Remember when Christopher Buckley endorsed Barack Obama? Let’s
revisit.
The son of the late William F. Buckley, the founder of
National Review,
wrote in October 2008, “As for Senator Obama: He has
exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament.”
Yet now nearly nineteen months into Obama’s presidency
there is scant evidence of that “first-class temperament” to which
Buckley refers. If Obama’s term in office thus far can be summed up
with a single word I would choose petulant. Merriam-Webster
defines
petulant as “insolent or rude in speech or behavior”;
“characterized by temporary or capricious ill humor.” This fits
Obama to a tee.
President Obama has been petulant towards those who
disagree with him. Just days after taking office he told Republican
Congressional leaders who objected to his stimulus plan, “I won.
I’m the president.” At this same meeting he
told Republicans, “You can’t just listen to Rush
Limbaugh and get things done.”
President Obama has been petulant towards those who seek
freedom from totalitarianism. When it came time to choose between
the Iranian mullahs and the millions of Iranians marching on the
streets he chose the mullahs, stating it wasn’t for us to “meddle.”
This would not be forgotten by the Iranian people. During the 30th
anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, months following the
“elections,” demonstrators could be heard
chanting, “Obama, Obama — either you’re with them
or you’re with us.”
President Obama has been petulant to dissidents. He would
not meet with the Dalai Lama during his U.S. visit in October 2009
so as
not to offend Chinese Communists prior to his state visit to
Beijing the following month. When the Tibetan spiritual leader did
finally meet with Obama last February, it was behind closed doors.
The only glimpse the world got of the Dalai Lama was when he left
the White House out a side door where a
large pile of trash awaited him. Contrast this with the time
the Dalai Lama met with President Bush in October 2007. On that
occasion, Bush handed
him the Congressional Gold Medal.
President Obama has been petulant to our closest friends
and allies. After the stalwart friendship between Bush and Tony
Blair, Obama paid his respects to Great Britain by
returning a bust of Sir Winston Churchill, which Blair had
lent, to Bush after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Obama’s
rudeness didn’t prevent then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
from
giving him a penholder made out of timbers from the H.M.S.
Gannet, an anti-slavery ship. Obama’s idea of
reciprocity was to give Brown 25 DVDs — which were unplayable
in the U.K. Let us also not forget how Obama made every possible
effort to
avoid Brown during the opening of the UN General Assembly last
September. And to think Brown was a fellow socialist.
What about President Obama’s petulance towards Israel?
Build nuclear weapon in Tehran and Obama will be cool, detached,
and behave as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. But
build houses in Jerusalem and Obama will unleash not only his sound
and fury but also the entire weight of the U.S. government right
down on you. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
wouldn’t let Obama push him around at the White House over
settlements in East Jerusalem, Obama
walked out on him.
President Obama has been petulant towards police officers
sworn to protect us. Who can forget when the President chastised
the Sergeant James Crowley and the Cambridge Police Department for
having “acted stupidly” in the arrest of Harvard Professor (and
Obama’s friend) Henry Louis Gates, Jr.? Yet it isn’t the only time
he has cast aspersions against law enforcement. Last April, when
commenting on Arizona’s immigration law which had passed days
earlier, Obama
said, “But now, suddenly, if you don’t have your
papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to
be harassed.” That President Obama would casually accuse law
enforcement of planning to engage in wanton harassment speaks of a
petulant disposition.
President Obama has been petulant towards this country.
What American President refers
to his country while abroad as “arrogant, derisive and
dismissive”?
And now President Obama has been petulant towards the
families who lost loved ones during the attacks of September 11,
2001. This time he may have taken his petulance too far with his
support for the construction of the Ground Zero
Mosque:
But let me be clear. As a citizen, and as President, I believe
that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as
everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build
a place of worship and a community center on private property in
Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This
is America.
Yet Americans have been clear in saying it isn’t about
religious freedom but rather about propriety. Just because Muslims
can build a mosque near the site of the deadliest terrorist attack
in our nation’s history doesn’t mean they should. But instead of
apologizing and admitting the error of his ways, Obama reverts to
petulant form and
tells us, “I was not commenting and I will
not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque
there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have
that dates back to our founding.” And exactly how many mosques are
presently being proposed for construction on private property in
Lower Manhattan? For Obama to suggest he wasn’t giving his blessing
to the Ground Zero Mosque is an insult to our intelligence. He has
now reached the pinnacle of petulance.
Does Christopher Buckley still think Obama has “a
first-class temperament”? What does he have to say for Obama’s
petulant presidency?
