Obama Hasn't Lived Up to Hype

 

By Bradley Blakeman
Newsmax.com

President Obama is facing a very tough re-election thanks to the many missteps, policy setbacks, and scandals plaguing the White House of late.

The president in 2008 campaigned with trusted Chicago political operatives. When he won, he rewarded them with plumb White House assignments, and other government jobs. The problem is that the people who get you to the White House are not necessarily the folks you need around you to help govern.

The president is learning the hard way that it is much easier to campaign than to govern. In the campaign of 2008, he was against the surge in Iraq, the Bush tax cuts, Guantanamo. Etc.

As president, Guantanamo remains open, Obama reauthorized the Bush tax cuts and he has followed the Bush strategy on Iraq — just to name a few highlights of his first term.

During the 2008 campaign, then Sen. Obama vowed to pass immigration reform within his first year in office. Has anyone heard anything meaningful on immigration reform since he took office? The answer is clearly no because, the entire administration has become bogged down in the manufactured “crisis” on healthcare, which has morphed into a constitutional crisis — pitting the judiciary against the legislative and executive branches.

Let’s not forget the $800 Billion stimulus bill that was to prevent our national unemployment from rising above 8 percent. Unemployment has not been below 8 percent since Obama set foot in the White House. And, if you take into account under employment — and those who have given up looking for work — the number is twice that.

The president and his staff believed with all their hearts, that if we would only apologize to the world for perceived past transgressions, sworn enemies and detractors would change their ways, and we would all live happily ever after. Well, Iran has gotten more aggressive and is close to Israeli taking out its unlawful nuclear facilities. Under its latest puppet dictator, North Korea has engaged in provocative and dangerous behavior toward the West, and the U.S. in particular.

I used to think that it was just the president receiving very bad advice across the board that hindered him. But clearly he deserves much of the blame for his failures. He is not acting like a president and he continues to be stuck in campaign mode. As a result, he has not been leading or governing effectively. As a candidate, Sen. Obama had all the answers. He told us that he had well thought out policies to fix everything from the economy to healthcare — not to mention his well-intentioned attempts at convincing the Iranians and North Koreans to abandon their nuclear ambitions.

Obama promised to conduct the most open and transparent administration our nation has ever seen. Instead, the facts are that his administration has turned out to be the most closed and clandestine. Whether it is the appointment of more than 40 czars without Senate confirmation, or officials taking the Fifth with regard to DOJ gun running, GSA waste, fraud and abuse, or the Energy Department’s approval of hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to failed companies and the latest Secret Service frat party at the Columbia Summit. And who can forget the stimulus and Obamacare being pushed through without public notice and without time for legislators to read the bills they are called upon to vote on?

We now know that the president has no policies, vision, and only ambition. He has been and continues to be a leader who rules out of ideology instead of realty.

President Obama has ceded much of his power to the legislative branch, or to Czars accountable to no one but him. He tells Congress to come up with legislative solutions that he can sign while telling his czars to implement policy without the need for oversight or authority. He is a “no-heavy lifting” executive, who is letting the inmates run the asylum. A seasoned staff of professionals would never let the president get himself bogged down like this. This president is surrounded by the “C” team of campaign operatives and friends that he should have shed long ago in favor of a professional staff that understands the powers and prestige of the presidency — from a historical, political, legal, and practical perspective. The president does not possess the requisite experience or judgment without help from others competent enough to help.

Alas, it is too late for him to change. This president is now circling the wagons like Custer for a last stand in November.

His campaign operatives, who masqueraded for three-plus years as government officials and experts, are now going back to what they do best — managing a campaign.

However their best in 2008 may not be good enough in 2012.

The reality is that there is no more Bush to blame. Obama and company cannot hide from a record of failure and incompetence.

This election will not turn on diversion. It will turn on the economy, debt, and jobs. An added bonus would be the defeat of Obamacare, and light shone on the president’s numerous scandals, highlighting the incompetence of a president that is clearly out of his league.

A significant majority of Americans believe they are not better off today than they were in 2009, and the same citizens are fearful for their future. They believe America is on the wrong track.

America should be prepared for a 2012 Election season chock full of diversion, blame and attack.

Despite Obama 2012’s best efforts to confuse, obscure, pander and divide, we find ourselves with little hope.

We will seek change.


Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04. He is currently a professor of Politics and Public Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent contributor to Fox News Opinion. Read more reports from Bradley Blakeman — Click Here Now.

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