Barack Obama is not a leader. Before becoming president, he had never been in charge of anything. He had never managed a business, never met a payroll, never balanced a budget. As a United States senator for all of 141 days, he had never chaired either a committee or a subcommittee, for obvious reason: He hadn't been there long enough to do either. His background before entering politics was that of an academic and a "community organizer."
"If there's any real lynching to be done, it'll be done in the dark, Southern style. They'll bring their masks, and they'll fetch a Man along. Now go! And take your half a man with you." -- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The preceding quotation is taken from the chapter entitled, "Why The Lynching Bee Failed," and details how one man single-handedly faced down an entire mob of would-be lynchers. In his monologue to the mob, Colonel Sherburne never says specifically what a Man is supposed to be, but he is quite specific about what a Man isn't: It isn't Buck Harkness, the supposed leader of the lynch mob.
What does Huckleberry Finn have to do with presidential politics? Simply this: We elect our presidents to be leaders, and whatever else Barack Hussein Obama may be, he is not a leader. As Buck Harkness was not a "Man," so Barack Obama is not a leader. Before becoming president, he had never been in charge of anything. He had never managed a business, never met a payroll, never balanced a budget. As a United States senator for all of 141 days, he had never chaired either a committee or a subcommittee, for obvious reason: He hadn't been there long enough to do either. His background before entering politics was that of an academic and a "community organizer."
Just what is a "community organizer," and just how necessary are such people? Consider the community in which you live. Does it have a community organizer? Most likely not. If not, then how has your community managed to function without one? Conversely, how could your community be either more or better organized if it had a community organizer than it already is? I leave it to the reader to answer such questions for himself.
Upon examination, we find "community organizer" to be simply a code phrase for that most familiar of political fixtures, the demagogue -- and demagoguery is not leadership. It takes no real skill or talent to stir up a mob. Anyone with enough passion in his soul (and, these days, a bullhorn) can do it. I refer again to Buck Harkness.
True leadership requires more than simply the ability to persuade. It requires the ability to plan, direct, take command, and follow through. It requires, to use a shopworn phrase, grace under fire. And these qualities Barack Obama does not have. He is simply a "community organizer."
Barack Obama is not a leader. He is a disciple of Marxist radical Saul Alinsky, whose book, Rules For Radicals, serves as a blueprint for undermining a free representative republic and moving it over to communism -- and disciples, by definition, are followers, not leaders. To those who would say Obama showed leadership in his initial government takeovers of private enterprises, and in saddling America with a health care plan the majority of its citizens didn't want -- with, of course, the aid of the irresponsible, out-of-control 111th Congress -- I would point out that there is an immense difference between leadership and tyranny. True leaders lead their people. They don't work against them.
The truth is, Barack Hussein Obama has failed every test of true leadership. The examples of such failures abound profusely: the failed "stimulus package," the "Cash For Clunkers" program, the Cambridge Cop fiasco, the apology tours, the BP oil disaster, Egypt, Libya, the out-of-control national debt, rising unemployment, and a foreign policy that literally defies logic. All of this and more can be laid at Obama's doorstep. Even in those instances where he might have been giving the appearance of leadership he was really following -- and not just following, but specifically following the lead of the one man of he was supposed to be the antithesis: former president George W. Bush.
He was supposed to end our involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then continued them. He was supposed to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, and then, realizing the consequences of such action if taken, continued them for those earning less than $250,000 per year. He was supposed to close down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and then didn't when it became apparent that no state wanted to house the military prisoners there. He was supposed to change the trial of the Guantanamo detainees from military tribunals to civilian court cases, then went back to military tribunals. Even his greatest supposed triumph, the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, would not have been possible but for the groundwork laid by George W. Bush, leaving it for Obama to simply follow the blueprint.
In grace under fire, or, to put it another way, the ability to think on one's feet, Obama has been most conspicuously found wanting. Faced with a crisis that calls for real leadership, Obama waffles, dithers, and tends to remind us of Ralph Kramden, helplessly stammering whenever Alice caught him stepping out of line. Rather than facing challenges, he flees them: He plays golf, takes refuge in basketball, takes trips and vacations. In the 2-1/2 years he's been in office, he's already played more golf than Dwight Eisenhower did in his entire eight, and, by my count, taken more vacations than I have in my nearly 18 years with my present employer. As our friends in Britain might put it, he's had himself a jolly good time on the taxpayers' dollars, wallowing in luxury even as he lectures those same taxpayers on the supposed need for "shared sacrifices."
As if all this weren't bad enough in itself, this fiasco of an administration spreads into the Obama cabinet as well: Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Eric Holder as attorney general, Janet Napoletano as secretary of homeland security, Leon Panetta as director of the CIA, Tim Geithner as treasury secretary, and two holdovers from the Bush Administration, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernancke and defense secretary Robert Gates, neither of whom do any real credit to the man who appointed them, and, of course, all those unelected, unaccountable "czars." Then, to top it all off, there at the proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency sits Joe Biden, probably best described by one of his fellow Delaware residents as the smartest man Joe Biden ever met. All the standard cliches of incompetence come into play here: The inmates are running the asylum, the fox is guarding the henhouse, Dracula holds the key to the blood bank, the Three Stooges are in the operating room, and justice is in the hands of the Keystone Kops. It would all make for rather rollicking comedy if only it weren't for real.
People, this is what happens when we allow the news media and the entertainment industry to pick our presidents for us. This is what happens when we abandon logic and reason and vote with our emotions. Entertainers live in a world apart from the Rest Of Us, a make-believe world in which they are insulated from the trials of day-to-day living the Rest Of Us face on a regular basis. They literally have no idea how the Rest Of Us think, act, or live. The"mainstream" news media, which today could be considered an extension of the entertainment industry, likewise lives in a world apart from the Rest Of Us. As former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg writes in his excellent book, Bias, these are people for whom the heart and soul of mainstream America resides in midtown Manhattan and Georgetown, and for whom places like Boise, Idaho and Joplin, Missouri, are just as foreign as Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo -- perhaps even more so. Theirs is a world of newsrooms, Fifth Avenue taxicabs, four-star restaurants, and, having been thoroughly schooled and indoctrinated in liberal academia, homogenous political opinion. Using themselves and each other as political focal points, they can say with a perfectly straight face, as did former CBS news anchor Dan Rather, that the New York Times editorial page represents the middle of the road on the political spectrum. What's truly scary about this is not that this is simply the idea they're trying to sell this to the Rest Of Us, but that they themselves actually believe it! And these are the people from whom the Rest Of Us get our information!
Is it then, any wonder that those who live in a make-believe world have sold to us a make-believe president? A president upon whom they have bestowed godlike attributes with absolutely no corroboration? A president who wins Nobel Peace Prizes for his good intentions alone, with no need or requirement that he ever make good on them? A president to whom hymns of praise are sung in certain public schools simply because he is who he is? As Barack Obama is perhaps only starting to learn, it is one thing to accept deification from fawning sycophants, and quite another to actually live up to all the hype. News flash for those who don't already know it: Our current president cannot walk on water (unless, of course, it's frozen solid), change water into wine, cure people of deadly afflictions, or bring the dead back to life. The Man who actually could and did do all of that and more walked the earth over 2,000 years ago -- and his name was not Barack Hussein Obama.
According to a recent Fox News poll, 57 percent of respondents believe Barack Obama will be reelected. The question that should be on everyone's mind right now is, do we really want four more years of what we have right now? Can we even afford it? Current Democrat spin has it that the Republican field of candidates is in disarray, and that none of the current hopefuls have a chance of beating Obama. Oh really? Well, consider this: Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Sarah Palin have all been successful governors. They know how to balance budgets, because they've done it. Herman Cain has been a successful businessman who took a failing business and turned it around. He knows how to meet a payroll because he's done it. Newt Gingrich was a successful House speaker who presented a balanced budget so President Bill Clinton could take credit for it. This is just a sampling. Barack Obama, on the other hand, came to the presidency with an empty resume, a Senate record with many votes of simply "present," and no real record of accomplishment since assuming the nation's highest office. Unbeatable? Hardly.
Recalling again the analogy of Buck Harkness, in 1992 America sent a Boy to do a Man's job. Predictably, the Boy acted just like the Boy he was, not like the Man he wasn't -- but he got reelected anyway. His legacy today consists mainly of a record of having taken credit for the work of others. In 2008, we once again sent a Boy to do a Man's job, and once again, predictably, he has failed to deliver. Now, after a record of total failure, he wants us to hire him again for a second term. With decision time less than a year and a half away now, will we have learned from our experience? Or will the observation of George Santayana, that those who do not remember history will be condemned to repeat it, be confirmed once again?
Tim Siggia
Tim Siggia is from Hartford Connecticut, and attended Central Connecticut State College (now Central Connecticut State University) from 1963-67 and then joined the United States Navy. In 1973 he completed a bachelor or arts degree in English at the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham. In 1991 he retired from the Navy at the grade of Chief Journalist after which he joined the United States Postal Service, from which he is due to retire in 2012. He now lives in East Hartford Connecticut with his wife Penny. They have three sons and six grandchildren
Both conventions trotted out women and Hispanic office holders, and there were no real surprises here. The difference, however, was in tone. The general Republican tone was upbeat and positive. While Obama's policies were deservedly attacked, Obama himself was not. Candidate Romney, in fact, seemed to go to great length to point out that while Barack Obama was a good family man, he was a bad president
Due to the recent change in government, Egypt exerts little authority over the Sinai Peninsula, which allows smugglers to operate without any interference, the police source stated. The central smuggling route to Gaza is based on the transfer of weapons from Iran to Sudan, from where the weapons are moved into Egypt before being smuggled into Gaza. Because Egypt's government remains in a state of flux, weapons smugglers are finding it easier to move contraband from Egypt into the Palestinian territories.
So, if a Democrat can't run on his record and his presidency was therefore unsuccessful, he then turns in desperation to the last Democrat president whose presidency was successful -- in this case, Clinton. This does not bother me personally; in fact, it amuses me more than anything else. What bothers me is the stubborn perception of Bill Clinton as having been a great president.
Definition: King's Calendar Chronological Research
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix 5. to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been drastically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
(He has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003 and currently (2013) is teaching in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province.)
