If there was ever an educational moment for Obama, this is it.

Obama should take to the bully pulpit, teleprompter and all, to announce that he has ordered the FBI and Justice Department to investigate and prosecute anyone who threatens a judge or citizen. He should then go on to remind everyone that we are a nation of laws, that justice will be served by the court and that Mr. Zimmerman is, just as some claim of Mr. Martin, innocent until proven otherwise.

Anything less and Obama is simply continuing to incite mob violence and deserves immediate impeachment.

Will Obama show some presidential leadership?

Oil Spill Timeline from RightChange on Vimeo.

Thanks to Larry at NoQuarterUSA.net for this link.

The president wasn’t there. I mean, he wasn’t on stage.”

Mr. Carney, No, we cannot move on.  In introducing the president, Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. The president has made a habit of surrounding himself with people like Hoffa, then saying he didn’t hear their hate and incitement. Recall Ayers, Rev. Wright, and others. The president is now the leader of the country and it is time for him to show some respect for Americans, to walk the talk of civility that he calls for, and renounce the words of his friend Hoffa. Anything less, “can we move on”, simply says Obama agrees with Hoffa and is through proxies calling for incitement against fellow Americans.

Source:  Politico

The leader who was once a luminescent, inspirational force is now just a guy in a really bad spot.”–Maureen Dowd

Yep, Maureen Dowd has abandoned Obama, writing “One and Done?” in the New York Times.  This is a must read.  A few highlights:

Obama’s re-election chances depend on painting the Republicans as disrespectful. So why would the White House act disrespectful by scheduling a speech to a joint session of Congress at the exact time when the Republicans already had a debate planned?

 

And why is the White House so cocky about Obama as a TV draw against quick-draw Rick Perry? As James Carville acerbically noted, given a choice between watching an Obama speech and a G.O.P. debate, “I’d watch the debate, and I’m not even a Republican.”

 

The White House caved, of course, and moved to Thursday, because there’s nothing the Republicans say that he won’t eagerly meet halfway.

 

No. 2 on David Letterman’s Top Ten List of the president’s plans for Labor Day: “Pretty much whatever the Republicans tell him he can do.”

 

…Obama can’t turn into F.D.R. for the campaign because he aspires to the class that F.D.R. was a traitor to; and he can’t turn into Harry Truman because he lacks the common touch. He has an acquired elitism.

 

If the languid Obama had not done his usual irritating fourth-quarter play, if he had presented a jobs plan a year ago and fought for it, he wouldn’t have needed to elevate the setting. How will he up the ante next time? A speech from the space station?

 

Obama is still suffering from the Speech Illusion, the idea that he can come down from the mountain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the mountain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.

 

The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done. The One is dancing on the edge of one term.

 

The White House team is flailing — reacting, regrouping, retrenching. It’s repugnant.

 

After pushing and shoving and caving to get on TV, the president’s advisers immediately began warning that the long-yearned-for jobs speech wasn’t going to be that awe-inspiring.

 

“The issue isn’t the size or the newness of the ideas,” one said. “It’s less the substance than how he says it, whether he seizes the moment.”

 

The arc of justice is stuck at the top of a mountain. Maybe Obama was not even the person he was waiting for.

Today he offered clear advice on Obama’s error in attempting to schedule a presidential address to Congress next Wednesday. (Besides the fact that such a joint session is at the invitation of Congress not at the demand of the president.).  On “Good Morning America” he explained:

“I do think this is a really big debate, and I think the White House was out of bounds…in trying to schedule a speech during a debate.”

Given a “choice between watching a debate and the speech, I would have watched the debate and I’m not even a Republican or even close to being a Republican.”

Obama backed down in defeat today, accepting Congress’ invitation to instead speak next Thursday, September 7th (during the run up to the opening NFL season game).  Carville dismissed Obama’s speech as dead on arrival, saying it would simply outline Obama’s 2012 reelection pitch for jobs.  As Carville observed, “This Congress is not going to pass anything that the president proposes, that is pretty clear.”

I concur.  What can Obama propose to reverse the nearly 20% un– and under-employment that has occured on his watch?  The rate of unemployment is still going up.  Throwing more stimulus money at big corporations and financial institutions didn’t work before, why would it be different now?

Personally, Obama could have serious impact by asking American companies to adopt E-Verify for all current and future workers.  Eliminate 12–50 million illegal aliens from the work force, let them self-deport, and open those jobs up to Americans.  Further, end H1B and L1 visa programs except in the most extreme circumstances.  Require companies to hire an American to work alongside each visa worker to be trained to take over that job in 12 months.  Now that’d win Obama the hearts and minds of lots of Americans while seriously and quickly turn around unemployment.

Your thoughts?

Source:  NewsMax, ABC News Radio, Real Clear Politics

Source:  A Thanksgiving Message to All 57 States (November 25, 2010)