Obama May be Incompent, But He Cares
By Larry Johnson on November 21, 2009 at 1:15 AM in Current Affairs
* Bumped Up *
I know some consider us a full-up Barack Obama hate site. We are not. I do not hate the man. I do think he is a good husband and a good father. His daughters clearly adore him, and it is tough to fake what teenage girls think about their father–good fathers have a warm relation with their daughters. My beef with Barack Obama is simple–he is unqualified by experience and by judgment to be an effective President. At the end of his first term he will at least have the experience to be President. The judgment issue remains in question.
All of this is prelude to a comment about what Barack did on Veteran’s Day courtesy of Daily News reporter, James Meek. James is a friend and, if you have read his pieces, known for his steely-eyed search for truth. He certainly is not an Obama cheerleader or sychophant. So check this out:
James also wrote about the experience.
He didn’t introduce himself. He didn’t have to.
President Obama simply stuck out his hand and asked for my name as he stepped toward me amid a bone-chilling drizzle in the Gardens of Stone.
This was Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. I wasn’t there as a reporter, but to visit some friends and family buried there when Obama made an unscheduled stop – a rare presidential walk among what Lincoln called America’s “honored dead” – after laying a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
What I got was an unexpected look into the eyes of a man who intertwined his roles as commander in chief and consoler in chief on a solemn day filled with remembrance and respect for sacrifices made – and sacrifices yet to be made.
I’m sure the cynics will assume this wasjust anotherObama photoop.
If they’d been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.
His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.
Barack Obama is not a comic book figure. It is tempting to pigeonhole him with simple categories. I don’t think he is a closet muslim or a seething secret communist. I think he is a well-intentioned liberal who is politically naive and has little experience making command decisions. I think he genuinely sees himself as capable of uniting opposing sides but his manner of decision making and naivete tend to create the opposite effect–he is sharpening the partisan divide. Barack Obama’s major failing, in my view, is that he has no deeply held core value. As a result he will work assiduously to avoid making a decision. His voting present while in the Senate and his dithering on Afghanistan are common threads in his modus operandi.
That said I share James Meek conclusion that Barack cares sincerely about those under his command. Obama’s problem is that he has no point of reference or experience to understand what it means to be in command. What do you think?
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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