Well, as we are all aware, there was this past Thursday a shooting at a Community College 150 miles north of Portland, Oregon. And yes, what you thought were the protocols for a mass shooting were enacted upon again. And oh yes, the story does not add up entirely. The only difference now is the US East Coast is in a two-tiered storm system consisting of a Nor 'Easter and Hurricane Jaquin. Thus, there are other matters on the minds of most people on the Atlantic seaboard. By the way, Hurricane Jaquin may not hit us, but it is best to be safe and prepared.
The point of this essay though is regarding what occurred this Friday afternoon. At about 3:30, President Barack Obama held a press conference stating that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had resigned and will be succeeded by John King. Afterwards, Pres. Obama continued on with complaining about matters that do affect us all; including but not limited to the need to abolish the sale and manufacturing of guns. Sadly, this press conference ticked me off, as Pres. Obama's conferences have recently been ticking me off . This is for two reasons. First, Pres. Obama's press conference came at the same time that Sec. Of State Hillary Clinton was making a speech in Florida. Now I would think most news media outside of C-SPAN would show this speech instead of a meandering press conference. Alas, this is what we have come to expect from a main stream (lame stream?) media that is in the tank for ABC (Anyone But Clinton). Equal blame goes to Pres. Obama for usurping the only worthy successor, provided he does not run for a third term.
What was really problematic for me was Barack Obama had more or less threw his hands in the air and asked for the Republican Party to pretty much do what Obama supposedly cannot do. This has been a fallback for 7 years, and is not by any means emblematic of a President. Look, a President can and must do whatever is deemed in the best interest of Americans regardless of opposition. It is abhorrent to me that Barack Obama, the President, does not simply enact laws and bills by decree.
What is that you say? A President acing as if he is a king? Well yes. Every four years, the United States gets involved in electing a President; and in each campaign, the candidate uses his/her platform for public speaking and ideas to mention what will be enacted once the election is over on Election Night. You will notice that the candidate does not use the term "we", referring to the Legislative and Judicial Branches working in tandem with the Executive branch along with other implied branches and estates. What you do notice is the candidate uses the word that might just be the most important word in the English Language. That word is I. We see this even currently in this long campaign for 2016.
And yet, what happens to some Presidents upon election? They seem to forget that a plurality of the eligible voters in the United States elected a king to rule their lives, and subsequently they put the onus on leadership to their opponents. Pres. Obama has continually done this for the past 7 years; thus showing a complete lack of leadership. His statements of "I" later become statements of "We", and far later become statements of "They".
Now why is that? I have come to the knowledge over the years that Barack Obama has always wanted to be a celebrity President; all the perks and benefits yet none of the work. We saw this outright during his 2012 re-election when he made a number of chat show appearances of no importance, alongside benefit dinners of little regard. While those distractions wee ongoing; international diplomatic tragedies like the military assaults in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 were taking place. Typical of Obama's lack of leadership in critical issues during that time, blame was put on others besides the President himself.
And now we are seeing this again; we should soon expect Pres. Obama to later paraphrase Mel Brooks in Spaceballs when he says "I can't make decisions here. I'm the President!" I doubt that I have seen any other President in my lifetime feel as if he is this powerless, from either political party. And yes, that does include Pres. George W. Bush, who brought forth disastrous proposals and actually enacted upon these proposals. I firmly believe on this issue of gun violence and the need to end the likelihood of another Chris Mercer Harper coming into mental problems, Pres. Obama could be ending these events by effectively using his powers and do the following:
Abolish the usage of guns and gun manufacturing.
Allot for mandatory psychological profiling on all persons.
Criminalize gun owners for intent to kill family and others; this is important because when a person owns a gun, it is usually to bring a permanent end to a family squabble.
Curtail the powers and responsibilities of other branches of Government, if not abolish them outright.
Alter the US Constitution.
Any President has it in his/her powers to do such matters. In the whole history of the United States, I can only think of just 1 President who effectively made a successful imperial leadership. That would be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and this was only possible due to being President the last 13 years of his life. And yet, the US needed FDR from 1932-1945 to allot for these ideals to be put into place. In contrast, President Barack Obama has been effectively punting the ball as a first option.
You wonder why many voters are flocking to other candidates that will provide simple-minded solutions, in addition to ruling as if they were a king/queen. Perhaps one could say this is Obama going through the motions in only having one year left of his Presidency. That may be true; yet Pres. Obama has not indicated an endorsement of a candidate. Thus, I fully expect Barack Obama to run for a third term; an idea which while sadly ending the Democratic nomination race, will ensure a re-election defeat. Should Obama go through with this, then he should do what he was elected to do and, you know, actually Lead. I have already given a number of suggestions in this essay. Pres. Obama should act upon them.
Well, those are my opinions on this matter. Incidentally, 2015 marks the 20 year anniversary of one of my favorite movies, the Rob Reiner film The American President. For 15 years now, we have seen Presidents allowing their voters to drink the sand. Well, perhaps it is time to think differently.
I am not the President, nor am I running for President,
Robert
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