Thoughts of Obama from Bama

Week 72: A Question of Leadership

"If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. "
Coach Paul Bear Bryant

Our great nation is in dire need of some serious, sober, and inspired leadership.

Currently confronting several life and death crisis including two shooting wars; a war with global radical Islamic Jihadist; an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented proportions in the Gulf; exploding unsustainable spending and debt; unemployment at historically high levels; out of control criminal illegal immigration; and rogue nations the likes of Iran developing nukes and North Korea committing acts of war against South Korea with impunity we need people of substance leading with conviction, courage, and wisdom.

Sadly, all we get from the change gang is empty rhetoric, focus group poll tested political talking points (if we hear the Obama propagandist say they have been all over the oil spill like white on rice since “day one” one more time it may be time to send the entire White House staff to the bottom of the gulf and use their pointy heads to plug up that hole) and finger pointing taken to a level not seen in Washington since the liberal establishment got so worked up blaming W for Katrina.
It’s truly impossible to imagine hearing Our Pathological Narcissist Finger Pointer-in-Chief ever uttering anything close to Coach Bryant’s words of wisdom above let alone demonstrating the leadership qualities at the heart of his message. The Obama version sounds a lot more like:

"If anything goes bad, W did it. If anything goes semi-good, I did it with a little help from others. If anything goes real good, I did it Obama self.”

Our leadership deficit Poser-in-Chief pales in comparison to previous Presidents, historical figures and current leaders who motivate and inspire by example, give credit where credit is due and take responsibility for their own actions. A review of some of their thoughts and philosophies compared to Mr. Obama’s Marxist/Socialist views is truly revealing:

• “Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” George Washington - Bill Ayers, Domestic Terrorist; Reverend Wright, America hating racist; Staff and Cabinet full of tax cheats and Socialist
• "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. "Abraham Lincoln - Socialized Medicine; Nationalized Auto Industry; Nationalized Banking Industry; Gun Control; Labor/Union takeover of domestic work force; Nationalized Energy Industry – Cap and Tax Bill pending in Congress as we speak
• "I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." W - The”megaphone moment” many have commented has been missing in the Obama Administration. An accurate observation as genuine passion, rising to the occasion and inspired leadership can’t be fabricated or read off a teleprompter.
• 'You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.' Abraham Lincoln
• “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
Thomas Jefferson
• “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, or the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." Ronald Reagan
• “…We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be…” Sir Winston Churchill
• “We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way” General George S Patton
• “I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph” Margaret Thatcher
• “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” Peter Drucker - Sounds familiar. Photo opps, endless speeches, blaming BP, W and Wall Street ain’t getting the bulldog fed. Solve the problem!

Bless his little leadership challenged heart, our Soaring Orator of Empty Rhetoric-in-Chief’s idea of an effective leader is someone who makes idle threats trying to emulate Clint Eastwood while in reality coming across a lot more akin to the pride of Mayberry, Barnie Fife. During an interview this week with NBC’s Matt “Do I ever still have a man crush on Barack” Lauer the President proudly proclaimed he surrounds himself with government and academic experts so he’ll know whose ass to kick on the numerous problems that demand his attention.

Can’t say with 100 percent certainty but we don’t rightly recall Clint, The Duke, Bruce Willis or Jack Bauer/Keifer Sutherland waiting around for some academic egghead types to tell them whose ass needs kicking. Another leadership trait so abundant in people of real substance and action but conspicuosly absent from the DNA of Our Don’t Rightly Know For Sure Whose Ass To Kick-In-Chief.

A review of the man’s own words and thoughts further confirms his total lack of leadership skills. Reading the following makes us weep for our Country:

• "We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you're providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy." —on Wall Street reform, Quincy, Ill., April 29, 2010
• "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems." –attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009
• "The Cambridge police acted stupidly." Right after stating he didn’t have all the facts—commenting on a white police officer's arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Mass., at a news conference, July 22, 2009
• "No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." --making an off-hand joke during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" March 19, 2009
Class act, his sensitivity to physically challenged children is quite illuminating
• "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." -- defending his tax plan to Joe the Plumber, who argued that Obama's policy hurts small-business owners like himself, Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2008. See Lincoln’s comments above. Redistribution of wealth didn’t work in the 1860’s and will be an abject failure in the current decade.
• "What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith..." In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, who jumped in to correct Obama by saying "your Christian faith," which Obama quickly clarified. A Freudian slip? Allah the Great, Allah the Benevolent.
• "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." At a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon. Our supposedly brilliant Constitutional Scholar must be including his Socialist Comrades in Central and South America and Castro down in Cuba.
• "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." Explaining his troubles winning over some working-class voters. An arrogant, elitist viewpoint demonstrating total disdain for “We the People”.
• "The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society."

This country is in dire need of real leadership and it’s abundantly clear Barack Hussian Obama ain’t the man for the job. Besides, any man who would publically throw his own Grandmother under the bus and label her a racist for political expediency is nothing but a low life slug deserving of our scorn, ridicule and possibly a good ass kicking, figuratively speaking, of course.

I am, “American by Birth and Southern by the Grace of God”

Ron W. Garikes