Can you be Presidential If you are Always Campaigning?

Over the past three years a lot has been made about how the Republican’s have attacked the President.  Although his defenders don’t want to hear it, much of this has been of his own doing.  I would almost suspect by design based on what has transpired.

How long did the President drag out the debate as to his right to serve because of possible irregularities in his birth certificate and the fact his father was not an American citizen.  You haven’t heard much on that subject for a while.  What did it take to end it?  Simply releasing a birth certificate.  What was so hard about that?  While everyone was focusing on this rather petty, but central issue, was the President able to accomplish great things behind the scenes?   If he did I must have missed it.

On to the subject of College transcripts, along with the debate on birth, there has been a question on how the President did in college.  This has been made a big deal by the universities and President about the privacy of that information, yet earlier in the Republican Primaries, someone in Texas A&M didn’t think it so important to keep the transcripts private for Governor Rick Perry.  Where was the outrage over that little slip, did Perry make a big deal out of it, not that he had a lot of options once it is out?

Both these positions worked effectively during his initial campaign to draw attention away from his far left agenda to bring the United States in line with a more socialist, progressive country where the central government controls the decisions and the states become increasingly irrelevant. 

Once elected the man who promised to work for good legislation that would end the ever increasingly partisan rancor has done everything but.  When the Democrats swept into office in 2008 what did we see?  The Democratic leadership of both the House and the Senate demonstrated complete arrogance in how their agenda was to be implemented, even if it is a path to bankruptcy.  Any time the Republican’s raised objections they were painted in the media as the party of No.  Where was the President on this?  Did he help moderate his congressional leadership, and steer the debate towards a centrist solution.  If he did I must have missed it, for all his speeches reflected exactly the same message as Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reed.  We are in charge and we are going to have it our way.  Where was all the action to support the rhetoric of the campaign about working with the other side?  Sure the diehards, the ones that still can’t get over the fact Bush was elected in the first place hang on the excuses, but I don’t think those looking for government solutions and cooperation do.  They realize it is all about making the other side look weak and preparing for that next election.  This approach cost him a democratic victory in 2010.

When fiscal conservatives, concerned about the skyrocketing federal deficit united they were viewed as “terrorists,” “racist’s,”  “hostage takers,” and the “Antichrist.” Then when it suited the progressive agenda, another group sprang up to be embraced by the leading Democrats.  The Occupy Someplace group brings with it a demand that the rich pay for all their desires.  Where was the President on all this?  Right in the middle of fanning the flames of class warfare, not focusing the nation towards a common goal where all benefit, but sowing the seeds of racial division, ethnic division and fiscal division.  Are we a stronger nation from his campaign to divide Americans?  I don’t believe we are.

How about in addressing the National Debt?  On the two sides we have, a) more taxes on the rich help to pay our bills, and b) no new taxes, reduce the size of government and its many programs.  With Representatives and Senators locked into a battle about how to control spending, something I would point out no Senator or Representative has ever in the history of our nation been very good at, where does the President fit in?  Again, he is on the campaign trail fanning the flames of class warfare as he pushes for bigger government funded by more taxes on the rich, as well as reducing the income from taxes for everyone else.  How does that address a long-term solution to the debt issue?  Obviously he is all for kicking the can down the road if he can.   That does not strike me as a leadership role. 

Health care – there are too many issues here for a simple synopsis, but again it becomes an all or nothing proposition.  When there is an issue he plays to his strength, mustering the forces available to condemn the opposition rather than find a path to make the nation stronger.

For someone who has said he opposes stupid wars perhaps he truly believes he strengthens the US as a leader when he bows to the European Union, and the Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow governments.  I am just not sure I understand how we are better today than we were a year ago, with uncertainty in Egypt and Libya. True we left Iraq, but was is left behind for stability besides a $592 million dollar Embassy with a $1.2 billion/year budget? 

When given a choice, reach out or attack, why is it inevitable what you would do in a election campaign is the choice our President  makes?