It’s All Obama’s Fault?

It’s All Obama’s Fault?

Ted Folkert

November 12, 2014

Waiting for the smoke to clear. That’s what seemed like the right thing to do by most of the media pundits that we read or listen to. The outcome of the election was no shock. It was widely predicted by the pundits, and probably exacerbated by all of the pollsters, which projected the negative outcome for the Democrats, which fed shock-value fodder for the noise media to attract viewers and listeners. They aggressively quoted each other about Obama’s “plunging” approval ratings, which weren’t really plunging at all, they declined by about 2 points, like from 42% to 40%. Of course it was blasted by the noise media like it was a rejection of Obama, who was maligned throughout the campaign as the culprit of all of the country’s ills. Everything was Obama’s fault, even those things that happened long before he took office and those things that happened or didn’t happen because of the obstructionist House majority and the legislation-blocking Senate minority, a totally dysfunctional Congress, the least productive House of Representatives in the history of the country. Some seem to think that Obama’s biggest shortcoming is “PWB”, being president while black.

Charles Blow summed it up in his NY Times article: “The Obama Opposition”, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/opinion/charles-blow-the-obama-opposition.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0 .

Jeff Schweitzer summed it up in his blistering article in the Huffington Post: “The Price of Failure and Rise of Extremism: How Democrats Blew It”, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/the-price-of-failure-and_b_6099752.html.

We all have our likes and dislikes for the actions and non-actions of the Obama administration, beginning with his uninformed and disastrous decision to surround himself with Clinton cronies, all Wall Street swindlers, all of the banker-friendly guys who promoted the deregulation that enabled the banksters to pick our pockets one more time, like they have throughout our history for the last hundred years. The Big Six have changed names and faces over the years, but they still rule the world.

We all overlook the good decisions and beneficial actions that he was able to bring forth before the complete blockage of progress by the regressive House of Representatives majority and the filibuster-prone Senate minority. And we overlook the Affordable Care Act and other beneficial programs he continues to promote during his short time in office.

If he could be elected now, after receiving this on-the-job-training of the last six years, he could probably become a very good president, if there is such a person. Unfortunately, there is no training program for president of the United States. There certainly should be. One of the most important positions in the world, not only for us but for most countries, should have some prerequisites, some training requirements.

Life is strange. In order to drive a car you must have training, learn the rules of the road, and pass a written and driving test. Likewise for flying an airplane or being an attorney or a real estate agent. You have to pass a test. But becoming president of the US is just like becoming a parent, no training required, no test required, you just jump in there and start doing it, learning as you go and hoping not to destroy the target before achieving the objective. We need to rethink this policy and whenever it gets bad enough for the populace to rise up and change the electoral system, so that the people can once more have some control of government, we should create a training system for presidential candidates commensurate with the importance of the job and protective of the potential damage to society that can occur due to the lack of essential skills and knowledge of the consequences of inappropriate actions. Perhaps we should have a presidential panel instead of one person having so much power, like the Supreme Court, except that the panelists should require election by the voters, with term limits and a provision for removal from office by the people.

Think about it!

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