The Bystander in Chief

Hapless and Clueless

There comes a time in everyone's life when defending the indefensible becomes a burden too great to bear. Perhaps in the case of the American mainstream media, it took this long due to an irrational hope that Barack Obama was truly as brilliant as they believed and as they sold him to us, but now that same media has seemed to have gotten the message that it was all bunk from the beginning. It seems that the rookie will never develop into what they expected.

With every potential scandal that has plagued this administration -- and they have been plentiful -- the same lame excuse has been rolled out by everyone connected to Obama, and even by Obama himself. That excuse is that "Obama didn't know". Yes, we learned each time that Obama found out about all these terrible things perpetrated by people in his administration the same way that we the people did--he read about it in the paper.

That would be a perfectly acceptable response to a question about, say, Kim Kardasian's escapades or perhaps the latest reality show, but about things as serious as Fast and Furious or Benghazi, it is heinous for the alleged Leader of the Free World to so cavalierly toss out such weary exculpations.

Domestically, it is an embarrassment to see the guy allegedly in charge of our affairs not only "surprised" to learn of these incidents the same way that we do, but apparently unconcerned about the people who supposedly surprised him. When the leaders of foreign countries, particularly those whom we consider friends, are learning that they have been spied upon, that goes beyond embarrassing into mortifying.

To veer off course just a bit, as children we were taught the story of young George Washington telling his father after the "Cherry Tree Incident" that "he cannot tell a lie". Raise your hand if you remember that lesson. It was a lesson of honor, something Americans once held dear. Today, honor has vanished in the face of possible victory (or continued "service in the federal government").

The real irony lies in our collective inability to differentiate between lies and other lies. Once they have been perfected and layered with care, like fine masonry, lies build a beautiful wall of secrecy that few have the temerity to penetrate, least of all the average American. While our journalistic community should have been educating our neighbors, they have been too busy carrying the water of an administration they thought was on their side.

Well, our media is learning that this wall was beautifully designed but structurally unsound. And now many may begin, finally, to ask the pertinent questions.

For starters, I would like to see this one question posed to Obama, Jay Carney, take your pick...anyone who speaks for our federal government should suffice; "If Obama is ignorant of Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, the NSA scandal, Obamacare, Solyndra, Benghazi, then who, precisely, is running our country"?

The funny thing is, the Liberal establishment insisted that Dick Cheney ran the George W. Bush White House because Bush was "too stupid" to handle the job. (Read Decision Points, by the way). It's not funny in the truest sense of the word because, if we are to believe that Joe Biden is the real "brains" behind the operation, then the time for despair is long beyond us.

That is not funny, but sad.

Barack Obama, whose teleprompter-reading skills are arguably beyond reproach, has been touted for years as the leader America needed, the one who would bring hope and change, yea, even a bringing together of all people. Some have used the word messiah, though not this author. Joe Biden, that genius of second string, called him "clean and articulate". Now, I ask, where is the vindication of these claims?

And I still ask, "Who is running America"? We're on a boat, or a bus, whatever the current metaphor may be, with no apparent driver. Are we better off?

Take me to your leader.

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