A bold statement indeed, but let's examine the facts. That is, if you aren't afraid to objectively look at the facts. One thing that seems to have changed over the last 4 years is how we determine what is a fact. It used to be, a "fact" was a cold hard truth we had to accept as such, regardless of our personal sentiments. Lately, it seems to be a malleable detail, which can be distorted and transfixed to whatever the prevailing mindset of the moment dictates. Used to be, you were entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts, now you are apparently entitled to your own facts to support your own opinions. Facts are completely customizable, one size rarely fits all. One man's fact is another man's propaganda. "Fact Checkers" have now replaced the old wordsmiths we used to call "Spin Doctors." It lends more credibility to have a 'fact checker' confirm whatever spin you are advancing, and this has almost entirely replaced the age-old custom of research and investigation of details. It allows things that were once considered rumor and innuendo, to be advanced as credible fact, because some 'fact checker' found a way to frame the argument around hearsay or gossip, and through mass media repetition, forged a "fact" from nothing more than thin air and imagination. It's an amazing time we live in, but I digress.
Let's get back to Obama and the election. Most people voted for Obama based on their principles and convictions. You based your vote on the things he said he would do as president, things which were inline with your own principles and convictions. Whether it was an administration that promised to be more transparent, or how to deal with a teetering economy, or how to create jobs and boost recovery, how to provide health care for every American, the spending and debt, or even how we deal with foreign affairs and the war on terror, you based your vote for Obama on his message of "hope and change" and believed this was the man to get America back on the right track.
Almost as soon as Obama took office, his administration began to break the promises made in his campaign. The very reasons you voted for him, were completely ignored, timidly walked back, or explained away as to how they couldn't be delivered because of obstructionist republicans. Of course, Obama did not campaign saying that he wouldn't be able to do all the glorious and wonderful things he had in mind because he wouldn't have a super-majority in Congress, did he? He wasn't up there saying, Look... I have the same principles as you, I don't like keeping terrorists at Gitmo, but there's really nothing else we can do at this point, we have to keep them there! Nope... he said he would close Gitmo within the first year in office. He also promised health care for every American, and lower health care insurance premiums, and that didn't happen either. All along the way, through Obama's first term, we see example after example of failure to deliver on his promises. The very principles and convictions behind "hope and change" which was the basis for your vote and support.
The very principles and convictions of "hope and change" spilled over into things that Obama didn't actually ever promise, but strongly implied by his rhetoric, and it would take weeks of writing to detail all of these, as his campaign was literally flying from one campaign stop to another, making bold promises targeted at that particular demographic, even when it contradicted something they had just said at a previous stop. But none of that mattered at the time, here was a man who spoke with true conviction! Who had a clear articulate message for the future, a plan and way to go, to improve our lives and make things better for America! ...And he didn't tell you he would need 8 years and a bullet-proof Congress, did he?
Obama led you to believe, he could somehow bring America together, to find universal solutions which worked for every American, and answered our challenges for the new century. He led you to believe we needed to end the wars and take a more diplomatic role toward our enemies. Our military is currently conducting strategic hostile military operations in 5 countries instead of two, and our enemies in the Middle East are stronger and more defiant than any other time in modern history. Two-thirds of the deaths in Afghanistan have occurred on Obama's watch, and there has been ZERO talk of our mission objectives, a timetable for withdrawal, what constitutes a 'victory' or anything else, it's as if the war simply doesn't exist to Obama & Co. America remains starkly divided and on an aimless path to something not good or healthy for our society. If your principles and convictions told you that Obama would somehow bring greater racial harmony and overcome the stigmas of the past, they lied to you. Obama has caused MORE divisiveness and disunity among, not just races of people, but entire classes as well. Anywhere and everywhere Obama has found to divide us and pit us against each other, he has.
If your principles and convictions made you find support for Obama on the basis of nationalized health care, his 'crowning achievement' as president, again he has failed to deliver. He promised affordable universal health care coverage for every American. What we got, was over 2,000 pages of bureaucracy that no one understands, which only gives a few million more people health care coverage, while dramatically raising premiums across the board for all. In order to do this much, he will have to raid the Medicare funds and mandate liabilities to the states, who will have to pass the expenses on to the state taxpayers. This brings us to his other 'principled conviction' of not increasing the tax on ANY American making under $200k. If it stands, Obamacare will be the largest tax increase in human history by any government on any citizen at any time. It will be a tax legally owed by every American, according to the Supreme Court.
Maybe your principles and convictions were inline with Obama's Keynesian philosophy? You liked the stimulus but didn't think it was enough, and liked the second stimulus too, and the bailouts, and the excessive government spending to 'revive' the economy? Well, did that work? Are we growing and creating jobs at a pace which indicates happy days are here again, or are we languishing and floundering, grappling with credit downgrades and a further devaluing of the dollar? We are currently in debt more than any country has ever been in debt, and it is currently growing at a pace of $1.6 trillion per year. My question would be, when are these Keynesian philosophies supposed to kick in? We've rang up more national debt in 4 years, than all other previous presidents combined, and things are just not a whole lot better. We may have hoped it would be, but hope has failed. And what about the most important principle and conviction of repealing the Bush tax cuts? Two years in, and Obama basically tells you that he can't end the Bush tax cuts as he promised to do, because it would devastate the economy even further. But let's just try to forget that is the exact same thing the republican candidate for president said as well.
Were your principles about government transparency? Were they about CIA/FBI encroachments on privacy? Were they about the rendition programs and counter-terrorism measures adopted in the wake of 9-11? Whatever you look at, you can see that Obama has simply failed to deliver on principles and convictions. He talks a good game, you lap up every syllable and cling to every catch phrase, and he looks so good doing it! But at the end of the day, what does all of it mean? Well what we are finding out, it means that you often get a proverbial egging in the face, like the case of the Pot Heads for Obama, who just KNEW that Obama was an ally! Obama has sent his US Attorneys and Attorney General out there to wage war on legally established medical marijuana dispensaries. There goes another principle and conviction up in smoke, eh?
Across the board, this president has failed to deliver on his promises. And the totally ironic thing is, he is now trying to blame his failures on republicans. Was he not aware that there would still be republicans if he won the presidency? Was he so inept and dumb that he believed republicans were going to gleefully support his policies without compromise or review? He promised a new era of bipartisanship, working together, getting the jobs done that Bush was unable to do. Did he deliver?
OK. Today, we'll talk about the Bush Doctrine. 