OPINION:
President Obama does not practice what he preaches. For example, it seems like just yesterday that, invoking the suffering of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other victims of the Tucson, Ariz., shooting, he called for civility. Harsh rhetoric and divisive politics are supposed to be things of the past, according to our president. During his don’t-spike-the-ball, I-got-bin-Laden campaign tour, Mr. Obama once again invoked the spirit of national unity and civil discourse.
Then, last week, our calm, rational, civility-promoting president accused Republicans of wanting to build a moat and fill it with alligators to keep out illegal aliens. Apparently, Mr. Obama does not believe in leading by example. What happened to the allegation that harsh political rhetoric pushes people to violence?
The speech in which Mr . Obama made his hate-filled remarks was billed as an attempt to jump-start immigration reform, but it actually was a campaign speech paid for by taxpayers for the purpose of inciting Latinos to hate Republicans and vote for Democrats.
How odd that Mr. Obama should insinuate that Republicans are bigots after he spent 20 long years in that hate-filled church in Chicago. How odd that this president should invoke the religious unity that arose immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, when he listened to his pastor curse the United States the very first Sunday following that horrible day. How bizarre that this president should condemn divisiveness and then jet off in the middle of 2 1/2 wars and a looming government shutdown to honor the likes of Al Sharpton and his rent-a-mob. And how hypocritical that this man talks of supporting the free-enterprise system out of one side of his mouth while encouraging the “have-nots” to hate the “haves” out of the other.
Above all else, it is astounding that Mr. Obama should mock Republican concerns about border security just a few short miles from a park that has become the dumping ground for the bodies of the victims of Mexico’s drug wars.
Perhaps it is time we hold accountable an administration that so prides itself on accountability.
GERARD CUNNINGHAM
Wilton, Conn.
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