OBAMA: Disaster you can believe in!

Substance vs. style. It's a concept we all understand. We constantly have to make important, sometimes challenging judgments regarding those around us. A working mom conducting interviews of potential childcare centers; the parent of a teenage daughter (thankfully i'm 6 years and 10 months away from that...but who's counting) listening to the young man talking at the doorway while his girl gets ready upstairs; or even a small business owner desperate to hire a partner to help handle his growing workload. The childcare center, the boy, and the job-hunter all seem honest enough. They're funny, quick, and have a charming personality, but who are they really? Deep down, do they have true character, and are they qualified to meet your expectations? It's a fair question to ask about someone that may affect you or one you love, and it's more than fair to ask these questions of one seeking to become our next president! Any girl (outside of Rexburg, ID), would be considered insane to marry a guy she'd dated once or twice..but as a nation we're about to do the same thing. The country has fallen head over heels for a charming, young, very well spoken politician named Barack Obama, but NOBODY REALLY KNOWS THIS GUY, or perhaps more accurately, no one knows what he's accomplished to be worthy of leading our nation. yet we may be two short months away from giving him the presidency!

I've heard several radio and TV personalities challenge guests, callers etc to name ONE thing Obama has accomplished. They'll say..."get elected Senator" etc. Ummm, yeah that's something he did for himself, but what about an accomplishment for his consituents..............hear the crickets chirping yet?? Actually there is one thing he did. He earned "2007's most liberal senator" ranking according to national journal, a nonpartisan annual piece that ranks all senators on a liberal/conservative scale. This guy is extremely out of touch with the average American. Need proof? Look up his stances/record on partial birth abortion, including the sponsoring of a bill to kill the baby should it be born alive/survive the abortion process. What a guy. Other than that however, his resume remains thin. Contrast that with my guy Romney who had a resume a mile long, making you think the only adjustment he'd have to make upon getting elected president is raising the desk in the Oval office. I know, I know, that's just a biased opinion cause Romney's a conservative. Well I'll tell you right now I think Hillary Clinton had a great argument for president as well (in the experience catergory of course). I also argue that what little experience Obama does have is of minimal value because it is as a Senator. There is a huge difference between being a legislator/compromiser, and an actual executive making the tough decisions. That's why historically the country hasn't elected Senators president. Yes, McCain is a senator as well (yet one more reason I am dissappointed at BOTH our choices for president), but he does have many years of experience under his belt that Obama cannot claim. But inexperience certainly isn't the only problem with Obama. He is also very wrong for this country because what little we do know about him is exremely troubling. I will argue that, while his inexperinence and "mystery" factor certainly is troubling, the major reasons he is absolutely unfit to be president are his serious personality flaws and, oh......he's dead wrong on basically every important issue.

There are many important attributes I think every presidential candidate must show the American people he or she possesses; honesty/integrity (would've been nice Clinton), a good communicator (would've been nice Bush). But there are two attributes that I think are especially CRUCIAL at this time: experience and judgement, and Obama has proven he can't be trusted at all in this category. I can't fathom just how bad things could get under an Obama presidency. If we were any nation but the USA, we may not even survive 4 years under this guy. Let's discuss the first of Obama's character flaws; his judgment. They say you can tell alot about someone by who they choose to associate with. We all have made bad choices in friends, maybe romances, no one is perfect in this regard. Obama however, has consistently chosen to surround himself with people so high on the scumbag scale you can't help but question his judgment. In his youth for instance, he chose as his mentor a through and through communist named Frank Marshall Davis. Obama admits he was a great influence on him, and the influence of Davis (not to mention Saul Alinsky) has been revealed in his socialist leaning efforts as a communnitry organizer in Chicago. Another mentor Obama chose to listen to over and over and over again for years is a preacher named Jeremiah Wright. This guy is a real piece of work. He is Chicago preacher of black liberation theology, a hate-filled ideology that essentially blames the white man and racism for virtually all hardship facing present day African Americans. He's a shrewd fellow who deflected much of the media's coverage and subsequent shock of the nation by going to the famous "taken out of context" card. He minimalized the troubling clips of his sermons by asking "have you seen the entire sermon?" Well, I DID see it, and it's just as bad, if not worse in it's full context. I have seen interviews of other Chicago black ministers who admit this hate-filled teaching exists, and they are rightly concerned that good Christian "normal" congregations that happen to be predominantly black will get a bad rap. This guy is bad news, yet Obama continued to listen to him for years! Now you might think i'm being unfair. I agree religion should be off limits. Indeed, I was frustrated that Mitt Romney's faith was an issue at all (it shouldn't be) during his campaign. What then, is the difference? The difference is, black liberation theology is not "religious" at it's core, it's political. It's racist, hate-filled, and destructive with the intent to change the political course of the nation, not the spiritual course of the individual. In short, hate speech posing as religion is NOT off limits. Since most people I know are white, let me use the following example. Imagine you attended a traditionally "white's only" church. You arrive as usual on Sunday, and then you hear the preacher, (or Bishop if you're LDS) screaming from the pulpit that September 11th was America's own fault, especially "black America's fault" Would you stand for this? I doubt you'd sit there through the whole talk...let alone continue attending for year after year!!!

I could argue case closed on Obama's poor judgment from his association with Rev Wright alone, but oh there's more. Obama served on the board of Chicago foundation and became friends with "past" American terrorist William Ayers. In fact, in 1995, Obama kicked off his political career at Ayer's home. I won't take the time to go into Ayer's bio. Google it for yourself. People may soften his image using terms like "activist", and rationlize away his actions due to the "craziness of the times(meaning the 60's), but what Ayer's stood for is little different from Bin Laden, using violence against innocent people to achieve political objectives.

Then there's Tony Resko. This is another scumbag convicted of fraud and bribery who used political connections to advance his business. He has worked with Obama through the years, including a recent land deal, and donated generously to Obama's campaigns, but in all fairness Obama has never been suspected of directly being involved in any of Resko's illegal activity. He did however, accept donations from Rezko even after the businessman was caught doing some pretty shady stuff, like failing to heat his low-income apartments, and using a black business partner to obtain a minority set-aside (or special funding from the government for African American entrepreneuers).

But equally important are his stances on the important issues. So what then, are the issues this country faces at this time in our history? People of course will vary on their answers and the rankings of those answers, but hopefully a few things sort of universally top the list: islamic terrorism, the economy (including our massive debt), oil independence, and healthcare. Even modest research into Obamas positions on these four issues should lead any sane person to realize this guy would be an absolute nightmare. Let's take them one by one. First off, foreign policy.
Obama is either all over the place on his foreign policy positions, or he's consistently wrong. For instance I saw a timeline of 3 quotes Obama made over a 6 day period on Russia's invasion of Georgia. He changed his position each time, but prefaced his statement with one of his favorite lines "as I said before"......and the media gives this guy a pass on everything so he's not called on it. On the surge in Iraq? He not only expressed doubt, but KNEW it wouldn't work...well..it did work. Then when he does show some toughness, it's misdirected. He was willing to unilaterally invade a nuclear-armed ally, Pakistan, to hunt terrorist. Not smart. Another telling item, in my mind, to gauge the foreign policy "preparedness" of our next president, is actually their position on Iran.
Iran is quickly becoming our greatest threat. They have directly sponsored terrorist activity and violence against innocent Iraqi's and our own troops in Iraq. And their leaders won't rest until many more innocent lives our lost. Back in the 1930's much of the world turned a blind eye to the evil rising in Germany. Some argued that diplomacy was ALWAYS the answer, despite it failing with Hitler time and again. While dipomacy is the answer the vast majority of the time, evil must be exposed and confronted. Churchill got it right in WWII, and we have to be prepared to do the same with Iran. Obama has already stated that his way of dealing with Iran is to "sit down and talk" without preconditions. A great change of pace some might say, from the 'ol cowboy George W's policy of "shoot first, ask questions later" right? Not so fast. While, on the surface, negotiating with a radical islamic regime desperately trying to develop nuclear weapons may seem like the best option, suggesting that course of action reveals a clear underestimation of the enemy, an enemy that by every definition, is evil. To be clear, the two leaders of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, believe to their very core that they have been called by Allah to destroy Israel and the US. They feel that by eliminating the world of Israel and the "great Satan" they could, as Joel Rosenberg puts it; "create the conditions that will bring the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the 12th Imam to earth. Puts their nuclear ambitions into greater perspective doesn't it? Scary, scary stuff. Just as frightening, Obama has absolutely know understanding of this threat. He thinks he will somehow sweet talk his way out of the conflict with Iran. Evil must be stopped. You don't sit down with the child molester next door you caught alone with your kid and discuss how, together, perhaps you can find more suitable alternative activities for him. Again, i'm not blasting dipomacy itself. It's a crucial part of any foreign policy, and is rightly named "the first option." My point is, that legitimizing Iran's regime with peace talks will not work. Obama has proven to us that his naivety at foreign policy could be very, very dangerous for us.

Secondly, how would Obama handle the economy and our national debt? In lieu of going into lengthy details, I will explain our current situation with an analogy. Basically our government is like a 16 year old girl with Daddy's credit card.... no, make that a 16 yr old girl that knows how to hack into Mastercard's servers and create her own credit cards, and distribute them to herself and everyone else in school in an effort to become more popular! Meanwhile, Obama wonders why the girl has to hack at all, and feels the solution is to give her easier access to the cash! Politicians on both sides, also in an effort to be popular with the voters, promise us all stuff we can't even come close to being able to afford. We are in serious, serious trouble, and our ONLY hope for the government to make MASSIVE spending cuts. Obama's solution???? Huge INCREASES in spending. If this whole essay were this one paragraph it would suffice for a strong enough case against Obama (man that would've freed up my evening). He also wants to do the other worst thing you can do to an economy....raise taxes! The federal government is bringing in a record amount of money already. It's only in debt because it spends so much more than it takes in. Raising taxes hurts the economy EVERY time it's done, and lowering taxes helps everyone, especially the middle class. How this is lost on Obama and the liberals is beyond me. Obama's one-two punch of higher taxes-higher spending might truly be the death blow to our battered economy.

When gas hit over $4/gallon, Americans began to wake up to just how bad our oil crisis is, and how vulnerable we are without energy independence. I fear we are starting to fall back asleep again, but the next president has to be proactive in this. We should be going all out, domestic drilling (including ANWR), nuclear, coal to oil, natural gas, wind, solar. We have got to aggressively tackle this problem. Obama's solution? I kid you not, he was pushing an "inflate your tires" message recently. Are you kidding me? He does NOT want domestic drilling (on or off shore), in fact he doesn't really want to do any of the above mentioned solutions. He is so tightly bound by environmental special interests that he's likely to even ban oil production from teenager's faces. (Hey, it'd solve their acne problems!) I love the liberal's argument that we can't move forward cause it'll take too long.....Bill Clinton failed to lift the ban on drilling back in 1995 despite heavy interest in favor. Leaders are supposed to look more ahead (and in this case....less at interns). Obama has no real solution to this problem. Thus one of our greatest crises will only get worse under his watch.
Finally, healthcare. I'm not even going to get into the absolute disaster that universal health care would bring to this country. I wrote extensively on the subject in an earlier blog, but many others alot smarter than I have too. The evidence is overwhelming. Universal health care doesn't work, but Obama will push for it hard.
Reason # 4, or more accurately, 4,873, why Obama CANNOT become our next president.