Obama's Five Biggest Faults

No person comes to the oval office without faults.
And doubtless, the everyday stress of the presidency and the relentless glare of the spotlight would seem to intensify and enhance those faults.
Indeed, finding fault with the one public official elected by all the people of the country would appear to be our national duty, if not our honor. Was Nixon's paranoia his downfall? Were Jimmy Carter and his cohorts really that incompetent, that clueless? Could FDR have been any more imperious? Why was Reagan so hesitant to dismiss those who had not served him well? What price did we pay for JFK's inexperience?  And, was LBJ really that crude?
Hey, our leaders aren't perfect.
For those of us in search of bigger-than-life heroes, this can be a tough pill to swallow.
Which makes reality all the harder to face in the case of President Obama. Because, in Barack Obama we now seem to have more than our fair share of imperfections. And all of this reveals itself against an increasingly worn backdrop of giddy expectations and an air of fabulousness that have accompanied few national leaders.
But even some of the man's most ardent devotees (including some in the dominant media) have now had enough time to sober up and face Obama as he is, with all his shortcomings.
Here then, for everyone to contemplate, are Obama's Five Biggest Faults:

1) Hubris. At the core of Obamaland is a hubris that is near unparalleled in modern American politics. As is the case with most types of excessive pride or unearned self-confidence, this hubris probably masks a deep-seated insecurity. But that does not excuse it. And be sure of it: Hubris and unbridled power do not a good mix make. So smug and cocksure is Obama that even his former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (no slouch in this department herself) had to mute him during a conference call with fellow Dem leaders. And who can forget Obama's curt reply when complimented by crusty old Harry Reid: "I have a gift, Harry." God save The King - and God help the rest of us!

2) Arrogance. This one is closely related to number one, but not quite the same. Obama remains at best dismissive of critics and at worst, downright mocking. He deigned to recognize Hillary Clinton during their debates with the terse comment: "Oh, you're likable enough, Hillary." And, more directly, during a televised budget confab with GOP leaders, he answered republican's detailed analysis and effective critique of Obamanomics with a dismissive "elections have consequences" and "I won." As for the American people, Obama's message for them is quite clear "You didn't build that!"

3) Mendacity. It was Mark Twain who famously said "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." But this doesn't appear to matter to Barack Obama as he seems to make it up as he goes along. Indeed, he's betting that the rest of us won't remember anything -- that we won't remember what he said or what he did. And for a long time, his bet seemed to be paying off. But then he uttered what both PolitiFact and The Washington Post called The Biggest Lie of The Year: “If you like your health-care plan, you can keep it.” That was a whopper. Of course, it wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been preceded by a string of other lies and deceptions. In the end, of course lies destroy trust. We not only stop believing the liar, we stop listening altogether.

4) Petulance. Call it the crybaby factor. Call it the blame game. Call it irresponsibility. Call it prickliness. Whatever you call it, it's unbecoming in one who would presume to lead. Obama's been in office for nearly 2,000 days and yet he's still blaming George W. Bush and others for his woes. The Tea Party (not Obama) is to blame for the Democrat's loss of the House in 2010. Israel (not Obama and not the Arab world) is to blame for the mess in the mideast. Oil prices are up not because of Obama's energy policies (or lack thereof) but because of the oil markets and the oil producing countries. The debacle in Iraq is Iraq's own fault, not Obama's. Ditto, Afghanistan. What's more, Obama didn't know about the NSA 's spying on Americans or the IRS's harassment of Tea Party groups or the massive foulup of the ObamaCare rollout. Surely you understand, don't you?

5) Laziness. Obama's would-be Rasputin (the notorious Valerie Jarrett) has said this about the man: "He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do." Which brings us back right where we started to the president's hubris. Because he's so talented and so smart and so many light years ahead of mere mortals such as you and I, Obama doesn't really have to work as hard. Get it? What's more, he's bored with the everyday details of his job (such as the crisis at the border, terrorist threats and various domestic scandals, to name a few). So, this gives him the right to vacation, play golf, play a game of billiards, have a few beers, fill in his NCAA brackets, hang out with the glitterati, play some hoops or just plain loaf. BTW: The president’s upcoming extended vacation on Martha's Vineyard comes after a 16-day stop in Hawaii over Christmas, which means he's had more than 31 days of vacation in less than a year, not counting weekend getaways. As for golfing, he's done that 23 times already this year and 190 times since he took office.

To these five faults, we can add one other: Provincialism.
For all his supposed worldliness, Obama remains remarkably insular and rooted in the world of bare-knuckled Chicago politics. He's riveted to his windy city sycophants (lead by Jarrett and including the First Lady) and rarely ventures beyond those boundaries for serious advice and counsel. In fact, when faced with an important decision Obama has often dawdled until one or more of his Chicago cronies have signed off on it. Even then, the president has sometimes been hesitant to take action until he can find an avenue that will leave him an out if things go wrong. The failure of Obama's Syrian policy provides us with a stark reflection of this phenomenon.

Hubris. Arrogance. Mendacity. Petulance. Laziness. And provincialism thrown in, just as a sort of dessert. That's quite a menu for you. Savor it!