LOS ANGELES, August 16, 2012 — As the world burns, one hard question needs to be asked about the very leader of the free world: Does President Obama care?
Barack Obama is a man who expresses an opinion on virtually every mundane issue, often incorrectly. The Shirley Sherrod situation and his accusation that a white police officer “acted stupidly” are examples of his quickness to weigh in inaccurately when silence would have been appropriate.
Yet on matters of life and death, he is often missing in action. To make matters worse, his decision to either speak or remain mum often appears to be based on ideological considerations.
When former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot, Obama made poignant remarks about digging down and being better people. After the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado, his remarks were appropriate. Whether he was sincere is not the issue. He showed up, and showing up matters.
Yet the times when Obama disappears show a remarkable pattern. When the New Black Panthers used billy clubs to intimidate white voters at polling places, Obama stayed silent. His Attorney General Eric Holder did not prosecute anyone.
When a Radical Islamist went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama was silent. The terrorist attack was categorized as “workplace violence.”
When the Iranian people stood up in 2009 and begged President Obama to either side with them or the mullahs, he was silent. The revolution was crushed, and Iran is well on its way to obtaining a nuclear weapon and blowing up civilization.
In the last 24 hours, a near tragedy and an unspeakable horror came and went without comment. Domestically, a leftist radical gay rights advocate went into the headquarters of the Family Research Council in Washington, DC, and began shooting. The FRC is a socially conservative organization. President Obama had nothing to say. If this were a right-winger shooting at an abortion clinic, Obama would be waxing poetic for the media. His surrogates would wail about the dangers of allowing Tea Party attendees, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin to speak. Politically conservative individuals being shot at does not seem to concern him.
On the foreign policy front, the bloodbath in Syria is now a full blown genocide. Bashar Assad was supposed to be on the verge of losing power. That was months ago, and the killing continues unabated. President Obama stays silent. Every once in awhile he will “express concern” and issue Assad a “serious warning,” as if that means anything.
The president’s water-carriers ask questions like “What should he say? What do you expect him to do?”
How about something. How about anything. Even Bill Clinton crocodile tears would be more emotion than we get out of Obama.
His water-carriers refer to Obama as “cool,” “calm,” “nuanced,” “complex” and “analytical.” These are euphemisms. “Cool and calm” is code for cold and calculating. “Nuanced and complex” is a sugarcoated way of describing his indecisiveness and navel gazing. Meanwhile, innocent women and children end up in pools of their own blood.
Mr. Obama continues the liberal tradition of pretending to care about people while allowing them to be slaughtered. 800,000 Rwandans died on Clinton’s watch, while his administration looked on impassively.
The conservative tradition, often derided as “cowboy” behavior, is to actually do something. No amount of liberal carpet-bombing of President George W. Bush can change the fact that he had the military rout the Taliban in Afghanistan and take down Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The cleanup was messy, but both wars saw bad guys dealt with in less than a month. Vice President Cheney wanted to deal with Iran, and he was right then and now.
Mr. Obama “led from behind” in Libya while thousands of additional people needlessly died. He then said nothing. Now Syria is repeating the pattern in an even more brutal fashion, and he cannot find a single word.
Maybe the man has an Intel Pentium chip where is heart is supposed to be. Yet that would mean he never ever cared about anyone. He obviously loves his wife and children. He does care about some people. He just shows total indifference to “other” people. Brutal acts by radical Islamists, leftists, and black separatists seem to be unimportant to him. He did instruct SEAL Team Six to kill Osama bin Laden, but then issued no comments when some of those brave SEALs met their own demise under murky circumstances one month later.
President Obama is absolutely in no way to blame for the shootings in Syria or at the Family Research Council. Evil people are committing evil acts. Mr. Obama, despite his 2008 rhetoric, is not Superman. He cannot snap his fingers and cause the oceans to rise and the world’s pain to recede.
Yet he can use the bully pulpit as a force for positive change, and he too often fails at this level. This could be accidental, but perhaps it is selective caring. As pernicious as this sounds, their is valid evidence of his picking the winners and losers of his concern.
His entire presidency has been about favoring some over others. Some people matter to him and some people don’t. This is who he is. Those who don’t like it can literally drop dead and stop inconveniencing him.
Brooklyn born, Long Island raised, and now living in Los Angeles, Eric Golub is a politically conservative columnist, blogger, author, public speaker, satirist and comedian. Eric is the author of the book trilogy “Ideological Bigotry, “Ideological Violence,” and “Ideological Idiocy.”
Eric is 100% alcohol, tobacco, drug, and liberalism free. Follow Eric on Twitter @TYGRRRREXPRESS
Eric Golub is an independent writer for the Communities. Read more from Eric at TYGRRRR EXPRESS
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