by David Kilpatrick
“Vacuum Rose Law files”, the infamous phrase described by the Clintons to mean, “there is nothing in the Rose Law files”, could now be re-written as “Vacuum White House” – as there is absolutely no leadership in the White House.
We knew during the Obama campaign leading to his election in 2008 that Obama had no experience in leading a city, county, state, country, basketball team, corner store or ice cream stand. But, he made great speeches, so we elected him to lead the greatest country on Earth. As such, we are now without a leader during times when speeches are not the solution. Don’t get me wrong; I like a great speech as much as the next guy, but it seems to me that talk and action are two entirely different things and the time for talk expired a couple years back – now we’re left waiting for the action. When’s that going to come? Oh, you might say, “Obama passed health care reform,” but did you also notice how he has given out 1000 exemptions from the law that supposedly all men enjoy equal protection under to largely political allies including big corporations, unions, and even entire states? If his crowning glory of health care reform is so great an accomplishment and was delivering “greater access and lower costs without adding a dime to the deficit” – why would so many political friends need to opt out? Remember the rush to pass it “in order to find out what’s in it,” as the great Nancy Pelosi mentioned? Where was Obama’s leadership of the nation while Reid and Pelosi were going through procedural contortions that put normally straight-forward business through something akin to the pretzel making process? Vacuum White House.
We knew Obama wanted the support of immigrants, but is the president not interested in enforcing the law? Seems there was something about that in that pesky oath of office thing. So, when Arizona saw that no leadership was coming from the White House in the way of immigration reform, Arizona took it upon itself to pass laws allowing them to determine if wrongdoers were in the country illegally. While offering no assistance past marvelous speeches, Obama’s justice department decided to sue the State of Arizona before even reading the sixteen page law! I’m not sure that a legal battle is the help Arizona or any other state is looking for, but I guess it’s a new form of leadership? Leadership through lawsuit? Don’t interfere with our lack of leadership or we’ll sue you? To this day, when it comes to illegal immigration: Vacuum White House.
Should we discuss the war in Afghanistan? Months after the officers on the ground said they needed more troops, Obama finally approved 30,000. What about the men who died during the months of waiting? Where was White House leadership? Anywhere? This pattern of absent leadership reminds me of the line in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when the teacher played by Ben Stein was taking roll, “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” Today, it would sound like this: “Obama? Obama? Obama? Obama?” it seems we are all living through a movie right now titled, “Barack Obama’s Day Off”. Tough day on the golf course, Mr. President? One would expect that a president would be sitting down with his generals during a time of war, when time is of the essence (war is always a matter of life and death – we were so frequently reminded while Bush was in office) and getting things done in an expedited fashion! Why leave our men and women standing in harm’s way while playing golf? Ah, yes… Vacuum White House.
Has anyone seen the budget that the Democrats were supposed to pass last year as required by law? No? Well, that’s ok. The Democrats haven’t seen it either. The president’s party decided that spending so much with no noticeable positive impact during an election year made a written budget such a disgusting tar baby that it would be better to just forget about leadership altogether and punt – leave the Republicans to fix it in the next session. Now, that’s leadership for you. Run the opposite direction even when the law requires that you act. They would face consequences for breaking the law, except for one of my favorite Al Gore quotes: “No governing authority.” In other words – we lawmakers don’t need to adhere to laws; laws are for you little people. Not to worry though! Surely President Obama, the savior of our generation (Yes we can!), will step up and let his congressional pals know that simply kicking the “yes we can” down the road is no way to govern, right? Wrong. Budgets? What budgets? We don’t need no stinkin’ budgets! Maybe this entire “Barack Obama’s Day Off” movie has been edited to include scenes from “Treasures of the Sierra Madre”? Finally – months after your popcorn went stale – Barack Obama broke loose with a budget that included “tough choices” and “hard decisions”. Tough decisions like what? Whether or not to raise, stand, draw, or spit in the ocean? What was he talking about? Oh, yes, it was just more talk – no real action. The budget shows no leadership on any difficult issue and, once again, punts it back to the Republicans to cut the deficit that Obama promised to make his top priority. Obama leadership? Vacuum White House.
Oh, no. It’s time to look at foreign policy. Remember the Clinton campaign ad about the phone ringing at 3:00am? She was asking who you would want answering it, right? It seems that Obama has, indeed, solved the problem. He took the phone off the hook. It reminds me a little of the time I was in San Francisco and the mayor (I can’t remember which) had just won by promising to put all of the city busses back on time as they were always late. After he took office, he was reminded of the promise and solved the problem with true hard-decision, liberal leadership fashion: He had the bus schedules reprinted to add the word “approximately” next to the pick-up times. I saw that and had to slap my forehead, pull my hand down my face, and cover my mouth in utter disbelief at the audacity. When I was informed that the bus drivers are union workers, it all became clear. Anyway… Tunisia in revolt, Egypt on fire, Libya breaking into pieces, Iran cracking down on demonstrators, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain… not a sound from the White House. Peace through weakness? Is that the new road to world stability? You may argue that it’s hard to know which side of the issue to be on when the same populations rioting now were the same bunch of Muslim sand-monkeys that were celebrating in the streets over the deaths of innocent Americans during the fall of the World Trade Center towers, but coddling our enemies while scolding our allies seems to be the best we can expect from a busy president working on those back nine holes. Which club would Obama use on this tricky shot? Your guess is as good as his. What about the Somali pirates? Is this 1811 or 2011? Any steps being taken to destroy their ports or ships or abilities to collect ransoms – or will that problem simply vanish when the planet “heals itself”? Vacuum White House.
Leadership on the environment? What - getting the EPA to declare carbon dioxide a pollutant? Great. Now the government can classify breathing (you see, kids, you breathe out carbon dioxide) an environmentally threatening activity – making polluters out of all of us, even those of you that spit your old chewing gum into your pocket. That’s just what we needed. Thank you so much, President Obama. It’s getting colder outside already as a result of that pile of horse hockey. The government can now regulate my breathing. Is that “change I can believe in”? Where’s Obama to help clear up that bit of confusion and overreach? Vacuum White House.
Where’s the leadership on job creation and the economic stimulus? Billions spent on “shovel-ready” jobs that, as it turns out, don’t actually exist. Maybe his wonderful speech was the only thing that required a shovel. What about the private sector? New burdensome regulations and expenses for every new person hired – and we scratch our heads in wonder when businesses stop hiring. Who could have seen that coming? Hello, President Obama? Is this microphone on? Tap, tap, tap… Vacuum White House
On the ongoing crisis that many states are facing as a result of high-spending policies, several states are noticing that mandatory union membership and awesome benefit packages are driving the cost of government much higher while also providing the "double-whammy" of driving businesses away from or out of the state altogether – effectively making more and more people reliant on government checks in the face of a diminishing tax base. Clearly, that’s not a practice that can be allowed to carry on forever as mountains of debt grow to unsustainable levels. The Democrats, elected to govern who find themselves in the minority as a result of their disastrous policies, have decided to simply walk away from their jobs. This is the same as saying, “We can’t win with votes, so we will force the will of the minority over the will of the majority by crippling democracy.” Could the Democrat’s despise for the democratic process be made any more obvious? No worry, President Obama will be on the phone, demonstrating leadership, and letting the errant Democrats know that they are not the winners of the last election and their duty is to go to work, make the case before the voters, and win the next election. That’s what’s going on, right? Well, no. Obama is watching the wheels come off of democracy in the states and saying… nothing. No leadership detected from Obama at all. Vacuum White House.
Black Panthers threatening voters – no prosecutions. Rest assured that if Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had been threatening voters that heads would have rolled. But, our new and improved justice department has the new and improved position of only prosecuting people we want to prosecute and only upholding the laws we believe in. The law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman – what happened there? We don’t really believe in that one, so no more legal defense of that. Forget the fact that it’s a law and was passed properly by majorities in both parties. I guess a good president only enforces certain laws that favor his personal views? That would be a first. That would also be the same approach taken by a dictator. What happened to the process of getting the votes necessary to change the law? No need to do that anymore? Obama said he was the president of ALL, not just his constituency. So far, I haven’t seen that. On the basic responsibility of enforcing the laws as they exist: vacuum White House.
How long can we go on successfully without a leader? Obama is not leading; he’s pushing a personal agenda. Anything that is not part of his agenda, be it international or domestic, will simply be ignored. We need a strong leader, not grand speeches in a power vacuum. So far, Obama is a grand disappointment who is not ready or willing to lead a nation. He is in the job for his own purposes, not for the purposes of the American people.
