’s administration sparkles with semantic finagling, as if referring to terrorist acts as “man-caused disasters” will magically change the calculus in the caves of Tora Bora and the hovels of North Waziristan.
Our Obama-described summer of recovery is anything but. We are about to raise taxes by letting the George W. Bush tax cuts expire while praying that a double-dip recession can be averted, and we continue to spend borrowed money in a manner that only a community organizer and his liberal buds could cheer.
This is the stuff of a “Saturday Night Live” skit, only no one is laughing.
PAUL BLOUSTEIN
Cincinnati
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