When President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “bully pulpit,” he meant it in the most positive sense. He believed that the presidency was an excellent platform from which to articulate a belief or a position. How unfortunate it is, then, that our current president just wasted a fabulous opportunity to use the bully pulpit to accomplish something good, both for his presidency and for the country.
The recent kerfuffle over the proposed mosque at ground zero constitutes an unforced error for Obama. He came out in favor of the mosque at a Ramadan dinner on Friday and then had to walk it all back on Saturday. This in face of the fact that over two-thirds of Americans oppose the idea of a mosque at ground zero for no other reason that a mosque at ground zero is in horrible taste.
Yes, the proponents of the mosque have the right to build it there but that doesn’t mean that they should. All President Obama had to do to win on this issue was simply say just that. In November 2008 most of us in East Texas voted against Obama because he is too liberal. Today, if we had to vote again, based on episodes like this one, we’d vote against him because he is tone deaf to the point of incompetence.
obama has not yet learned he can not straddle the fence in order to win friends and influence enemies on subjects such as this. His bias shows here as it did with the Gates debacle. There is more to the mosque issue than the freedom to build it where they want. This mosque, if built at ground zero, will represent a muslim victory all over again. This was no random selection of where to build and this is something this president is not willing to admit.
The man child is nothing more than an empty & dangerous suit. He invokes the “constitution” when it suits his views, but poo poo the negative liberty aspects the rest of the time. He is NOT as intelligent as one would think…his lack of leadership ability has come home to roost with Afghanistan, the Gulf Oil Spill, the Mosque, the Economy, Unemployment and Social programs. America deserves better than this…
Of all the things Obama is doing wrong, and there are plenty, the best you can do is harping on the mosque? I think I need to go to Kiepersol for lunch !
You are right about his second comment;he should have stuck to his guns.The fact that a majority disagrees is beside the point;our country purposely protects the minority against the tyranny of the majority.But let’s establish some facts:1) It is Not at “Ground Zero”,it is 2 blocks away.So it’s in the neighborhood ,like that Knucklehead down the road from you. 2)They have been using the building to worship for years,now they want to spruce it up, like our churches’ capital improvements.3)It IS their property & they are not breaking any laws.It’s none of our business what they do.Do you think it’s possible they might be good neighbors? I personally don’t care if they build it or not, but I am incensed that so many would take away their right to do so.
Brave and Innocent American Memorial or Under the Foot of Islam?
On July 1-3 of 1863, nearly 51,000 American soldiers lost their lives fighting the battle of Gettysburg. On 911 in NYC, the WTC lost nearly 3,000 civilians: parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, in-laws, pregnant, and for some, probably their first day at work there. But all the 911 victims were INNOCENT, not the brave soldiers knowingly risking life and limb. Terrorists ‘drafted’ these people to die a soldiers death that day. Both types of loss of life grieve the American conscience.
It’s common in American culture to ‘memorialize’ and honor it’s victims, be it in OKC, Arlington National Cemetary, World Wars, or a roadside memorial to the victim of an accident. To that end, what Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg about the dedication of the national cemetery there is particularly appropriate in light of current events surrounding the Mosque at Ground Zero
We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow, this ground — The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
HOW FAR HAVE WE FALLEN? Mr. Obama, Ms. Pelosi, you have NO sense of history or grasp of patriotic American Culture. 137 years before 911, when the office of President had true dignity and Washington had more statesman than politicians, this was the proper and patriotic approach to remembering our victims. That there is even any other thought is illustrative of how far we’ve fallen, and further illustrates how OUT of TOUCH you are with America. It truly seems that you and your ilk don’t give a damn that 68% of Americans understand what’s said above and you don’t!
With an undeniable history of building Mosques at sites of conquests, Americans understand and WON’T stand for a mosque near ground zero. Mr. Obama, you said yourself before that America has been ‘arrogant’. If America permits this, why don’t you just bring the statue of Liberty to the site, lay her down put a Koran in her hand, and build a statue of Mohammed standing on her back? Do you have an American made backbone sir?
The ground zero mosque location is only 1 in a barrel full of examples of that patriotic Americans get and Washington doesn’t. But if you aren’t smart enough to understand, then let the polls and the patriotic groundswell scare you, nay, terrify you into waking up and realizing that yours is a position of public service, not some kind of anointed royalty! Patriotic Americans further understand the rest of what Lincoln said:
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth
This may or may not be enough of a wake up call to penetrate the thick skulls in Washington that Patriotic working Americans have had a bellyful, and that your ‘reign’ is over! If you’re awake enough to show us, lets see the fruits of it as fast as the first responders made it to ground zero to save what life and limb they could that day. We’ve had enough. As it stands today, many of the knuckleheads in Washington will be making their own emergency call in November……to get voters feet out of their butts.
Matt McCauley in Bullard
On July 1-3 of 1863, nearly 51,000 American soldiers lost their lives fighting the battle of Gettysburg. On 911 in NYC, the WTC lost nearly 3,000 civilians: parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, in-laws, pregnant, and for some, probably their first day at work there. But all the 911 victims were INNOCENT, not the brave soldiers knowingly risking life and limb. Terrorists ‘drafted’ these people to die a soldiers death that day. Both types of loss of life grieve the American conscience.
It’s common in American culture to ‘memorialize’ and honor it’s victims, be it in OKC, Arlington National Cemetary, World Wars, or a roadside memorial to the victim of an accident. To that end, what Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg about the dedication of the national cemetery there is particularly appropriate in light of current events surrounding the Mosque at Ground Zero
We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow, this ground — The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
HOW FAR HAVE WE FALLEN? Mr. Obama, Ms. Pelosi, you have NO sense of history or grasp of patriotic American Culture. 137 years before 911, when the office of President had true dignity, this was the proper and patriotic approach to remembering our victims. That there is even any other thought is illustrative of how far we’ve fallen, and further illustrates how OUT of TOUCH you are with America. It truly seems that you and your ilk don’t give a damn that 68% of Americans understand what’s said above and you don’t!
With an undeniable history of building Mosques at sites of conquests, Americans understand and WON’T stand for a mosque near ground zero. Mr. Obama, you said yourself before that America has been ‘arrogant’. If America permits this, why don’t you just bring the statue of Liberty to the site, lay her down put a Koran in her hand, and build a statue of Mohammed standing on her back? Do you have an American made backbone, Mr. Obama?
The ground zero mosque location is only 1 in a barrel full of examples of that patriotic Americans get and Washington doesn’t. But if you aren’t smart enough to understand, then let the polls and the patriotic groundswell scare you, nay, terrify you into waking up and realizing that yours is a position of public service, not some kind of anointed royalty! Patriotic Americans understand the rest of what Lincoln said:
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth
This may or may not be enough of a wake up call to penetrate the thick skulls in Washington that Patriotic working Americans have had a bellyful, and that your ‘reign’ is over! If you’re awake enough to show us, lets see the fruits of it as fast as the first responders made it to ground zero to save what life and limb they could that day. We’ve had enough. As it stands today, many of the knuckleheads in Washington will be making their own emergency call in November……to get voters feet out of their butts!