In Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Kimberly Strassel takes a careful look [1] at the events around the Obama campaign and provides a keen analysis of his comments, actions, and the attempts by his campaign and supporters to shore up his mistakes.
It’s apparent that BO is in need of help along the way. But does he want that help?
[2]The Illinois Senator has carried out a campaign where much of the important content, including clear readings of his positions and intentions as President, have been largely overlooked in the midst of controversy after controversy, including reviews of questionable friendships and meaningless bickering with Senator Clinton about anything they can think of. It is incredibly amazing that both their campaigns sank so low as to make race and gender an issue in this campaign, pointing to a clear inability on either candidate’s part to campaign on their respective merits.
Perhaps this campaign has been largely made up of intentional mud baths made to distract all of us from talking about the where the candidates actually stand on important subjects.
And now, we may realize it has also distracted us from the real issue that could make or break the general election.
That is, is Obama adequately prepared to take on the highest elected office in the land?
Comparisons to Abraham Lincoln are weak and do little more than demonstrate a large lack of substance. It would be better to present whatever credentials the good Senator actually has, but by providing such an empty response it is apparent that those credentials are wanting.
Are we left to believe that we should not care? Obviously, no one is ever really “ready” to take on the responsibility of the Presidency. Since the days of Teddy Roosevelt, the international role of the United States and sheer size of the country has made the responsibility of the office overwhelming to think about.
It’s not enough that Obama could be the first African American President. It’s not enough that he wants to do great things for those in need. It’s not enough that he wants to find diplomatic solutions to the challenge of terrorism. It’s not enough that women swoon and faint around him. It’s not enough that he wants to bring “hope”.
It could be enough if he had any substance. It could be enough if he actually had experience dealing with foreign policy issues. It could be enough if he could see the need to help people learn to help themselves. It could be enough if he had the vision and leadership to cast a patriotic pose instead of a sense of intellectual rebellion against our flag and our national self-respect. It could be enough if he had the forethought to separate himself from questionable interests long before entering political life.
But Obama is not a man who casts an image of self-determined leadership. Instead, he leads us to believe that he not only needs a substantial amount of help with the job of President, but that he may be significantly beholden to interests whom we are not clearly aware and who may desire and be able to manipulate his agenda.
Obama is not, nor will he ever be, on a par with Abraham Lincoln, with one possible exception. When Lincoln left office (against his own will, of course), he left a country that was in a sad state of affairs, essentially a shambles requiring a lot of physical and emotional reparation. I strongly suspect that Obama’s legacy will look strikingly similar.