PrintJanuary 8, 2010
Obama accepting 'responsibility'
Delayed twice during the day yesterday, President Obama finally made his address to the American People regarding the Christmas Day almost terror-attack by al Qaeda's underwear bomber. The speech was a feeble attempt to make up the political ground he lost in the weeks following the attack. Until yesterday he always found a way to place blame for the attack on others; yesterday he said;
Moreover, I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer, for ultimately the buck stops with me. As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility.
The President is basically saying, it's my fault only because I am the President.
Barack Obama has been President for almost a year, he made recommendations for changing the banking system, he has taken over two thirds of the domestic automotive industry, worked on pushing through a complete restructuring of our heath system and energy system, but until someone tried to light up a Fruit of the Loom Bomb on an airplane, he hasn't taken a look at the systems that are keeping us safe from terror? Am I the only one that thinks his priorities are all wrong?
Forgive me if I lapse into my old SUNY Oswego Political Science Theory class, but may I suggest that I remember more about governmental priorities from that class 35 years ago, than Barack Obama knows about government today. It was the most exiting course I took in college, a dynamic professor and incredible classroom discussions of the works of thinkers such as Hobbes, Plato, Locke, Rousseau, etc.
A key point I learned is that government (even dictatorships) serve by the whim of the people. It's called a social contract. The people agree to pay taxes, follow laws etc., and the government agrees to protect the people's lives, liberty, and property. Sound familiar? John Locke called those three items our natural rights. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson made it more flowery, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
A key point I learned is that government (even dictatorships) serve by the whim of the people. It's called a social contract. The people agree to pay taxes, follow laws etc., and the government agrees to protect the people's lives, liberty, and property. Sound familiar? John Locke called those three items our natural rights. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson made it more flowery, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
When you get right down to it, that social contract is all you have to know to run a government "The rest" as the great Rabbi Hillel once said about the Torah, "is commentary, now go learn it"
Obama has not been keeping up his end of the contract. Protecting the American people should have been his first priority. A review of our protection systems should have been ordered his first week, not his 51st. Jobs should have been second. All those other projects he has been working on, Obamacare, Cap and Trade, bringing the Olympics to Chicago, traveling to get his Nobel Prize, all that should come after that.
Obama has not been keeping up his end of the contract. Protecting the American people should have been his first priority. A review of our protection systems should have been ordered his first week, not his 51st. Jobs should have been second. All those other projects he has been working on, Obamacare, Cap and Trade, bringing the Olympics to Chicago, traveling to get his Nobel Prize, all that should come after that.
Unfortunately he hadn't taken the global war on Islamist terror seriously. At least he is finally calling it a war, but even yesterday he called it a war against al Qaeda. It's a war against Islamic terrorists. The Taliban isn't al Qaeda, neither is Hezb'allah or Hamas; are they OK now?
This is the president who spent time trying to come up with a new name for terrorism (man-made disasters) months before he looked at the systems developed to prevent us from being blown into smithereens, who, the same week as the terror on Northwest 253, diverted CIA satellites from tracking al Qaeda, to tracking icebergs.
Mr. President, allow me to suggest that without the guarantee of protection there is no use for a national government. Local governments can build their own sewers or name their own streets. Your number one job is to make sure when we wake up in the morning there is no hole in the roof from a plane that was blown up over our heads. That's it, the basics of government are making sure when my children leave the house, some crazy terrorist is not going to attack them. An administration that can't find a way to make public safety its #1 priority is like an accountant who can't count to ten; USELESS !
Mr. President, allow me to suggest that without the guarantee of protection there is no use for a national government. Local governments can build their own sewers or name their own streets. Your number one job is to make sure when we wake up in the morning there is no hole in the roof from a plane that was blown up over our heads. That's it, the basics of government are making sure when my children leave the house, some crazy terrorist is not going to attack them. An administration that can't find a way to make public safety its #1 priority is like an accountant who can't count to ten; USELESS !
Sammy Benoit is Editor of the Political Blog, The LID
