Yesterday, I had an idea for a posting: wouldn’t it be fun to take some of Candidate Obama’s words and post them in stark contrast with the words and actions of President Obama.
Well, Senator Rand Paul pre-emptively plagiarized me with his oh-so-easy takedown of Senate Majaority Leader (hey, it’s his title, not a description of his abilities) Harry Reid yesterday.
I have to hand it to Rand Paul. His father might be a whackjob, and his followers whackjobs as well, but Senator Paul is doing a whole lot of things right in his brief time in office.
However, while the presidential war powers quote was my most timely example, it was hardly the only one. For example, here’s Senator Obama on the floor of the United States Senate:
<blockquote>The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit
is a sign of leadership failure Leadership
means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the
burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and
grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.
Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to
increase America’s debt limit.<blockquote>
Senator Obama was voting against raising the debt ceiling to 8.9 trillion dollars. That was a mere five years ago. Since then, the debt ceiling has been raised to 14.3 trillion dollars — 60% in five years.
The White House spin on this was refreshingly honest: Obama said that knowing the measure was going to pass; he didn’t mean it, he just took the opportunity to grandstand a bit.
OK, so we have Senator Obama opposing the president going to war (by any other name) and warning of the dangers of skyrocketing federal debt. What else?
Well, here’s one where I disagreed with his pledge, and actually appreciate his reversal:
<blockquote>”But I don’t want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close
Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up
are ones that abide by our Constitution. That is not only the right
thing to do but it actually has to be part of our broader national
security strategy, because we will send a message to the world that we
are serious about our values.”</blockquote>
I suppose we gotta give him points for trying. I think he sincerely did try to find a way to safely close down Guantanamo and give the detainees civilian trials, but the poor bastard was mugged by reality (that seems to be a very common affliction for liberals) and finally gave up.
Oh, here’s a fun one. This is one where everyone — friend and foe — knew Obama was lying. I don’t think anyone actually believed him when he said this:
<blockquote>”I’m a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious
beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do
believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is
something sanctified between a man and a woman.”
</blockquote>
He wasn’t fooling anyone when he spouted that one, but everyone gave him a pass. Obama’s support of gay marriage was a given, and we all knew that his reversal was only a matter of time — the time to be right for him to flip. And that came when his administration announced that they would no longer defend against challenges to the Defense Of Marriage Act.
This is what happens when you elect a Community Organizer In Chief. All his life, all Obama has had to do is to show up and say his pretty words. He’s never had to actually show leadership, get his hands dirty working, or ever once been responsible or held accountable for anything.
Now he’s in the ultimate position of responsibility, and it’s obvious that he has no clue what he’s doing. He still thinks that all he has to do is find the right words, as well as the right time and place to say them, and everything will just take care of itself.
Like it always has, as others have used him as their public face and done the real work behind the scenes. But now he thinks he doesn’t need his handlers, and can do it all on his own.
God help us all, we’re stuck with President Post Turtle for almost two more years.
