and give away all the credit.
Let’s revisit recent history. On November 4, the Democrats lost power during the midterm elections. A Canadian newspaper expressed shock. Despite the article’s singing the President’s accolades, POTUS took the blame for the loss of power of his political party despite being distanced from the left-wing candidates on the campaign trail. They intentionally kept POTUS at arm’s length, but he took the blame for their election failures anyway. That’s what leaders, true leaders, do. Barack Obama is a true leader.
I recall a time his predecessor, George W. Bush, was in a similar situation. He’d mistakenly thought that Iraq had weapons of nuclear destruction. Instead of admitting the fault was his, and he attacked a country that had done nothing to us, he tried to get his administration to spin his error in his favor. To this day, George W. Bush is a laughing-stock. (I will quote the musical Avenue Q. “George Bush is only for now”.) In contrast, Barack Obama did not cause his party’s humiliation, but in a recent interview he accepted blame nonetheless.
Not only was President Obama not responsible for doing harm, he has been hailed by Americans as well as Canadians. At the time of the Canadian article’s writing, America was adding 200,00 jobs per month, unemployment had fallen, corporate profits were at an all-time high, gas prices had fallen (and are staying low), our dependence on foreign oil is decreasing, and the deficit, which Obama has been so criticized for, is decreasing.
Yet, and this is the point of today’s post, as I sit at my laptop and type this, the GOP is considering impeaching the man. Why? What high crimes, necessary for impeachment, has he committed? First, the GOP was mad that he helped get sick children health care by designing legislation Supreme Court justices deemed constitutional. Now, the Republicans are mad that, again, POTUS wants to help children. Children who crossed into America illegally are still being detained. Instead of working with POTUS to help them, the GOP is doing nothing at all. POTUS has announced, “before year’s end” he will make an executive order to help them. The executive order was not his first choice; working with the GOP was. In lieu of that, he is doing what he can, an executive order, to help them. I read millions of people have been in our country without documentation for five years. They’ve been here for half a decade, and the GOP wants to send them back to countries full of such horrors that the undocumented immigrants broke the law to come here, now!? POTUS, or so I’ve read, would like to get them work permits, so they can be productive members of our society. President Obama, I maintain, will not be guilty of committing high crimes. He will be reacting to a sluggish GOP.
According to a Huffington Post blog (11/15) Ronald Regan, the Republicans’ golden boy, also acted using executive power to “shield immigrants from deportation” as did, big shock here–George W. Bush. Neither of them, that I recall, were threatened with impeachment proceedings. “Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” Barack Obama has made, and is continuing to try to make, a difference in people’s lives. I’m sure a mere “nice job” would suffice, but impeachment threats?
Since no “high crimes” have been committed, I would agree with one of the Daily Kos’s (11/16) headlines. The GOP is not trying to criminalize Obama. They are trying to criminalize liberalism. Only if the American people allow the GOP to continue to manipulate them, will they be able to do it.
Readers, what are your opinions? Is President Obama guilty of high crimes? I look forward to your views.
