The Power Of Conviction

In a recent post entitled "Obama's Change Can Change Quickly", I pointed out how fickle our dear new president can be. But that's to be expected, he's a politician. Forgive me for forgetting. For eight years we dealt with a president who took a position and stood by it. Whether or not people liked it. That is the power of conviction.

As the poet wrote, you gotta stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. That could be the problem. I understand the presidency is a figurehead position, but it shouldn't be a puppet position, jerked around on the strings of public emotion. It's interesting to see our current puppet...er, president, stand up at Notre Dame and talk about finding common ground between the pro-life and abortion camps. Especially when, truth be told, this is from a guy who consistently voted an even more militant stance, killing live, breathing babies who survived an abortion, than even other Democratic congressman from the state of Illinois would vote. Sounds like someone on the campaign trail to me. Someone who will say one thing when talking to the crowd in San Francisco, and the complete opposite when talking to the crowd in Iowa. I hope that being a smooth talking liar is not what Americans want from a politician. But I fear.

So here we go again, as our beloved puppet falls for anything, and signs a silly presidential resolution in his first few days, promising to close Guantánamo in a year. Nice. You sure appeased all the people who listened to you on the campaign trail talk about the failed policies of your predecessor, and how wrong it is to detain people without giving them the rights we so dearly cherish. After all, (sarcastically speaking) you needn't be a citizen of the United States to receive the protections of our Constitution. You don't even need to be an illegal alien who manages to have a baby in the United States. You don't even need to be a Colombian drug lord who manages to get arrested in the United States. You don't even need to be in America, you simply need to shoot at an American soldier as he does his job defending freedom overseas. Yes, (sarcastically speaking) that action alone should transport some terrorist from the despot like rule they grew up under, into the utopia of the American Constitution, and defense lawyers. And Obama wants to announce his release of terrorists and other people like that, without ANY PLAN for what to do with them. Maybe we can put them in an American prison. Yay. Good one. Genius. Turns out the Democratic lead congress cant even believe the President, and instead voted not to fund his one year program. Pretty bad when even your friends wont help you out with your bad ideas.

Again and again, Obama's change is changing quickly. Like any good politician, with his thumb in the wind, our puppet reacts to the pulling of the strings. Well at least he does that, at least he's listening. Now all of a sudden it's not a good idea to release pictures the ACLU wants in their witch-hunt of American soldiers doing their best to obtain information from folks who were trying to kill Americans. Obama reverses himself again last week, finally admitting that his policy would cost American soldiers lives. Oh, and now all of a sudden we need a plan of where to put the detainees who, by golly, are trying to kill Americans, and no other country wants to accept. Who would've guessed? Guess it takes more than a little show of signing a presidential directive doesn't it? Oh, and I guess Bush wasn't wrong on the military tribunal thing either. After all the incindiary things Obama said on the campaign trail, he's going to reverse himself, go ahead and do the same damn thing, military tribunals to try folks who attempted to kill American soldiers (as it should be). But will Obama have the grace to apologize for his mistakes and misleading statements?  Well, no. Apologizing is something else Bush did, so it must be bad.   

Dear reader, I guess I live in the real world. In my world, my wife, my family, my employees, and my customers all expect me to say things that I've thought out. Things that make sense. Things that I believe in. They don't expect me to change my mind tomorrow, constantly, on every issue. After all, I only get so many chances to be a father to my daughter. I only get so many chances with my wife before she would lose trust in me. My employees look to me for leadership, and wouldn't respect waffling, vacillating, and thumb in the wind syndrome. And my customers, most of those I only get one shot with.

Our President needs to get off the campaign trail. It's time to shut up and stop the rhetoric.  Less news conferences and more learning about the issues, sir. Charm, charisma and slick speech are not leadership. False flags and red herrings only work for so long. Following the leader as he makes one mistake after another and turns around to "lead" in the opposite direction after all, well, it makes you dizzy.  

Leadership is thinking things through, making a wise decision, and standing by it. Without this, America can fall from her position of moral and economic authority. Our friends, allies and those around the world who look to us as icons, can lose respect. And what happens then?