June has been the cruelest month for President Barack
Obama in the Oval Office.
His foreign policy is in a shambles. Some of his
appointees have not been well-received in the U.S.
senate (where his own party has increasingly
heavy-handed control). Republican challengers and
incumbents are winning primaries in senate races which
might bring back GOP control. His plan to force his
version of immigration reform in the U.S. house has run
aground. His I.R.S. stands accused of using their
power and leverage to go after his political opponents.
His N.S.A. has admitted snooping widely on private
citizens. His Obamacare plan, in spite of a public
relations effort, is about to implode on rising rates.
The U.S. supreme court unanimously by a 9-0
vote (including all the justices he appointed) rebuked
and reversed his attempt to appoint officials illegally,
and now the speaker of the U.S. house, backed by a
conservative majority in that body, is suing him for his
illegal and presumptive actions as president.
How did Mr. Obama and his administration go
apparently so wrong?
The blame for this might be shared by a so-called
mainstream media which has operated as a claque
to his performance in the White House, cheering him on
without reservation, assuring him he could do no
wrong, attacking his critics in his stead --- all this
creating an unprecedented cocoon of psychic security
around his presidency. And after all, he received the
Nobel peace prize, although it was admittedly only in
anticipation of all the wonderful things he was going
to do. (His claque, it seems, had an office in Oslo.)
Reality and history have perhaps caught up with Barack
Obama. The presidency is not a plaything. The chief
executive cannot ignore the rest of the government and
decide he alone can determine what are the interests
of the nation.
It will be interesting to observe how he will respond to
these turns of events. He can still accomplish good things,
but his track record is to bow to the applause of his
claque, and ignore everyone else.
November can be an even crueler month, and is not that
far away.
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Copyright (c) 2014 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.
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