Thursday, April 26, 2012

Obama the Tragedy

April 26, 2012
By William L. Gensert

A second term for Barack Obama will be a tragedy.  His farcical first term barely hinted at the disaster awaiting America in Barack II.  Hobbled by a staggering lack of judgment and competence, and his ever-present reticence to make decisions that might impede his re-election, his first despicable term was a joke, despite a dearth of mirth.  If given four more years without worry of electoral reprisal, he will wreak havoc upon the nation in ways that Barack, back in Barack I, only dreamed of.

In 2008, Obama hoped the audacity of pretending to believe in America would propel him to the presidency, and he was right.  If re-elected, Barack Obama will finally have the luxury of being himself, and that is something that should terrify every American.

To detect the direction of Obama's next term, one need only examine select decisions from his first.  The deliberate demise of America's space program is one.  Any future triumph for NASA, because of its well-documented previous success, would have never been credited to Barack's brilliance.  And in America today, there is simply no room for any victory that does not belong solely to Barack Obama.  It had to go.  

Sure, he routinely claims the success of others, but selling the space program as all-Barack would have been a stretch, even for the man who Michelle Obama has said "led us out of the darkness into the light." 

Defense is another example of what an Obama second term will look like.  After strangling bin Laden with his bare hands, and singlehandedly ending terror worldwide, and with the tide of war ebbing, he has come to the conclusion the nation doesn't need a defense.  Besides, no matter how much he spends, or how powerful our armed forces remain or become, he will never get credit, because the heroes of America's military are the men and woman who volunteer to stand on that wall, ever-vigilant, so that demagogues like Barack Obama can be successful, while despising them and the sacrifice they make for their country. 

The F-22 may be the most advanced fighter in the world, but how would Barack take credit for that?  
 Better to cancel it and spend the money winning a future "built to last."

Our president wants total control over government, to exercise total control over all the little people.  He knows what is best for them.  No expense is too great for the nation to realize Barack Obama's dream of saving people from too much freedom.  He'll spend any amount of money to remake the country in his own image, but he balks at spending money for the things government can actually do better, like space travel and defense. 

Calling four more years of Barack Obama a tragedy for America, and perhaps the world, may very well be an understatement.  Since his inauguration, every pronouncement, legislative action, executive order, or regulatory fiat has been a veritable disaster for the nation.  He has been so successful at being unsuccessful that it borders on hilarity...or is that Hillary?  Never mind...I digress. 

He once said "they talk about me like a dog."  With recent revelations, the nation should wonder what he meant...sorry, another digression.

His failures are legion, his miscues legendary.  History will see his first term as a running gag, with no one laughing, plenty of people gagging, and everyone running for his life.  The laugh is on us, because despite the unmitigated disaster of Obama's first term, there are still people who will vote for him.

Energy

An economy thrives in a low-cost energy environment.  Expensive energy costs the nation jobs and prosperity.  The "all of the above" energy policy of our president's execrable re-election campaign will become the "none of the above" policy of a second-term Obama.  Electricity bills will triple as our president allows the EPA to totally ravage the coal industry.  The goal is to eliminate those bituminous bits of black gold from electrical generation.  Coal now provides 45% of America's electricity...coming soon, zero percent. 

We can always replace coal with natural gas or nuclear power...but wait a minute.  Barack will never allow nuclear power with its zero emissions and inexpensive energy.  He can't abide that; the price of electricity must "necessarily skyrocket" for green to become the new black.  Nuclear energy is out.    

If re-elected, Obama will be faced with a choice to either allow fracking and further development of fossil fuels in America, and admit to the idiocy of flushing tens of billions of dollars down the green energy toilet, or ban it by regulatory fiat, raising energy prices to the point where green boondoggles can compete.
Obama will never admit that any decision he made was wrong.  Look for him to take option 2.  After all, if re-elected, he will have more "flexibility."

After the election, the EPA will, suddenly and shockingly, find that fracking endangers water supplies, or something or other, and impose regulations that will cause the natural gas industry to go in the same direction as coal. 

The first step was taken Friday, April 13.  It was a typical Friday Obama dump.  When no one was looking, Obama issued an executive order establishing a task force, which is to ensure drilling techniques such as fracking are "safe and responsible."  In other words, he put his best team on it.  Americans should know where this is headed.  Natural gas is out.

Under "Energy President" Obama, annual revenue to the U.S. Treasury from offshore oil lease sales has plummeted more than $9 billion since 2008, to less than $37 million in 2011.  In government today, $37 million is a rounding error.  This should tell the nation all it needs to know about Obama's future plans for oil in America.  Oil is out.

The president does not want the nation to exploit its fossil fuel resources.  Ten-dollar-a-gallon gasoline will not affect the lives of Barack and family.  The person working two jobs to pay rent and put food on the table, however, will be devastated.    

In the age of Barack II, no one will be driving -- gasoline will be beyond most citizens' budgets.  No one will be reading or writing dissent by lamplight late at night -- electricity will be too expensive.  We will be relegated to freezing in our homes, lights off, praying for 01/20/17 and an end to the "Obama-nation." 

To sum up, in Barack II, he will cut out coal and oil, diminish natural gas, and forbid nuclear power.  Electric bills will skyrocket, and the nation will face rolling blackouts.  Gasoline will become even more unaffordable than it is already. 

The double-whammy of high transportation and energy costs will tank the economy, and jobs will become even scarcer than they are already.  In short, we will have been fundamentally transformed into a third-world country. 

It's coming, but like everything for Barack, it's scheduled for...again...after the election.  And all this, he will do by himself.  Because when you are transformative, you don't have to abide by the Constitution, separation of powers, checks and balances, and judicial review.  Executive fiat will be sufficient.  All he needs is another term.

The president says we should vote for him, because only a few have prospered while many have struggled.  

He has a point.  After all, the man has spent three and a half years doing everything in his power to make this a reality. 

This article covers just a few topics.  The president has equally disastrous plans for international affairs, race relations, government ubiquity, union primacy, guns, taxes, health care, and the judiciary.  Every single aspect of American life will be affected in Barack II. 

The theme of Obama's re-election campaign is "We can't wait."  If Barack Obama is re-elected, Americans will soon long for the misery of "hope and change."

American Thinker