To the editor:
Not long after President Obama was elected to office, I penned a letter to the editor outlining his qualifications, or lack thereof, for holding the office of president of the United States. I asked the readers at the end of the letter, “Would you hire this man to manage your company?”
Five years later, the economy is still anemic despite the infusion of trillions of dollars. Every criticism has been met with blame being pointed at the previous administration or, when that doesn’t work, the accusations of racism are raised to silence the critics. Questions about incompetent/underhanded/illegal actions within the Department of Justice the Internal Revenue Service, State Department, and Health and Human Services have been answered by the president with phrases like, “I just found out about it,” “I just heard about it like you,” and my favorite, “I’m going to look into this!”
His promise, “If you like your health plan, you can keep it. Period.” was awarded the “lie of the year” by a non-partisan, media fact-checking source. Dishonesty and obfuscation have been the credo of this administration. Internationally his word is worthless. Alliances that have taken decades to forge are in imminent danger of being destroyed because of his lack of credibility.
This man had never run a business, made a payroll, or run a municipality. But because he was so smart, articulate, and good looking, somehow he was qualified to lead our nation.
Would you hire him now?
Comments
Fred Mertz 1 year, 1 month ago
Not only has he repeatedly lied, he continues to authorize drone attacks that are killing civilians.
Julius Nolan 1 year, 1 month ago
Considering the options presented in the last 2 Presidential elections by the GOP. it's obvious the voters made correct choice. If the GOP had made any attempt to work with Obama, the entire country would be much better off.
Richard Heckler 1 year, 1 month ago
The president is at the mercy of the congress. If one took the letter writer serious republicans would never be elected ever again. Sam Brownback and the Kansas legislature appear to have zero credentials that they can apply to a fiscally responsible socially responsible budget. Sam brings his reckless knowledge from the Washingtion D.C. ALEC agenda.
Is there more you might ask? Unfortunately yes. GOP Brings Economic Nightmares which are damn difficult to clean up.
This GOP Party represent the ALEC Right Wing Party which engage in a 24/7 Character Assassination Platform. Truth is irrelevant. Damage is the objective. Destroyed economics and millions upon millions upon millions of job losses are the end results..... Sam applied this shortly after taking office. PLENTY of folks are now unemployed by his direction. Unemployment is hell on an economy.
Why Did The GOP Deliberately Crash The Economy? http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/09/did-republicans-deliberately-crash-us-economy
Debunked - The Harvard Study That The GOP Used to Push Austerity. http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/04/24/debunked-the-harvard-study-that-republicans-used-to-push-austerity/
Another reason --- Reagan/Bush Home Loan Fraud Fiasco by way of the Savings and Loan Industry.
One more reason --- Bush/Cheney Home Loan Fraud Fiasco by way of America's Big Bank Industry
The GOP most favorite entitlement aka tax cuts for the upper 1% which leaves the middle class to pay the bills and creates tax increases. And has never grown an economy.
The list is nearly never ending and easily documented.
William Enick 1 year, 1 month ago
Yes... This President from day one was never going to get support from the GOP. In fact they tried to ruin Him and Democracy (what little if any is left) by the use of filibusters and by never voting on his nominations to key positions in the Government, the likes of which have never been seen before. The Corporations including the Financial Industry have a firm grip on what or what does not get accomplished in Washington as never before. The 1% now, and this is a very disturbing reality, are entitled to literally write legislation...to make the Laws in this Country. I'm quite frankly taken aback by the naivete of the writer of this article. However...it has been very difficult emotionally...despairing at times at the extent of just how much corruption took place in the 2008 Financial Collapse...and the continued criminal cycle going unchecked in the Free Market place. The 99% are going to understand, once again, what the Great Depression 1929 does to people, the next time we have a collapse. One needs to make preparations.
Chris Ogle 1 year, 1 month ago
At least under Obama, we now have an agency that listens to the people... The NSA
Richard Heckler 1 year, 1 month ago
NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years under Obama
• Secret program launched by Bush continued 'until 2011' • Fisa court renewed collection order every 90 days • Current NSA programs still mine US internet metadata
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/27/nsa-data-mining-authorised-obama
Fred Mertz 1 year, 1 month ago
Good one!
Leslie Swearingen 1 year, 1 month ago
I see no connection between running a business and having the qualifications to be President. He is the leader of the entire country not just business owners. He must also meet with leaders of other countries and know how to communicate with them as to mutual interest and cooperation to acheive common goals.
As far as our country is concerned there is still a great deal of bias, everyone has a reason for not liking someone and thinking they have to do something about it. But, I think we are progressing as fast as could be reasonably expected.
Then there is the environment, the use of energy, the programs meant to help people have homes and food, education policies to make sure that every student has a chance to meet their full potential when the odds to do so are not that good.
There are millions of Americans with differnt problems, differnt lifestyles, infinite diversity in infinite comination one might say, and I do believe that President Obama cares about us and he is working very hard to do everything that is within his power to make things better.
Merry Christmas to the Obamas and also to Bo and Sunny.
Scott Burkhart 1 year, 1 month ago
I was alluding to management skills, understanding the business community, i.e. what fuels business and what impedes it, understanding how to properly delegate important tasks, and how to assemble a junior management team with proper accountability. Understanding that when you lie to the American public about their healthcare, it isn't the same as lying to a classroom of students about not having their papers graded.
Scott Burkhart 1 year, 1 month ago
Well, at least he's smart. Oh, and transparently honest. Or is it honestly transparent? Oh well, at least he's smart. And a law professor. Community organizer. And he's real smart. He's like so smart, all the rest of us, put together, aren't as smart as him.
Scott Burkhart 1 year, 1 month ago
One more thing. Never confuse effort with results. They aren't the same thing. Lots of people give effort and everyone says, "They tried." True leaders get results.
Fred Mertz 1 year, 1 month ago
I don't think Obama has put forth much effort.
Brett McCabe 1 year, 1 month ago
Well....let's see....he saved us from the 2nd Great Depression, unemployment is up, the economy just had one of its best quarters in years...he finished the Iraq debacle started by Republicans....killed Bin Laden....passed the most important piece of legislation in 30 years...and he's still got time to do more. He may, in fact, have one of the most productive presidencies in history. How's that for results?
Scott Burkhart 1 year, 1 month ago
But he's smart. Really smart. He's smarter than Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting." When they have cabinet meetings in the White House, they bring in a separate chair on which to place his giant intellect.
Brett McCabe 1 year, 1 month ago
I'm guessing they don't need a chair at the meetings that you hold.
Scott Burkhart 1 year, 1 month ago
Good guess. But then again I don't act like I'm "above it all," either.
Randall Supernaw 1 year, 1 month ago
I wish a Presidents ability to govern effectively were as simplistic as you want to believe. Most people would say our greatest President was Abraham Lincoln and his "qualifications" were less than President Obama's. I would say, as well as almost all Presidents say, no one is prepared to become President. Almost all Presidents also say they were relieved to leave the Presidency. Business experience has also been shown to be ineffectual when it comes to the economy. The economy has done better under Presidents without business success, if you go by growth in GDP. The job is much more complicated than any CEO job. I dare say there has never been a President who hasn't lied to the public. Do I like it- NO. The President gets too much blame when things go wrong and to much credit when things go well, unfortunately that's the job. Its real easy to complain, especially when you don't have any answers yourself.
Richard Heckler 1 year, 1 month ago
The questionable hire has been the new anti American GOP which gained strong ground when Newt Gingrich brought forward the ALEC influenced Contract for America. Which essentially put into high speed the elimination of republicans ...... yes from the GOP.
This was the ALEC Right Wing Coup that is still taking place in broad daylight and behind the secret doors of ALEC. The agenda is all about over throwing the USA government and replacing the USA government with the USA of ALEC. NO THANKS! http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill
The above is what Sam Brownback and about 14 other governors are doing. A few of these governors are also former members of Congress like Sam. While others have been ALEC soldiers for a few years.
ALEC is a bad hire and GW Bush, Dick Cheney and Jeb Bush all love ALEC.
Typically a new party would be required to go through a ballot process to become recognized. The ALEC secret agenda would never garner enough signatures so ALEC teamed up with the right wing fundamentalists and funneled big money into elections thus buying the GOP name.
ALEC wants to own not only the GOP but also the 99% which means way lower wages for the blue and white collar 99%. Unions work for the 99% which is plenty easy to document which is why ALEC has waged quite an expensive campaign against the Unions.
1 year, 1 month ago
As a Lawrence newbie, I've only recently started reading the LJWorld online. I'm glad I have access to the free version, as an easily discernible thread seems to run through most of the editorials, letters, and comments.
To quote Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman: "Something terrible has happened to the soul of the Republican party. We've gone beyond bad economic doctrine. We've even gone beyond selfishness and special interests. At this point we're talking about a state of mind that takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering on the already miserable."
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