It's been one year since President Obama took office amid all of the talk of
hope and change. He had high approval ratings at the time and everyone was
feeling good and hoping for the best. Let's take a look at what things look
like one year later as this will constitute my grade for Obama's first year
in office. I must warn you though that if you're still drinking the Obama
kool-aid, you need not read any further. However, if you're not drinking
the kool-aid, read on as this will be a harsh assessment of the first year.
What do I see as his grade for the first year overall? I see his grade as
an F- as he has utterly failed in his first year in office. He has done
this on several fronts which I will address. These include terrorism,
Afghanistan, the economy and health care.
I'll start off with terrorism as that has been in the news since Christmas
Day with the "underwear bomber". You have the tepid response including
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying that the system worked
and having to retract that comment. This shows a secretary who is
incompetent and in over her head. Furthermore, Obama is not holding anyone
accountable for the failures so nothing will happen. He only says that
agencies must share information and does some vague things to see that that
supposedly happens. How can no one lose their job over this one? It's
unphathomable to me. Napolitano and head of the National Counter Terrorism
Center John Brennan ought to be gone at the least, along with at least one
or two other people. How could this colossal a failure be allowed to occur.
It's but by the grace of God that nothing bad happened on that day.
Now we get to Afghanistan where Obama took far too long to make a decision
in part because he was trying to do whatever wouldn't anger the liberal
base. He did end up sending more troops but this is a decision which should
have been made much sooner than it was. This further shows the lack of
competence and experience of the national security team. What experience
does James Jones, the National Security Agency Director, have in this area?
My answer is probably not much. The commanding General Stanley McCrystal
was put there by Obama and then left hanging on the troop decision. You
can't do that and say you are affective. What does this signal to our
enemies? It signals that we are weak and that talk is cheap and won't be
backed up by action. Why do you think we did not have another attack after
9-11? We didn't because our enemies knew that Bush meant business. They
don't feel the same way about Obama.
We now move to the home front where the economy was, and still is, front and
center. Obama insisted that his economic stimulus package needed to be
rushed through Congress, which Pelosi and Read did. It was said that this
pork laden bill would create some 8 million jobs and some other benchmarks
but none of these have happened. All we got out of this bill was the
liberal agenda shoved down our collective throats. The economy is still
losing jobs namely because businesses can't hire because their costs are
going up in the form of taxes as Obama and his liberal buddies tax the hell
out of business and create programs with mountains of paperwork that must be
completed in order to get any money attached to them. This is true of the
stimulus bill from what I have heard.
Then there's health care. Obama wants the government to run everything,
telling us when and what treatment we can get, when we can see the doctor
and more. They even have the audacity to tell us when we must die. They
want a public option but don't look likely to get it in the face of mounting
opposition. They want to ram it through Congress because the more the
public sees, the less we like the bill. This is why they're so desperate to
get it through Congress. The Democrats will do anything to get votes on
this too, including sweetheart deals regarding the rest of the country
paying for Nebraska's Medicaid costs; something which I have heard will be
challenged on Constitutional grounds if this bill were ever to become law;
something I think is highly unlikely now. You also need to ask about the
promises of transparency with regard to this debate as the deals are being
made behind closed doors much as things are done in Chicago. How come they
don't want to do this in the open, allowing C-span in on the debate? They
don't because they know that the more we the public find out about the bill,
the more we won't like it and won't want it.
However, I don't think it will become law now thanks to the voters of
Massachusetts, a heavily blue state which elected a Republican in a special
Senate election. How ironic too since it was Kennedy's seat. The voters
were fed up with health care so-called reform and many other things as well.
That election was a referendum on that plan and other policies and is a
harbinger of things to come and Obama is not going to get what he wants now.
He won't get another stimulus package, his bank tax, card check, i.e. forced
unionization, health care or anything else. Thanks to Brown's victory last
night, health care reform died a merciful and needed death. We're starting
to take the country back from the abyss that the liberals have put us in.
They need to stop blaming Bush and start taking responsibility, something
liberals are allergic to anyway. I also heard just before this writing that
Obama's nominee to head the TSA has withdrawn his name. This is great news
and a victory for Republicans who have held up this confirmation over
skeletons in this guy's closet as well as his plans to unionize the TSA.
When you have a grade of F-, it's time to clean house and the voters are
doing that starting with the Senate race in Massachusetts. There have been
other signals too coming out of Virginia and New Jersey, the latter of which
is definitely significant since New Jersey is a blue state that elected a
Republican governor. There's a God after all and his plan is for us to take
back our country. Republican voters need to get out and vote this year as
we have a chance to stem the tide of failure and stop Obama from doing more
damage than he's already done. Here's also hoping we can make him a
one-term President. That would be a great day; but let's savor the victory
from yesterday and move on toward further victory and past the failure of
this last year. The more we can ,gridlock Obama, the better off this
country will be. Le't's make sure we can recognize this country by the end
of this year, let alone in two years time.
