During the run up to the 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama was praised for his great oratory. He “inspired”. He “motivated”. He sent “tingles” up your leg. He made you well up with “pride”. He made you “cry”.
Yet after all the dithering on his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan (for purely political reasons I might add), where was that inspiration that catapulted his campaign? Other than a few blind lemmings so desirous of seeing this guy succeed that they would applaud him reading the ingredients list off the back of a frozen tv dinner, where are those who were inspired by his speech last night? The silence is deafening.
Our troops need the support of the Commander-in-Chief. Yet this guy can’t muster any excitement or passion for anything other than himself. So last night’s speech fell flat. The supposed post-partisan, inspirational, intellectual President is anything but. He has turned out to be exactly what many of us thought he was… an egomaniacal political hack with a socialist agenda and not much love for his country or desire to see it succeed.
If only he could stomach as much enthusiasm for our troops as he did his own campaign, we might see victory in Afghanistan by 2011. But “victory” was never mentioned in last night’s speech. Instead of a motivational rally for the troops, we got the mixed messages of a surge with a definitive endpoint. Instead of a steady hand at the wheel, we got a lecturing panderer who doesn’t have any intention of staying the course or winning the war. The only real message was telegraphed to our enemies, who were told to stay put as our resolve was coming to a close.
The pundits of the 2008 election were right, America needs an inspirational, intellectual leader who can put politics aside to make the necessary decisions. Maybe we’ll finally get that in 2012. We certainly didn’t get it in 2008.
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