President Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director Comey has rightly led to questions about his motivations and judgment. We discuss that elsewhere. But President Obama’s failure to fire Director Comey is troubling, albeit for different reasons. Why didn’t President Obama fire Comey immediately after Comey’s initial conclusion of the Hillary investigation? Obama’s judgment was also poor. But we believe his primary motivation was something altogether different. It was just politics, pure and simple. And it’s yet another example of a President placing politics above the needs of the country. Continue reading “President Obama’s Failure to Fire FBI Director Comey – It Was All Politics”
Tag: Obama
Feckless American Leadership – The Lessons From the Syrian Chemical Weapon Catastrophe
So this is what happens when the United States enters into worthless agreements sponsored by a feckless American President. This is what occurs after that American President drew a line in the sand that his enemy chose to cross – with no consequence. We face this outcome when that American President desperately relies on the Russian Federation – yes, Russia – to bail him out. This is the lesson for our future leaders when a President of the United States, with forethought, chose to rely on the words of Vladimir Putin, of all people, to ensure that the monstrous regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad would no longer chemically murder his fellow Syrians. An American President who foolishly grabbed the thin reed of a September, 2013 “Framework” agreement promising the removal and destruction of chemical weapons in Syria, all in the name of saving his own political face. Feckless American leadership.
American Leadership in the World – Lessons from Obama, Bush and JFK
The preservation of the American Constitution and American freedom is the paramount duty of any American President. American foreign policy is the mechanism through which these goals are prosecuted. American leadership is the means through which American goals are accomplished. The challenge for each president is to take the measure of his times, learn from the mistakes of the past, and foster and apply policies that are most likely to enhance the probability of achieving these objectives.
Too often over the course of American history presidents have misunderstood their times. They have either drawn the wrong lessons from the past or failed to understand the mistakes made by their predecessors. The recent past contains a pair of guiding lessons.
American Leadership: A Lesson from George W. Bush
In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush determined to illustrate to the world that America would use its strength and power against any foe that it believed was a direct and immediate threat to American freedom and survival. But with this objective, his decision to invade Iraq became a stark example of a failure to apply lessons previously learned. Continue reading “American Leadership in the World – Lessons from Obama, Bush and JFK”