Mr. Teflon

BY MICHAEL REISIG –

Every man who has survived the position of president for four years or more, has suffered a blight of one sort or another – whether it be poor judgment, indiscretion, or blatant scandal. Some of them escaped without too much damage. Others paid the price of impeachment or forced resignation. (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, but acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.)

But the one constant through it all has been the indignation of the people (and the press), which brought each situation to a head and forced justice to be served. For the last five years we have witnessed a president play dangerously fast and loose with The Constitution, practice unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate’s advise-and-consent role, exercise executive privilege with the flair of a Venezuelan dictator, simply turn his head to major fraud and manipulation within his administration, and provide the outright, unmitigated suppression of incidents that have effected the security of The United States of America. Yet the man is not only still in office, but unaffected by any of the above. America has had Teflon dons, but until now we have never had a Teflon president.

The attitude of much of America is, “I don’t care what he does, as long as the check’s in the mail,” – that’s the same “bread and wine” ideology that destroyed Rome, and is now encroaching on the survival of America as a democracy.

Between 2006 and 2011 (during the “Fast and Furious” operation), the Obama administration ordered gun dealers to sell guns to individuals the dealers feared were criminals. Despite desperate warnings from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive (BATF) agents, the guns were not traced. To top it off, Mexican officials were never informed. One of those guns was involved in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Aside from Terry’s murder, over 300 Mexican citizens were killed with these weapons. When Congress had finally reached a decision to pursue the incompetence and the deviance of Attorney General Eric Holder, President Obama evoked executive privilege and squashed the entire affair. Where was Woodward and Bernstein when we really needed them?

For the first time in the history of this country we have had the IRS specifically target a particular political group (The Tea Party). There is no question the order was given from “above.” A couple of executives fell on their swords and were fired (and later receive cushy positions elsewhere), and we all moved forward, eyes ahead. Nothing wrong here, folks – just an accounting mistake.

Our president, playing fast and loose with America’s money, and ignoring the strident warnings of his peers, “invested” $535 million in a Silicon Valley solar panel company (buddies of his in the war against oil), and in a few months the company (Solyndra) was broke, and all the money mysteriously gone. Where are the honest investigations that should have lead to The White House?

During the last presidential election dozens of jurisdictions in the larger cities of America reported either a 100% vote tally in favor of Obama or a voting percentage that surpassed the number of the people registered to vote in the jurisdiction. There have been bona fide reports of voting machines being tampered with and individuals in inner city locations voting up to six times each. On top of that, a huge percentage of the overseas military vote somehow never made it to the counting booths. Where is the indignation from America? Where is the in-depth investigative reporting? Where is the indignation from our president?

We have an embassy attacked in Benghazi and four Americans die. While it’s happening our president is too intent on an election outcome and refuses to even attempt to send aid. Then, when all is said and done, in an act that is questionably legal, he holds survivors incommunicado, threatens them with legal action (or more) if they speak out, and he seals the indictment involving the attack – something no president in the history of America has done. And no one does anything. Nothing wrong here folks – just keep moving – nothing wrong here.

Recently, Americans learned that the NSA has been monitoring their every word for years, and our president has known about it all along. We have nearly 65 million Americans who don’t pay taxes, unemployment is reaching new record highs, any hope of resolving our massive budget is a pipe dream, illegal immigration is out of control, our cities are collapsing, and the nations that challenge our power (like China) grow greater all the time while we grow more dependent on them for our survival, and all this leads back to one man in a white house. All that’s missing is Nero’s fiddle and burning buildings…

Just keep moving folks, nothing wrong here – just keep moving – nothing wrong at all.

The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the ownership and staff of The Polk County Pulse. Michael Reisig is a freelance writer and published author whose works are reproduced throughout the globe.

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

See author's posts