A President Who Could Not Lead

This article was written in First Things soon after the massacre in Orlando (may the victims RIP).

It's one in which I can but agree with and share.

Obama consistently missed the mark. He could not connect to a people.

"His subsequent remarks on Tuesday were far more jarring. Facing criticism for not acknowledging the reality of “radical Islam”—something that even Hillary Clinton has now done—the President launched into a tirade against his critics, laying bare his partisan inability to rise to the occasion. Angry, bitter, self-serving, Obama succeeded in doing something many thought him incapable of: acting like Donald Trump.

Obama was at pains to stress how committed his administration is to fighting terrorism: “We are doing everything in our power to stop these kind of attacks.” But if that is true, how is it possible that the FBI had monitored the Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, for years, only to abandon its surveillance of him, clearing the way for his attack? And why, in a country and under an administration that sanctions the slogan, “If you see something, say something,” were the warnings of a co-worker about Mateen’s fanatical views ignored?

Obama continued: “Our mission is to destroy ISIL. . . . We are making significant progress. . . . ISIL is under more pressure than ever before. ISIL continues to lose key leaders. . . . ISIL’s ranks are shrinking. . . . Their morale is sinking.” But just two days after the President made these remarks, his own head of the CIA, John Brennan, testifying before Congress, provided a far grimmer assessment: “[O]ur efforts have not reduced [ISIL]’s terrorism capability and global reach. . . .We judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.” Not only that, said Brennan, but ISIL has a “large cadre of Western fighters” ready to launch new attacks like the one in Orlando, and continues to attract new and enthusiastic recruits."

"...But what is most disappointing about President Obama’s attitude toward radical Islamic terrorism, and his critics, is his consistent refusal to admit his mistakes and accept responsibility for his administration’s actions. As the historian Niall Ferguson recently commented, a much-discussed profile of Obama in the Atlantic “reveals a President in denial about the consequences of his own sins of omission and commission. Everyone is to blame—everyone but him.”

As I took to calling him early in his term: The 'I didn't do it' President.

When considering his eight years in office, you can't gloss over these things. When you soberly assess the totality of his remarks and actions, you find a President who was less a leader and more an activist lecturer. No wonder he couldn't connect to the people despite his two mandates.

It always bothered me - spiritually and intellectually - to listen to the left push for gun control soon after a massacre as if it would have prevented it.

Luckily, we may not have to hear this logical fallacy for at least 4 years now. Hopefully.

But it's a mindset that leads to corrosive ideas as the detestable Diane Feinstein displays here with her 'prove your innocence' line of logic.