Just Being Present is Simply Not Enough (Opinion Column)

 

By: Jeff Katz – September 7, 2012

The initial 2012 presidential debate was the first time in his 51 years that Barack Obama was actually held accountable and he melted under the pressure. Al Gore may feel comfortable claiming that the air in Denver was too thin, but anyone watching understood that Obama was simply sucking wind.

The least questioned president in history has always had a carefully crafted narrative on which to rely except for the other night. Excuses have been made for Obama through his entire life. Don’t hold him accountable for his school work because he does not know his father or his mother is conspicuous by her absence yet again. We’ve heard these whispers for a long time and the man standing on the stage at the University of Denver sure seemed like the product of such an excuse making system.

Obama does well at Occidental, Columbia and Harvard if you believe the official Obama sanctioned bio. He’s the first minority president of the Harvard Law review they remind you. Did the guy in Denver seem like a brilliant Ivy League student or someone who had received ribbons and plaques and trophies for simply showing up his entire life?

Next Obama lands in Chicago and works as a community organizer and a law professor, except of course he never was a professor of law. This is one of those pesky facts that have been ignored by the White House staffers masquerading as journalists.

Then, the man from Hawaii or Indonesia or wherever, has a stint as an Illinois State Senator. And quite a distinguished career it was as he simply voted present over and over again. Not a shock since showing up and being showered with affection was what happened every step of the way up till that point.

The Ron Burgundy of politics was able to read a great speech from a teleprompter but somehow he is lost without his script. Whether it is visiting fifty seven states or prescribing breathalyzers to asthmatic kids, he’s not quite the great orator his minions proclaim him to be. But please don’t point that out.

What became clear on that stage in Denver was that the Dear Leader is not so much an empty chair but rather an empty suit. He is the product of an excuse making, pandering generation. He is the kid who got a Little League trophy because he showed up even though his cleats were on the wrong feet and he did not know which end of the bat to hold. He is the student who was made valedictorian along with everyone else in the class because we didn’t want anyone to feel left out. He is the guy who got the job because he checked the right box instead of possessing the requisite skills and talents.

Obama has been lauded and rewarded and deified throughout his entire life simply for showing up. After his debate performance even the usual leftist Kool-Aid guzzlers are wondering what happened? I’ll tell you what happened again. For the first time in his life, Obama was held accountable. It wasn’t the air pressure or the moderator. It was Obama, the real Obama. It is not that the emperor has no clothes the problem is that the clothes hold no emperor.