WASHINGTON — It is becoming apparent for all to see, that
a man who made his name as a community organizer does not have
the skills to be President of these United States. Maybe he could
develop the requisite skills as a governor. Possibly, he could
develop such skills were he to sit in the Senate for a couple of
terms. Yet there are delicate sensitivities, the ability to
listen, to stick by your guns, occasionally to remain reticent.
These are the fundamentals of a leader, and President Barack
Obama has demonstrated that he lacks all of them, most notably
reticence. I now think it is clear even to Official Washington
that President Obama is the worst president of modern times.
President Jimmy Carter is redeemed.
The other night at a White House dinner solemnizing the
opening of Ramadan he leaped right in to endorse the building a
mosque at Ground Zero. He — a man who has shown no religious
fervor during his time in the White House — let out a ringing
defense of religious liberty and tolerance. Of a sudden, he was
at the center of a national controversy that was growing. It put
me in mind of his inability to defuse the controversy over
healthcare. Any sensible president would have relented, as
opposition to healthcare grew to the majority position. He would
have settled for some sort of compromise, but not the
community-organizer-turned-president. He wanted it all. He lunged
on and created among the electorate a row over national
healthcare that divided the nation, and put some of us in mind of
a civil war that continues to rage. What is more, he imperiled
his party’s margins in both houses.
Notwithstanding his apparent personal insouciance toward
religion, he made it clear that the mosque should be built. Who
cares about the sensibilities of the loved ones of the 3,000
victims? Or for that matter, of the 68% of the American people
who according to a CNN poll oppose the mosque? It took him less
than a day to make things worse. While on a swing through
Florida, he claimed that he was not speaking “on the wisdom” of
building the mosque. He was merely commenting on the
Constitutional right to build the mosque and to practice one’s
religion. A right “that dates back,” the prof allowed, “to our
founding. That’s what our country is about.” Blah, blah, blah —
the community organizer turned-lecturer at the University of
Chicago could not resist.
Now he has a red hot national controversy on his hands. It
is somewhat like the controversy he created over Professor Henry
Louis Gates when he pronounced the Cambridge police’s reaction to
Gates’s truculence “stupid.” Or when Mr. Obama barged into the
Arizona immigration pother. He cannot resist showing the world
how smart he is, but at what cost? Every Democrat battling a
tight race will be called to answer questions about the mosque.
It will become an issue even in remote places such as Nevada.
There the Senate leader, Harry Reid, fighting for his seat
against a Tea Partyer, Sharron Angle, has come out against the
President. He announced that it is not a question of right but a
question of prudence. He says the mosque should be built
elsewhere. How many other Democrats will join him? This could
develop into a major rebellion against President Obama’s
leadership. It could be the beginning of the end of his
presidency.
President Obama represents the leadership of a sterile
elite. His weird lectures play at the University of Chicago or in
the communities he has organized in Chicago, but not among the
mainstream of the American electorate. He has brought it together
and it is against this idiocy. As I said in this space two weeks
ago, he represents the leadership of the Ruling Class. It is not
the leadership of the consensus of the American people. Only the
most extreme voices in this debate are speaking intolerantly
about Islam and its right to build a mosque. Most of the American
people are siding with the dread Sarah Palin who was quick to
say, “Mr. President, should they or should they not build a
mosque steps away from where the radicals killed 3,000 people?
Please tell us your position. We all know that they have a right
to do it, but should they? And no, this isn’t above your pay
grade.”
Yet it is. It is above the pay grade of a community
organizer. That is what our president is. Increasingly, it is
clear that the Democrats brought down on the country a community
organizer as president. Maybe in the future they will consider
experience a qualification for the presidency. Possibly the age
of charisma is behind us. Possibly Mr. Obama even lacks that
dubious quality.
