Saturday, July 11, 2009

Obama's Double Doublespeaks in Ghana?

I just watched President Obama's address to the Ghanaian parliament.

Much of it was a thrilling defense of Constitutional law and honest, transparent government. He talked about the inspiring history of Ghana's founding. He upheld the sanctity of the vote. Obama congratulated the Ghanaian people for peaceful elections, giving special credit to the minority. He condemned the practice of giving special favor to people and businesses in exchange for gifts of money or other inducements. He underscored that it is up to people to take care of themselves. He observed that African businesses are doing very well in the United States despite past wrongs. He condemned terrorism. He advised Ghana's young people to hold their government accountable.

I thought I must be looking at Obama's double.

The Obama I have been observing hardly has been defending the rule of Constitutional law here in the U.S.; instead he's been sidestepping the U.S. Constitution with unprecedented vigor and has gone so far as to threaten to penalize Hondurans for following their constitution. When it came time to respect the right to vote, he aligned himself with ACORN, a notorious abuser and underminer of the power of the individual vote, and his party has earmarked huge amounts of American taxpayers' dollars to ACORN's efforts, which, it might be added, hardly support self-reliance. He had no trouble turning a blind eye to Iranians sacrificing their lives and freedoms in an effort to get some semblance of a vote.

He has shown his respect for America's political minority by shutting them out of many processes, and his Department of Homeland Security has labeled his political opposition "extremists." Individuals, businesses, and entire areas that supported his campaign with gifts of money are reported to benefit much more from government spending than those who did not. Rather than support self-sufficiency, he actively promotes socialized ownership of banks and industry as well as a socialized healthcare system that penalizes the responsible in favor of the irresponsible. Numerous African businesses and business people might be doing very well in the United States, but American businesses and business people aren't faring so well. One of his first actions as president, which he took at about the same time that his Department of Homeland Security was scrubbing the word terrorist out of his administration's vocabulary, was to promise the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees, 60 of whom already have returned to creating "man-caused disasters." Far from being held accountable, he consigns generations of Americans to indebtedness by signing bills that have not even been read, and he has deprived the American people of Congressional oversight of huge swaths of government by funnelling responsibility for many enormous financial decisions through a system of unelected "czars" who are not approved by Congress.

I guess President Obama has been paying close attention to what the American people want, but he's carrying our message to Africa, not to his own administration or party.

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