The President's Failure, and His Refusal To Be The Standard Bearer

So. The new book about President Obama and The Tech Coast Whiz Kids Administration is out. I rarely read political books, but plan to read “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President,” by Ron Suskind. From all accounts to date, it simply confirms that what many recognized early on: that the Obama presidency was premature, before he had acquired skill or experience, and as a result, this administration is immature to the point of incompetency.

We were sold the iPresident, a candidate was picked out and packaged like a  boy band. The promoters knew they were sending a teen idol to the White House but they didn't realize before September 2008 that it was going to take, not a spokes-model, but a man, to do a far more difficult job than they could imagine. After the "global" engineered - and false - economy began to crumble on its foundation of sand, the era of the Staged Reality Show was at an end, and cold reality reasserted sobering truths.

The country needed a statesman and we got a lip syncing TV personality.

I've said elsewhere that no one who loves America ever wants a president to fail, because the president's primary role is as standard bearer. Whether we voted for him or not, whether we like him or not, the president represents America as the Best of the Best, standing in our place for better or worse. Both Reagan and Clinton had their detractors, but even those who didn't vote for them were able to benefit from effective, lawful (yes, despite Iran/Contra, both generally maintained the rule of law, as opposed to Gunwalker), and predictable governance.

Of course traditional conservatives and those of us who respect liberty wanted Mr Obama's plans to fail. We said "No" to monopoly money & crony credit and "No" to brother-in-law bureaucracy and "No" to unelected, immature czar-babies.

But we can want his plans to fail and tranformations to fail and ambitions to fail without giving up hope on the man. This is why pollsters find that people still say they "like him as a person" while being completely appalled at his dismal performance. Or as Shelby Steele wrote earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal: "Indeed, on the matter of Mr. Obama's character, today's left now sounds like the right of three years ago. They have begun to see through the man and are surprised at how little is there."

What we who did not vote for him and were very concerned about what we knew (and especially, what we didn't know) about him had hoped about Mr Obama was what Richard Fernandez, of Belmont Club, said: "Nearly all the great captains of secular history have learned from their mistakes." Our hopes proved wrong, since President Obama will not learn, "He is doomed by his own hubris to tragedy…"


America must not elect this man again, and we must try to undo the harm, but we can stand with Rick Perry and pray that God look after President Obama in the interim and give him wisdom he sorely lacks - not for his own sake, but for the sake of the United States of America, for our friends like Israel, and for our own sakes.

A man may discover he is, ultimately, a success as a man, despite having to give up dream after dream in the effort of life for the needs of his family or his country or just being steadfast and accountable every day. That's what being the standard bearer is.

That is what the job of the President is. Not to push legislation or wrangle policies, but to learn from mistakes, to be steadfast and accountable where the best interest of the nation comes first, last, and always (to paraphrase Barbara Jordan). To fly our flag.

But President Obama is not willing to be the standard bearer. Even now, he will not fly our flag or plant crosses or lift the torch. Not in Afghanistan, not in America. All of our prayers cannot overrule the man’s own stubborn free will, cannot save him from himself.


President Obama is failing continually at the real job. And that is bad for America.

Pray for his conversion, for a change of heart. Pray that the Father will send a laborer to share the true Good News with him. There’s still time for good to come out of the rest of his term, if Christ is in his heart.