HEY, ANYBODY SEEN BARRY?

In nearly any region of the world today in which you may choose to look, I think it safe to say that bad things are happening. And yet, where is the leadership of America. The world not only expects it but depends on it, and when it is absent, a void that is left behind begs to be filled. And those hostile to the interests of America waste little time in taking advantage of the opportunity to displace this country. Now you would think that this would be of significant concern to the man who is our president. Again, you would think that our president would put a certain level of precedence on these events and the advocating of any number of possible solutions, above the planning of his next tee time or family outing. But unfortunately, such is not the case. So at a time when we have burgeoning debt crisis and financial collapse occurring right here at home, gas rapidly approaching 4 dollars a gallon, a horrific disaster that continues to unfold before our very eyes in Japan, a disaster, by the way, that could very well end up impacting more than just Japan in several different ways and Libya literally going up in smoke with hundreds of innocent people being slaughtered every day, just where the Hell is Barry? Has anybody checked the golf course lately? After all, I'm sure that we can all rest easier now that I guess he's felling pretty comfortable with his picks for the Final Four. Everywhere we look it seems that the world is beset with all manner of calamity and yet there is no sign of interest coming from Barry. I'm sure we all remember how deftly he handled the Gulf oil spill. Image had that been George W. Bush. We'd still be hearing stories in the state controlled media. But there continues to be nary a word in our "mainstream" press about how our president is so obviously missing in action, nor his dogged determination in refusing to exhibit any level of a leadership whatsoever.

Muammar Gaddafi, or however you spell that creep’s name, is seen every single day as moving relentlessly in his effort to crush the Libyan revolt that once promised the overthrow of one of the world's most despicable regimes. So while Barry was somewhat active in the encouraging of Mubarak to leave town in Egypt, where's Barry now? Was Mubarak that much more of a ruthless character than is Barry's "friend" Gaddafi? And Japan continues to face a very uncertain future to say the least, and may very well be on the verge of a disaster the magnitude of which could dwarf anything we have been witness to since World War II. A nation such as the United States needs the individual who professes to be its leader to take full measure of his position at times of crises, especially when the path forward is no longer clear. But Barry just doesn't seem to be up to the task. Which, I suppose, should come as no real surprise to anyone who recognizes his total shallowness as an individual, or his complete lack of any character. He is as they say, an empty suit. He seems incapable of grasping the significance of this moment in time. This is not "A" time for leadership; this is "THE" time for leadership. And yet, Barry remains blissfully MIA. The moment demands that he rise to the challenge of showing America and the world that he is willing to take the reins, that he is willing to lead us through this worldly obstacle course. That he is willing to step up to the plate and actually LEAD. How leaders act in times of unanticipated crisis, those in which they do not have a formulated game plan and must instead navigate in treacherous waters, defines them. Those who are able to think on their feet and can remain calm as others look to them for direction and guidance as well as to be decisive, they are the true leaders among us, no matter in what capacity that they are operating in. Barry isn't doing himself any favors as he goes about acting in ways that are defining him in such a way that could ultimately end up destroying him. But I see no indication that he is willing to make any changes.


You know, it isn't merely the fact that he isn't up to the task or incapable rising to the challenge. He is "avoiding" taking the challenge altogether, he's doing nothing more than he always does, he's voting present. He's the bystander who’s refusing to get involved. Here we have the one guy who can, with his teleprompter that's always at the ready, have access to a microphone 24/7, and yet he has been remarkably silent regarding events that are absolutely glaring in their need to be addressed. He has the power to tell the broadcast networks in the middle of the day that he, Barry "Almighty," has a major address to deliver on an unprecedented world situation, and they will cancel their programming to make time for his important message. And yet, since Friday and a press conference in which he managed to leave the American position on Libya even more muddled than it was before he decided to speak about, we have not heard his voice. By the "Messiah" having not chosen not to speak, he has spoke volumes regarding just how little concern he has for any of these ongoing world events. Except in a radio address where he talked about education legislation. However, he did choose to appear at a fund-raiser in DC and he did sit down with ESPN to reveal his NCAA picks. Boy, I sure feel better now. There are those, even on the Democrat side, who are now of the opinion that he simply cannot go on like this. And it has been said by Niall Ferguson, someone whom I am told is a very pessimistic economic historian, and has been echoed by many others, it would seem that the best we can now hope from this man who is now our president, is that he leaves the country in the same kind of shape that Jimmy Carter left it in. But aren't we already well passed the level of damage that Carter was able to inflict? And this guy, Barry, has only had the job for 2 years. Imagine the mess that will be left after 2 more years.


But as scary as his leadership failures may be to me, and despite how disastrously, even ineptly, he has handled any number of crises that have occurred over the course of the last two years, even scarier is the fact that he could still manage to turn his impotent presidency around. In his effort to succeed in that endeavor, Barry would do well to be thinking about following the example of a very unlikely Republican predecessor of his, our old buddy Richard "Tricky Dickie" Nixon. The many crises that Barry is now being confronted with are eerily similar to the kinds of calamities that greeted Nixon during his first term from 1969-1972. Then, as now, the world was quite a volatile place and had quite a number of hotspots. Wars had erupted between China and the Soviet Union, India and Pakistan, even El Salvador and Honduras. Jordan was nearly taken over from within by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). There were humanitarian disasters in Biafra (the result of civil war), Bangladesh (due to flooding) and Nicaragua (deadly earthquake). There was more, much more, including a war he inherited in Vietnam, just as Barry has the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So there are more than a few similarities. Plus the level of corruption present in both administrations can be said to be quite similar as well. And yet, Nixon got things turned around. So I suppose anything is possible, although nothing would make me happier than to see this guy go down in flames.


Nixon in 1968, unlike Barry 2008, was elected as a minority president with only 43 percent of the vote. Yet, in 1972, he won what, in some measures, was the most lopsided election in American history with 61 percent of the vote. So, how exactly was Nixon able to achieve such a feat? Well, in large measure it was because he appeared to be a serious man grappling in deadly earnest with the serious problems presented to him by a world that appeared to be careening out of control. He demonstrated what many viewed as being high competency when it came to matters on the world stage. He and his team (primarily Henry Kissinger) developed coherent policies and strategies for coping with a troubled world. There was no question, to friend or foe, that he was fully engaged, paying attention, and deeply involved. Now fast forward 40 years or so to today and compare what Nixon did to what Barry is doing, or I guess a better way to put it, what Barry is NOT doing. Have you ever seen a man who portrayed an image of paying less attention or being totally disengaged than Barry? He comes across as being totally disinterested. I lost count a very long time ago of the number of rounds of golf he has played, or the number of family vacations, at my expense, that he has taken. I think it goes without saying that this guy's priorities are more than just a little skewed. Sometimes I find myself wondering if this apparent disinterest of his isn't all part of his game plan. We know that he has a rather low opinion of the country that he was elected to lead. But it would seem that he is much more determined to be viewed as the individual who not only presided over, but was singularly responsible for, the decline of America and American stature throughout the world. It's as if he is doing all that he can, and as quickly as he can, to diminish America in the eyes of the entire world.


Now while I cannot argue against the fact that Nixon was in many ways an awful president, including the making of some of his foreign-policy choices, there was no doubt that foreign policy and America's leadership in the world regarding events taking place outside its borders was of paramount importance to him. All this had the dramatic effect of elevating Nixon during his time in office, so that when it came time to run against McGovern in 1972, Nixon seemed like a Titan to McGovern's appearance as being kind of a wimp by comparison. How Nixon conducted himself in office in times of crises made possible his triumphant re-election. Right now, the manner in which Barry is now busy conducting himself, and in a time of crisis, is having the complete opposite effect. He began his presidency as a potential colossus, remember the Roman-esque backdrop. He was the one that we were waiting for. He was going to "transform America," for the better. Or so everyone was told. What he has accomplished is to make us look weak and indecisive, because he is weak and indecisive. And if he doesn't change, he will finish his time in office as nothing more than even more of a wimp than the one he is already perceived as being. And it extremely difficult for wimps to win second terms. But maybe that just doesn't matter to him. If he is able to succeed in his effort to sufficiently tear down the country in his first 4 years, he may see that there is no need for a second 4 years. But nothing would give me more pleasure than to see Barry go the way of McGovern come 2012.


I think for many it is very apparent, even obvious, that Barry loves the idea of being president, but he has great difficulty in being able to make nearly any kind of a decision. What Barry seems to be most interested in is having the title and the prestige that goes with it. He thoroughly enjoys being called "Mr. President" but at the same time he has no interest in all that the job entails. He doesn't want to do any of the work that goes with the job, it's like it's an inconvenience or requires just too much darn energy to be expended. Energy that could be much better spent either on the golf course or on vacation somewhere. In that way, I think it fair to say, that as our first black president, his behavior is pretty much typical. If you know what I mean. After all, why work if you've got something better to do? He sees it as nothing more than an opportunity to shift the country drastically to the left. He has no interest whatsoever in what is happening outside our borders and ever little regarding what is taking place inside them. And I would agree that even in the domestic arena, I think there is a lot of truth in what is being said about Barry passively deferring to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on all legislative matters. One can debate whether action is appropriate in Libya or not, but when it comes to foreign policy I agree with those who claim that it is a pretty safe bet that Barry will do nothing, because doing something would require a decision. I think that should be abundantly clear to anyone who has closely observed the man and taken a look at his background. Remember the words of the managing editor of the Harvard Law Review who said that Barry loved the title of Editor of the Law Review, but he didn’t want to do the work. The managing editor said he rarely saw him except when it was to glad hand or take credit for something that was being done. Additionally, Barry never wrote a single thing for the review during his tenure, something that is almost unheard of.


Looking for the course of the last two years of his reign, in every single case, his problem has been one of his lacking any leadership skills whatsoever. Barry, very simply put, is not a leader, and to be perfectly blunt here, he has no idea of even how to be a leader. But at the same time that doesn’t prevent him from wanting to be treated like a leader or to assume leadership roles that offer him any amount of prestige, perks and pleasure derived from simply from being the "president." The reason Barry can’t make a decision is he can’t reason like a leader must. As was mentioned a number of times during the 2008 campaign, and apparently falling on the deaf ears of the voters, was the fact that he has no experience in making decisions. Let's face it, how complicated are the decisions made by your average "community agitator?" And he is essentially clueless regarding the decision making process as practiced by a leader. He’s never really been in the position of having to make anything that would even remotely resemble a leadership decisions. So he simply tries to avoid making them altogether by, like I said earlier, simply voting present. One way he does it is to ignore the problem. Another way he does this is to appoint commissions and panels concerning problems the country faces in order to defer the problem (and decision) to someone else. He also likes to defer to the “international community” on foreign policy or the Democratic leadership in the legislature on domestic things. Again, the avoidance of decision making and not the quality of a leader. And, in the end, he lets others make decisions for him and then he jumps on the bandwagon with a speech full of fanciful rhetoric about how they (whichever party he is deferring to on whatever issue) have listened to him and decided on a course much like he recommended. Or something like that. A leader enjoys making important decisions, they go out of their way to make decisions. But not Barry.


Even some Democrats are capable of recognizing a poor leader when they see one, and are now taking notice of just how poor a leader Barry really is. They’ve been hollering for weeks, some of them quite vocally, that he needs to step up and show a little leadership in the budget process. To this point he’s done much of nothing but forward a budget that was nothing more than a joke. He gave a press conference on energy because gas prices have increased. Essentially his line of argument, concerning domestic oil, is we’re doing fine and we shouldn’t worry. DUH? Maybe he doesn't have to worry, but I'm going broke putting gas in my car at nearly four bucks a gallon. I had to laugh the other night when I saw some ABC News moron, an avid and very obvious Barry supporter, on Greta the other night. He said that he sees no lasting effect coming from Barry's serious lack of leadership abilities and his apparent disinterest in world events. And he went on to say that for all of the pounding he has been taking from some in the media, as well as potential political opponents, that his 48 percent approval was actually pretty good. He said he had no doubt that Barry would be able to easily weather all of the criticism that he is receiving at the present time over his obvious lack of any leadership skills. Well, I guess we will see if this "Kool-Aid" drinker is correct in his rather biased assumption. People have a tendency to gravitate toward those they perceive as being strong leaders and more often than not they will shy away from those they view as being nothing more than opportunists or pretenders. With Barry, there simply is no there, there. And I think as time goes by more and more people are asking themselves is this guy the face that they want representing the United States of America.