Egypt | In My Opinion

President Obama Is Not Being Very Presidential

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The President of the United States should be the country’s leader. As a leader, he should attempt to represent the entire constituency to the best of his ability and to seek common ground among the varying points of view. I guess it’s not news to you or to anyone that what Obama has succeeded in doing through much of his impromptu rhetoric, which may not be exactly what he had intended – or perhaps it is since he is not a stupid person! – is to send the country into a greater schism. Obama appears to be calculating in all his endeavors.

Even after campaigning on a platform of bringing unity, he has created a greater division among philosophical and political groups than ever existed before. In this, he receives support of his cronies and the mainstream media. Perhaps that is why he feels comfortable in being divisive even though he promised during his campaign to “bring the two sides” together. But, how can you call a significant group of your “constituency” derogatory names or “diss” them in public forums if you truly want them to be included in a unified group?

I know that this may be a peculiar claim, but President Obama has spent the last few years (well before his run for the presidency) establishing his own constituency. . . and obviously, it’s not the American population at large! It has been evident from Day One of his presidency that Obama intended to establish himself not as a leader of a united American people, but as someone who will use his high office to repay those to whom he is indebted politically and those special interest groups who had financed his rise to the most powerful position in the country (dare I say the world anymore?). I could take up time and space listing all those entities, but we all know of whom I speak. Suffice it to say that he obviously has enormous debts to special groups of far left idealogues with whom he’s been closely tied all of his life, and he also has political debts to repay to those within the political circles who heavily backed him in his run for the White House. To what end? I will answer that in a moment.

Rather than giving leadership to his own country, he behaves as a populist trying to “up” his image among national leaders who include the most despicable of despots. By trying to garner favorable standing with that part of the global community, he is failing miserably at maintaining his favor with the US allies; and thus, has strained if not done real harm to the foundation of those relationships. For example, one of our closest allies, Israel, has been treated with total contempt.

On the home front, in his role as leader of the free world, Obama certainly earns a low grade, perhaps an “F”, surely nothing higher than a “D-“. Many times he has shown he lacks the “class” and maturity that a national leader – yea, a world leader – should possess. Without his teleprompter (or when he goes off-script) he demonstrates a grammar-schoolish approach to handling himself, forgetting at times who he is. At those times, or when he has his “posse” with him, Obama likes to portray the “playground bully”, belittling or “dissing” those who disagree with his politics, primarily those with a conservative point of view and who revere the Constitution as it was implemented by our forefathers.

So to what end? Ever the campaigner, Obama appears to be running for the office which is still being sought by former president Bill Clinton, that of President of the World. And, as he did as an inexperienced Senator, Obama is running for that position even before gaining experience in his present one. However, I believe he is finding it not quite as easy to do this time since there are more competitors in play. And too, Obama is finding that he’s not “riding as high” as he once was in the polls with those he’s supposed to be leading.

It would, of course, be important for him to remain in the good graces of the US population if he is to have any hope of a second term. (Or it may be that he’s expecting to leapfrog quickly to that “new office” like he did to the White House!) In regards to 2012 elections, he obviously feels he needn’t worry too much about his majority of his base of Democrats and Independents, and even some of the Republicans who “crossed over” (who have, as a rule, suffered from short-term memory loss spanning one to two elections). However, more and more of the independents, and even some of his more moderate Democratic base, are beginning to tire of his avant-garde style of presidency.

Let me remind you with examples from his own words and actions just how Obama shows the lack of character that a leader in his position should have.

He denigrates the police force, the symbol of civil authority, who are doing their job as policy and laws dictate.
He snubs those who dare to present the opposing side of an issue, or who present both sides in fairness to all.
He resort to name-calling when he doesn’t have a legitimate response.
He employs underhanded tactics to push through his agenda rather than listening to the voice of the people and working on a compromise as a starting point to implement change.
He snubs our strongest allies: Canada, the UK, and Israel.
He embraces others with anti-American sentiments: Saudi Arabia (the infamous bow), Egypt the (Cairo University speech), and others (like the infamous Chavez handshake).