Obama: Diary of a Teflon Presidency

President Barrack Hussein Obama's presidency has become infamous in its ability of avoid blame.  Like Teflon, nothing seems to stick to this phenom of a President.  Likewise, the Republican Party, especially the members of the house, have become the Super Glue to Obama's Teflon.  The economy? Republicans.  Jobless rate?  Republicans.  Sequester?  Republicans.  Climate change?  Republicans.  Middle East trouble?  Republicans.  Gun violence?  Republicans.  And the list goes on and on and on and on...

Somebody help me with this, but I thought Obama won the last two elections.  I thought that he was the President.  Top dog.  The leader of our country.  The big kauhuna.  Am I missing something here?  No matter what ills the country has; no matter what is going wrong; for the first time in my life, nothing is blamed on the President.  As a matter of fact, most President's have usually accepted responsibility for what ails us. 

Harry S. Truman so eloquently defined responsibility when he stated; "The buck stops here."  In other words, there is no one else to blame and he took personal responsibility of how the country was governed.  He even placed a sign on his desk in the Oval Office to remind him of that very notion on a daily basis.  This motto has been used by every President since.  That is, until Obama. 

The true testament to a good leader is that they take responsibility for the good and bad, of not just themselves, but everyone beneath them. Under this Administration, the President has managed to blame almost everyone but himself.  For the first term of his presidency, you would have thought that George W. Bush was still occupying the White House.  After all, everything was his fault.

Four years later, it has now become the Republican House members.  Or the rich.  Or the corporations.  Or the TEA Party.  Truth of the matter is that it is everybody else's fault.  No, the buck doesn't stop anymore at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., but at E Capitol St NE & 1st St NE 20004, or better known as the U.S. Capitol Building. 

Former President Ronald Reagan once proclaimed, "The era of big government is dead."  Obama's proclamation reads more like, "The era of personal responsibility is dead."  True leaders don't make excuses.  True leaders get results.  True leaders don't blame others. 

If you wondering what is wrong with this country, on can simply point to the fact that this country is lacking leadership.  When your one single, and what you claim to be your biggest accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act, doesn't even kick in until you pack your bags after second term, that is not leadership.  When you you bring two budgets to the floor and not one person on either side of the aisle can vote for it, that is not leadership.  When you pass the buck to the former President for nearly four years into your own, that is not leadership.  And when you fail to even recognize the pending problems you face to try to pass your own agenda, that is not leadership. 

Leaders find a way to get things done.  They work within the system.  But most of all, the own it.  Obama could still be a leader.  After all, he does have four more years.  But it is not in his DNA.  I spoke of it prior to his election win in 2008.  The guy had voted present for 90% of the votes he took as an Illinois legislator and U.S. Senator.  Sadly, my predictions have panned out.  He has voted present on the economy, on foreign affairs, an unemployment and now the sequester facing this country.  I see him as the kids running around in the Family Circus cartoons shouting "Not Me." 

The legacy will be that  Obama was the "Teflon President."  And that is sad.  So much was expected, yet so little was delivered.