But the Conquered, or their Children, have no Court, no Arbitrator on Earth to appeal to. Then they may appeal, as Jephtha did, to Heaven, and repeat their Appeal, till they have recovered the native Right of their Ancestors, which was to have such a Legislative over them, as the Majority should approve, and freely acquiesce in.
-John Locke

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Leadership!

Obama, with all the gravitas of a high school senior on graduation day (yeah, you're wearing tie, but no one's really ready to take you seriously), rolled up his sleeves and gave a really stern talking-to to Congress.  It seems Obama is angry.  Angry because Congress isn't doing what he wants them to do.  Possibly angry because his approval rating continue to dive.  When Obama gets angry, look out, because he throws a cool, professorial tantrum.

This is Obama's unique brand of leadership.  We haven't seen it before, but that's probably because this is the first time he's really gotten angry.  Pay no attention to the fact that this is the first time in his short Presidency (I know, it seems soooo looonnnnggggg) that his polling numbers are falling despite his every politically motivated tactic to raise them.  Obama is trying to bring his anger leadership to bear  on Congress to get them to raise the debt ceiling and not go on vacation ('cause, you know, there's work to be done).  Why must the debt ceiling increase?  Obama wants it to.  What happens if it doesn't increase? The consequences will be "unpredictable."  While we don't know that the consequences will be bad, we are stuck in a catch 22 here: things that Obama has wanted and ultimately gotten have not turned out to be good, but at the same time, every unpredictable consequence during his presidency has turned out lousy as well.  What to do?  If you're Obama, you invent a consensus opinion.  Let's take a quick look at people who are not part of any consensus Obama pays attention to: Senior White House Lawyers who advise him that the Libya operation violates the WPA; all of his generals involved in the Afghanistan war operation kinetic excercise nebulous mission.  You start to get the feeling that Obama is only listening to the folks who tell what he wants to hear.  Leadership!

Obama points out that he has been busy...leadershipping on major issues, like Afghanistan, Bin Laden and the Greek Crisis.  Afghanistan is a bald-faced political move; against the advice of his generals, Obama sets the return date for troops to happily coincide with elections.  The Bin Laden football has been spiked into oblivion.  Was it leadership that emerged after dithering for 16 hours over what to do? That was 2 months ago!  Is Greece our problem, or rather, is it our most pressing problem at the moment?  The only reasonable feat that Obama could claim credit for was that his daughters do their homework early.  Of course, they are not protected by the separation of powers.

Obama wants Congress to get to work...but curiously he didn't seem to mention that the Democrat-controlled Senate has not provided a budget for over 2 years, though it is legally obligated to do so.  I guess those guys can go on vacation, but the House better stay.  Leadership!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment