A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT!

That expression seems to be the modus operandi of the Obama Administration. No matter how urgent the situation, it seems that he (Obama) cannot make a timely decision or for that matter, any decision at all.

It probably goes back to his days in the Illinois State Senate when he voted “present” 130 times. He didn’t have the guts to take a stand on a slew of controversial issues that came before the Illinois Senate for a vote. He was what we might call a “mugwump”. (Look it up).

This tendency for being indecisive seems to have followed him to the U.S. Presidency. He talks a good game (with the help of a teleprompter) but when “push comes to shove”, he avoids making a decision like the plague. He doesn’t realize that the job of president is not like the job of a “Community Organizer” which he was during the 1990’s. His lack of administrative experience, along with his lack of economic and business experience, was pointed out before the election took place, but the electorate (53% of the voters) was blinded to the facts before them by the smooth talk and the significance of electing the first black President. The main stream media was “in the tank” for Obama all through the election cycle and therefore, his lack of meaningful experience was downplayed or not even mentioned at all. Even today, in light of all the problems that he has not confronted forthrightly as President, the news media, with the exception of talk radio and the Fox News Channel, are still giving Obama a pass by not criticizing his blunders and policy mistakes like they did when George W. Bush was president.

The monstrosity of a health care bill that was passed by Congress and signed by the President was a perfect example of Obama not taking charge of the situation. He farmed out the job of drafting this legislation to two incompetents, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Obama stood on the sidelines making general comments that at best could be called overstatements and in some cases misstatements or outright lies (ex. Passage of this bill will not add one cent to the deficit). Not only did he not read the over 2,100 pages of the legislation, but neither did most of the Democrats who voted in favor of it. Arm twisting, intimidation, and outright bribes were enough to get the number of votes needed for passage. We are now finding out about this piece of legislation by dribs and drabs, and most people (over 60%) want this law repealed because they are finding out now that it was not what it was cracked up to be.

Today, we have the biggest environmental catastrophe in our nations history and he dithers away his time on the golf course or by throwing concerts at the White House, like the one he threw for Paul McCartney, and a host of other ceremonial events while the people of the Gulf Coast are crying out for help. He could’ve and should’ve kept the oil from reaching our beaches and marshlands, but he didn’t move to accept any help from foreign countries until day 70 of the spill. Why couldn’t he move to keep this environmental nightmare from spreading? I guess he wanted to vote “present” again instead of making some important choices and decisions.

When our national security is at stake, his procrastination can be downright dangerous to our fighting men and women overseas. It took him over 3 months to make a decision to send more troops that his commanding general requested from him, and when he agreed, he only allowed 30,000 instead of the 40,000 which was requested. You could say he was a “day late and a dollar short” on this very important military decision. I would guess that his dithering on this matter led Gen. McChrystal and his aides to make some uncomplimentary remarks months later with a reporter from “Rolling Stone” magazine that cost McCrystal his command after those remarks were printed and made public.

Our country is crying out for leadership but we’re not getting it from this Administration as they seem to be a “day late and a dollar short”.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann