Spineless President Barack Obama

After watching the first debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, most progressives and Americans were forced to admit that the president was woefully unprepared for the occasion. Mr. Obama had not bothered to prepare intensively and/or he did not consult people like Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts who revealed the real Mr. Wilbur Mitt Romney during the Democratic Party convention. Instead Obama looked lethargic and perplexed when Romney took his act of etch a sketching into power driver. My seven year old son was in the know that Governor Romney was going to say anything in the Denver debate to the American people to seem reasonable and to appear favorable.

However, the performance of President Obama did not totally surprise some of us on the left. Mr. Obama has only stood up to three entities since he assumed the presidency in January of 2009. These are the real terrorists, the assumed terrorist, and progressives. Indeed he has continued with Bush and Cheney policies and even expanded on them. While Obama receives praises for killing Osama bin Laden, he also ordered the assassination of American citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi without any trial. The Colorado domestic issues discussion did not reckon the drone assassination of 16year old Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi who was born in Denver. The young man was targeted by his government 2weeks after his father's death. The progressives who organized and volunteered their time for the “Yes We Can” campaign were told to shut up and keep out of sight while the regime placated conservative Democrats like Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Hence, the audacity of Governor Romney to get on stage with the President and proclaim how he was in the race for the unemployed and the middle class, though he was one of the forerunners of off-shoring American jobs, investing in tax havens, reaping astronomical tax benefits in the process, and his definition of middle income earners are those that make close to 250,000 per year. Mr. Obama did not reference either the 47% of Americans that Mitt characterized as irresponsible dependent victims who want government handouts or the fact that Massachusetts was 47% in the country at job creation under Romney's stewardship. While Governor Romney embellished his bipartisan accomplishments and how democrats in the commonwealth extended hands of partnerships, the President did not once state the Republican obstructionism and their expressed desire for him to fail at all cost even when it resulted in detrimental consequences for the nations' economy.

Our spineless President Obama did not point out that Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan was in the clandestine meeting planning to derail his economic recovery agenda on the eve of the his inauguration in 2009 and just before he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 that guaranteed equal pay for women. Since the debate was centered on domestic policies Mr. Obama could have easily asked Mr. Romney about his views on equal pay for equal work and/or asked his challenger if he supported the Supreme Court in their denial of Mrs. Lilly Ledbetter's attempt to redress the economic injustices against her family. On the subject of women's right the President could have confronted the debate stage bully on his advocated policies to defund Planned Parenthood and the Republican's party agenda of denying women their right to choose with regards to rape, incest, and clinical life threatening dangers.

During the October 3rd, 2012 debate Mr. Romney became a born-again supporter of some Wall Street regulations, teachers, and unions. Again Obama did not see any need to counter him on these assertions. President Obama could have forcibly questioned Mitt about his support of Scott Walker the anti- union and teacher bashing governor of Wisconsin and rightwing pal of Representative Paul Ryan of WI. But again the left was not surprised because when the police officers, teachers, and firefighters took to the streets of Madison, the White House remained silence and incognito. They did not take a principled stance to challenge the most radical policies of the tea party and the Koch Brothers' handsomely funded astroturf machineries. That is why Romney had the effrontery to be unabashedly mendacious in view of nearly 70million Americans that tuned in for the debate.

Consequently, Governor Sununu was able to castigate President Obama a professor of constitutional law as lazy and detached. Whereas the Romney henchman played up some of his and former House speaker Newt Gingrich's best hits of racial stereotypes, President Obama has indeed been detached from the concerns of progressives. He needs to go back and listen to Governor Deval Patrick's speech at the Democratic National Convention. The salient question that Mr. Patrick asked remains “What do we believe?” What does President Obama believe? When the President fully believes then he would stop playing nice with his opponents. Instead he would be harkening on to the time tested words of Vice President Joe Biden's mother, “Joe bloody the nose of those school yard bullies.”

Thus in the next debate on foreign affairs President Obama should look at Mitt Romney right in the eyes and inquire how dare you insist on another war when you claim we are currently borrowing monies from China to service our deficits. He could also ask the governor how a Vietnam draft dodger could be championing relentless wars. An interesting question for Wilbur Mitt Romney could be why none of his 5 sons are servicing the US military in the era of September 9-11, Afghanistan, and Iraq. President Obama must probe Governor Romney in terms of jobs and investment about how much he has made from his 1% “blind trust” through his investments in China and why his taxes remains a state secret. When the issue of Libya comes up the commander in chief should stand up and stiffen his backbone while informing the governor that the United States is no longer in the business of supporting dictatorships around the world unlike Mitt's monies and that new democracies always have their incubation periods.

Nnamdi F. Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist

Reference http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80701.html