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"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done."
Ronald Reagan




Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Lurita Doan - Who Is Barack Obama?

Barack Obama’s handlers continually seem to look for opportunities to create analogous comparisons between Obama and other iconic American figures, in the hopes that some patina of their greatness will burnish Obama’s flawed image.

During a recent trip to Mount Rushmore, First Lady Michelle Obama must have looked longingly, and hopefully at the images of America’s greatest presidents, and hoped to inspire some sort of connectivity in the mind of voters linking Obama to the great men who’s images are carved in stone at Mount Rushmore.

In order for any comparison to work, voters must answer the question—who is Barack Obama? What does he stand for? What are his core values? These are, typically, the questions that most presidential candidates answer when they run for re-election. Or they run on their record. But, after three and a half years of failed policies, with an almost $16 Trillion deficit, with unemployment at 8.3% and gas prices at over $4 per gallon, Obama certainly can’t run on his record.

But who is Barack Obama?

One thing’s for certain: Barack Obama is no George Washington. George Washington was an incredible leader for our nation, a man who was capable of facing his mistakes and learning from them. During the French Indian War, Colonel Washington suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela and, at one point, had more colonial soldiers running away from the conflict than staying and fighting. But, George Washington demonstrated superhuman endurance, perseverance, courage and grit. He sent no spin-meisters out to Sunday news shows, to whitewash the record and stretch the English language, twisting words into pretzel-like distortions, in an attempt to mask responsibility and focus blame on others. Instead, Washington made sure that when the opportunity came again—and it did—he led brilliantly, both strategically and tactically, during the Revolutionary War. Forget any comparison between George Washington and Barack Obama, none exist.

Obama is no Thomas Jefferson, either. Apparently, words do not come easily to Barack Obama unless he has an ever-ready teleprompter, replete with the language and ideas of his handlers. Of Barack Obama’s writings, we have almost nothing—no signature legislation (save that crafted by Sen. Coburn to which Obama appended his name as a joint sponsor), nor are there any signature writings from his time in college, law school or, oddly, as the editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Barack Obama’s public relations machines try to promote Obama’s brilliance, but his transcripts have never been released to the public—so who knows? Jefferson, on the other hand, repeatedly exhibited his brilliance in writing our nation’s founding documents, in Jefferson’s statesmanship in acquiring the Louisiana Purchase, or Jefferson’s prescience when he said: “To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” Clearly Obama is no Jefferson.

Obama is no James Madison. The “Father of the Constitution”, James Madison helped draft the constitution, was the author of the Bill of Rights, in particular, the first ten amendments. In comparison, Barack Obama has spent the past three and a half years attacking those amendments. Whether it’s Obama’s decision to compel birth control insurance payments from Catholic-run institution, or other areas of governmental overreach, Obama has shown a marked disregard for the rights of Americans. Clearly Obama is no Madison.

Obama is not Andrew Jackson, either. At no time has it been more apparent than in the recent Trayvon Martin debacle. During the Battle of New Orleans, during the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson showed daring, innovation and courageous leadership when he rallied all the inhabitants of the city to fight together to defeat the British—White, Black, Indian, slave and freed man, soldiers and pirates—urging them to put aside their differences and to work together, side-by-side, to defeat a common foe. “Old Hickory”, tough as nails, understood that divisiveness destroys and incendiary language that inflames hostilities is not the way to create a unified nation. Obama could learn a lot from Andrew Jackson.

Obama is no John F. Kennedy. Whereas Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” Obama is all about selfish indulgence. Team Obama’s policies have at their core a belief that the government needs to do more for individuals, and always, that there is some other “millionaire or billionaire” who can be taxed to pay for it. Mr Obama appeals to his supporters by promising something for nothing.

Any costs for the promised largess (healthcare, housing, food, education, etc) are to be the responsibility of someone else. Kennedy by contrast, wanted Americans to remain an aspirational people. Kennedy believed passionately in American exceptionalism—and championed some of the most dramatic plans to put a man on the moon. Obama, after shutting down space travel, with no belief in American exceptionalism, praises a NASA leader who has diverged dramatically from NASA’s core mission to claim that NASA’s new mission priority is Muslim outreach. Many are still alive who knew Jack Kennedy, and it goes without saying that Barack Obama is no Jack Kennedy.

Of course, Obama’s no Lyndon Baines Johnson either. LBJ was, arguably, one of the most skilled legislators our nation has known. His ability to craft a compromise between Republicans and Democrats and to waltz even the most controversial legislation (such as the Civil Right Act) through congress is legendary. The recent Supreme Court case on Obamacare illustrated that Obama’s ham-fisted, cobbled-together effort to forge consensus was little more than congressional bribery, and that the legislation had little hope of passing without the many ear-marks and riders promising goodies.

The lack of a “severability clause” proves that the pay-for-play agreements, euphemistically known as the Corn Huskers’ Kickback and the New Louisiana Purchase, were the only way Obama was able to garner sufficient votes to get the “monstrosity” passed. And, considering Obama’s recent Budget failed to pass congress with even one vote shows neither political party has any confidence in Obama’s stewardship of the economy. Consider: a budget vote that fails 416-0. LBJ, surely, would have been ashamed of Obama’s colossally ineffective powers of persuasion.

It goes without saying that Obama is not, and never will be, Ronald Reagan. Obama’s recent “open mike” comments, to Russian President Medvedev, reveal Obama’s nefarious intentions to further weaken America’s missile defense and pander to Putin’s thuggish regime. Reagan’s poignant, persuasive and tough speech at the Brandenburg Gate, exhorting “Mr. Gorbachev: “Open this gate. Mr. Gorbvachev, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!” boldly reverberated across continents and changed forever the history of this world. Obama’s obsequious groveling to Medvedev is behavior unimaginable and would never be tolerated by Reagan.

After three and a half years, Americans still know little about Barack Obama. What they have seen of Obama, so far, has been bad--a litany of gaffes, policy missteps, race-baiting, class warfare mongering, blame-gaming, tin-cupping, whining and betrayal of American values. One thing is certain: Barack Obama has little in common with any president our country has ever had. Hopefully, this Obama hiccup in history will be of short duration, nothing more than “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.”


Lurita Doan
Lurita Alexis Doan is an African American conservative commentator who writes about issues affecting the federal government.

Lurita has been involved in the business community through participation in many trade associations, membership in business organizations including the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (now Entrepreneurs' Organization) and Young Presidents' Organization, and involvement on charitable community activities.

United States Motto: E Pluribus Unum describes an action: Many uniting into one. An accurate translation of the motto is "Out of many, one".

Judgement Day, November 6, 2012

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