Vice President Joe Biden had a great time at last Thursday's debate against Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Paul Ryan. For much of the 90-minute debate, Biden could be seen laughing, smiling and chuckling, even while Ryan was talking about the attack on the Libyan embassy that killed four Americans or about how Iran is drawing closer to building a nuclear weapon that could wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.
The majority of Americans probably thought that Senator Biden was arrogant and condescending to Congressman Ryan, but I view his performance in a slightly different way. I saw his debate performance as a microcosm of the Obama Administration.
Remember when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to pass Obamacare and that they could read it once it was passed? This landmark legislation was shoved down the throats of our elected representatives, or at least the Democratic ones. Not one Republican voted to support this legislation, and the President didn't care anyway. He had enough Democratic votes to pass the legislation, so he didn't need the votes from Republicans. As a result, the most expensive domestic bill ever passed did not even receive a single vote from the minority party.
Although some Americans may view this bill's passage as bold leadership, I view it a little differently. I see it as arrogance. "Trust us," was the message from the President and Democratic leadership. As a result, we have a law that was ruled Constitutional by the narrowest of margins in the Supreme Court and a Chief Justice that used convoluted reasoning to allow the law the stand. We also have a law that people are just now beginning to learn all of its tax and policy ramifications.
But this was not the only occasion when this Administration has displayed arrogance and condescension.
The debt limit crisis of 2011 is another example. According to Bob Woodward's book, "The Price of Power," a deal between the Republicans and Democrats to extend the debt limit was nearly torpedoed by a President who demanded more tax revenue after a deal has been made and who also had a temper tantrum when he did not get his way. Woodward also places blame on House Speaker John Boeher, but he notes a lack of Presidential leadership and that no one in the Administration had Boeher's phone number to remain in contact with him.
For much of the President's time in office, he has belittled and blamed Republicans, spent little to no time actually trying to build relationships with Republican members of Congress or even members of his own party. He has spent much of his term blaming his predecessor for everything and has yet to take responsibility for anything that has occurred under his watch. Yet the President expects Republicans and Democratic members of Congress to ask, "how high?" when he demands them to jump.
Since the passage of Obamacare, Congress hasn't jumped, as evidenced by the Rebublican-controlled House voting down the President's budget 414-0 in 2012, and the Democrat-controlled Senate voting down the President's budget 97-0 in 2011. Not one member of the President's own party voted for these budgets. The same arrogance that Vice President Biden displayed Thursday evening in the debate is undoubtedly the same attitude that the Administration has exhibited when dealing with Congress, so they're pushing back.
A leading member of Congress recently recently shared with a nationally-recognized political pundit that he had "met" the President twice in four years. This leading Congressman made it clear that he did not have a relationship with the President. Recent reports indicate that the President has only met with the top four members of Congress twice this year, although the country is racing towards a fiscal cliff because of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts at the end of this year. The President also recently admitted that he spends time with his family instead of schmoozing with Congress. The Great One apparently doesn't feel hat he has to do the work that other Presidents have done to collaborate with the Legislative Branch of the federal government.
Even the Administration's response to the Libyan embassy attacks smacks of arrogance. There have been so many different explanations for the attacks and lack of security from so many different members of the Administration that the American people as well as the news media are beginning to wonder who has been covering up what in this foreign policy debacle. One day after a representative from the State Department admitted that embassy staff had asked for additional security on several occasions, the Vice President said that "we" had not received any requests for additional security. The next day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the royal "we" vocalized by Biden in the debate referred only to the Vice President and the President and not anyone else in the Administration.
Are you kidding me? This parsing of words reminds me of President Bill Clinton testifying about the meaning of "is."
While being interviewed by Fox News' Brett Baier, Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter recently had the audacity to blame the Romney/Ryan campaign for trying to raise the issue of conflicting statements and potential coverup onto the national stage.
Clearly, if someone in the Obama Administration says something it has to be true and the American people, as well as the news media are expected to believe it. How dare anyone question the Obama Administration's truthfulness, even though its version of the truth changes almost hourly.
In his debate performance, Vice President Biden merely displayed the same attitude toward the opposition party, the American people and even the news media that the Obama Administration has exhibited the past four years.
Americans haven't experienced this level of executive arrogance since the Nixon Administration. Thankfully, the American people can put an end to this arrogance on Nov. 6.
No comments:
Post a Comment