I’m officially off the Obama bandwagon. After seven years of hanging onto his every word and short of worshiping him, I’m ready to move on. I can’t take any more of this man’s backtracking. Like many Obama junkies, I’ve watched as my hero fumbled through one crisis to the next. To be fair, many of them aren’t even his doing. Al-Qaeda and the Israel-Palestine conflict existed long before he was elected. That said, he is the President of the United States. That office holds power and he has just failed to use it to make a difference. I’m a pacifist but even I know that sometimes you just have to be tough to get ahead. Even Jesus threw traders out of His Father’s house. You cannot just fold your arms as chaos rages on around you. In the wake of the Newtown school shootings, I remember thinking, this is the time for the president to set things straight. I do not care about the right to bear arms. You cannot have civilians turning up with guns to churches, supermarkets, movie theatres, schools… Even the third world is doing better on this one. Almost every week, I read about toddlers accidentally shooting and killing their parents or siblings. And just last week, one even shot herself to death. Somebody has to put a stop to this madness and who better than a president? I know he tried to come up with some sort of legislation but that’s the point. Trying is not good enough. These kinds of problems need more than rhetoric, because at the end of the day, a nicely crafted speech read off a teleprompter is just that – a speech. And by the way, he looks like an amateur reading off that thing. I’d rather he keeps the good old transcript like most other people. If Obama is going to be remembered for anything, it will not be consistency. The man has flipped on so many issues and that is what annoys most people. He will come out for or against something, give all these interviews only to emerge a few days or weeks later with a different talking point. You’ve all heard it. Guantanamo, the Benghazi attack, drone strikes and most recently Syria. I’m particularly mad about Syria. First, he refuses to take any action, only finding time to condemn Assad’s brutality and repeating the tired line, “Assad must go.” Then the rebels beg for weapons and he says he can’t supply arms as they might end up in the wrong hands, which is totally understandable given the many factions of fighters, some of whom are linked to Al-Qaeda. However, months later, he changes his mind and says he will arm the rebels, something he hasn’t done to this day. Then comes August 21, game changer, or so we thought. It took him days to react to that chemical attack and he only did after he was reminded that his so-called Red line had been crossed. He gave another big speech which led us to believe that Assad was indeed going to be punished for his crimes. When those warships were dispatched, I regained my optimism in the leader of the free world. You can’t imagine my outrage when he took a step back to consult with Congress. Like I said, I know Americans have a system and things must work a certain way but you have to wonder if all the opposition he’s been facing on the Syria debate isn’t because of his constant flipping. A friend of mine who does marketing and research once told me about his frustration with CEOs and MDs who toss him about because they’re waiting for someone else to make the final decision. You’re a manager for God’s sake! Anyway, my idolisation of Obama ends today. I never thought I’d say this but I think John McCain should have carried that election back in 2008. Like a Syrian regime official said, Obama is weak. To be continued…
