The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Bi-Polar Administration

One of the interesting aspects (well, interesting in an ebola virus-type of way) of the Obama administration is the dichotomy of its persona. One the one hand you have Domestic Obama: Epitomized by the tough guy, "Chicago way" approach to dealing with... well, every American, really. And on the other hand, you have International Obama who, operating with the premise that the United States is guilty of a garden variety of original sin (e.g., slavery, environmental destruction, imperialism, capitalism, racism...all the ism's actually), and in an effort to differentiate himself from every conceivable aspect of his predecessor's doctrine, has engaged in what Newsmax calls a "touchy-feely" foreign policy, where the end game appears to be empty dialog with the world's dictators and despots, as if they were sitting next to him on Dr. Phil's couch and not plotting our fiery demise.

George W. Bush also led a Bi-Polar administration, but only his was flip-flopped. On the international stage he demonstrated the stiffed-jawed resolution of a Reagan, standing up for liberty and America's interests wherever they were threatened, boldly speaking out against tyranny, willing to use America's military to confront the world's rogue regimes were he to deem it absolutely necessary. On the other hand, W. was a pussycat at home-- the self-titled "Compassionate Conservative," who came to the White House to do as he did in Texas: reach across the aisle to make friends with the Democrats who, in kind, spit in his face for eight years. In fact, the more Bush spent like a Liberal, the more vile and contemptuous their attacks were on his administration. Despite this, Bush had a confounding inability or unwillingness to defend himself against their false charges and manic obstructionism. On the international scene Bush was John Wayne; at home, he was Jimmy Stewart.

Ahh, the irony of it all. But back to our present...

You Talkin' To Me?

The Obama administration, enabled by its allies in the Democratic Congressional leadership, routinely and breezily thumb their noses at constitutional limitations through their pugnacious use of the power and purse of the federal government. For them, the end game is unquestionably a total societal restructuring: from our healthcare decisions, to our energy use, to how much we get paid and how our companies are run, to what our children are taught in school, to the media we consume. In fact, it's actually difficult to think of many areas of American life that they have not intruded upon or attempted to manipulate.

Those who present themselves as obstacles to their agenda are either paid off with pinched tax dollars and/or singled-out for retribution by Left Wing front groups, funded by shadowy figures like George Soros (or, in the case of ACORN, by We the People). At least they used to tell us why we needed our lives run by politicians in Washington D.C.-- they were merely looking out for the little guy who, without their help, would get trampled upon by the capitalist machine. Now that they have their firmest grip on power since LBJ, they typically don't bother with establishing an actual premise for their constitutional misconduct. Drunk on power and their almighty hubris, with inspiration from statesmen like Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro and Mao Tse-Tung, they need not answer to the people anymore. If they cared about what we thought, this healthcare *reform* would never have passed either chamber of Congress. Essentially, we have a gangster government.

Irritating? A yes - one of your Earth emotions.

I won't pretend for a minute to grasp any deep understanding of Obama's thought processes or core motivations-- the man Maureen Dowd calls "Spock" is much more Hillary than Bill, a calculated, teleprompter-reading, over-programmed, ambitious, opportunistic cyborg, who keeps his emotional predilections ensconced behind a stone-faced demeanor. The fact is, very few people seem to really understand how this guy ticks, and in any event the mainstream media apparently could care less, so don't expect any incredible revelations here on the man behind the mask. Instead, I'll just reiterate the three most commonly referenced *key influencers* that, to a debatable degree, have yielded the Barack from the Barry:

• Chicago: The geographic backdrop of his young, professional life. Two years removed from a poly-sci degree at Columbia in 1985, and then again following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1991, Obama established his roots in one of the nation's most sensationally mercenary cities, and the home of the Democratic political machine established by the legendary Daley's. According to a revealing piece in the American Thinker, it is his baptism in this hierarchal, power-obsessed, community kickback culture that contributes the most to Obama's modus operandi as President.

• Alinsky: Speaking of community kickbacks, 1985 was also the year that then 24-year-old Obama began his 3-year stint as a community organizer on the South side of Chicago, where he was schooled in Saul Alinsky's methods for community organizing and grassroots politics-- which he subsequently taught to others. If you think the modern Left is enamored with redistribution of wealth, you need to brush up on Alinsky-- a man who held unapologetic contempt of America's middle class, who saw democracy as merely a vehicle to propagate his dogma of Communism and social justice, compiled in his infamous Rules for Radicals. To be fair, a lot of '60's Leftists were intrigued with Alinsky's work, including Hillary Clinton, but not all actually taught it for a living like Obama.

• Wright: It was during this initial professional stint in 1987 where Obama met the ranting, bombastic Reverend Jeremiah Wright, when he joined his Trinity United Church of Christ. According to this piece in American Thinker, Trinity preaches a black nationalist perversion of the Christian Gospel, expelling hatred for what he perceives as America's foundation and present-day culture of white supremacy, interspersed with conspiratorial accusations of what could only be described as genocidal government plots against African-Americans. Wright, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, a former member of Obama's presidential campaign, and a man who Obama often characterized as his spiritual mentor, awarded Louis Farrakhan his church's Trumpeter Award in 2007 for, in his words, "epitomizing greatness."

So... exactly where does that leave us? The precise contribution each of these factors had in shaping the world view of Barack Obama is anybody's guess, but it isn't difficult to begin connecting dots to his behavior as President. What a disconcerting cocktail of formative influences, indeed! The power-driven "Chicago Way," blended with his communist-inspired social justice indoctrination, alongside his spiritual mentorship from a raving, paranoid black nationalist. At the very least it sheds some light on the traits and tendencies we've witnessed with respect to his policies, ambitions, ambivalence (I'm being kind) for the constitution and aggressive exercise of power in advancing his domestic agenda and addressing his political adversaries. To whit:

• January 2009, Obama appoints career political operative, Shauna Daily, a woman lacking an actual law degree, to his Council's Office, giving her access to Bush administration documents protected under attorney-client privilege. Daily is subsequently returned to the Democratic National Committee only a month later to assume a research post.

• February 2009, the White House assumes control of the Census from the Commerce Department, to be overseen by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Critics note the Democrats' longstanding advocation of using mathematical estimates, a practice known as "sampling," to account for urban residents and immigrants they feel are traditionally undercounted.

• March 2009, the Obama administration asks Congress to give the Treasury Department the unprecedented authority to seize non-bank financial firms, such as insurance companies, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse "would damage the broader economy." According to the plan, the Treasury secretary could act only after consulting with the President and getting a recommendation from two-thirds of the Federal Reserve Board.

• April 2009, Obama's Department of Homeland Security issues a document warning law enforcement officials against threats posed by "domestic rightwing terrorists" upset over the economic downturn. Included on the watch list are pro-life groups, gun-rights supporters, anti-illegal immigration advocates and, yes, military veterans.

• May 2009, creditors for Chrysler and GM report that Obama administration officials, including "Car Czar" Steven Rattner, engaged in hardball tactics and threats to their businesses in their respective bailout negotiations, while inflating the value of the United Auto Workers' similarly unsecured credit claims. The American Spectator also reports that political considerations, such as former campaign contributions, may have influenced the selection process for determining which Chrysler dealerships to close.

• June 2009, Obama's Department of Justice overrules career lawyers to kill a 6-month investigation into the frightening voter intimidation case involving uniform-clad, baton-wielding thugs affiliated with the New Black Panther Party at a Philadelphia polling location. According to the Washington Times, "a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation described it as 'the most blatant form of voter intimidation'" he had seen in his lifetime.

• Also in June, the American Spectator reports that that the DOJ barred administrative procedures Georgia officials put in place, under federal court guidance, to verify voter registration-- under the auspices that it violated the rights of minority voters.

• August 2009, the White House issues a blog post asking supporters to forward any "fishy" rumors, chain emails or casual conversations pertaining to healthcare legislation to flag@WhiteHouse.gov. Said Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), "I am not aware of any precedent for a president asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed 'fishy' or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests."

• September 2009, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (a division of Kathleen Sebelius' Department of Health and Human Services) issues a gag order on insurance companies participating in Medicare Advantage, prohibiting communication with their own customers regarding the administrations plans for cuts to the program. The order is instigated by Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) after he discovers a Humana mailing warning of possible benefit reductions should the program’s funding be cut.

• October 2009, the Obama administration, in close coordination with its allies in the Congressional leadership and left-wing fringe groups like MoveOn.org, launches an offensive against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for their advertising campaign promoting ((gasp!)) free enterprise solutions for economic growth, along with their opposition to climate change legislation. Their tactic of choice is harassment of member corporations to disavow or leave the Chamber entirely.

• October 2009, the Obama administration launches an offensive against Fox News. Communications Director Anita Dunn refers to the network as a "wing of the Republican Party" and an illegitimate news organization that would be treated as "part of the opposition." The White House informs Fox News that they would be granted no interviews until at least 2010, and privately pressures other Democrats to abide by their de facto boycott.

Folks, this is only the easily documentable stuff happening on the surface. From his 18 White House czars, to his slush fund politics played with our stimulus funds, the Obama administration wields power on the domestic stage like no president since FDR. Fed up with the modern day Napoleon, the sheepesh Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) took to the senate floor last October to warn the White House against creating a "enemies list," citing his own first hand experiences with such behavior as a member of the Nixon administration. Sorry Lamar, but you're a day late and a dollar short with that one.

Channeling Barney Fife

To expect a modern day Democrat president to emulate JFK or Ronald Reagan on the international stage would be foolhardy. After all, Carter and Clinton were hardly staunch advocates for American interests or bold standard bearers for liberty and democracy. Furthermore, during the '08 presidential race then-Senator Obama campaigned at least thematically on markedly different foreign policy approach from that of President Bush. Obama grounded his entire foreign policy on the Liberal boilerplate that Bush's "saber rattling" and "arrogance" had so diminished America's standing internationally that it actually served as hindrance to our interests overseas.

Instead, Obama claimed that we needed to first listen without lecturing, showing other nations the proper respect. He argued for unconditional dialog and negotiation with both friends and foes alike, who ostensibly shared our reasoned commitment to peace and prosperity, coupled with re-engagement on such issues as global poverty, climate change, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These things, he believed, would serve to usher in a sea change of support from all corners of the globe, repair the standing of America among the global community, and make us safer and stronger as a result.

While this may all seem unsurprising given his Left Wing stripes, this is still the aforementioned Tough Guy from Chicago, schooled in the politics of power and hard knocks, presiding in a post 9-11 world. Even if he believed that America was guilty until proven innocent, even if he actually agreed with many of the churlish, anti-American expressions lobbed at George W. Bush, surely he would demonstrate some semblance of a spine that his Democrat predecessors lacked, some willingness to dispense with the almost obligatory naiveté of the Left's word view, in the event the power of his words and magnitude of his personality failed to part the seas and inaugurate 1,000 years of peace as foretold by the Book of Revelations? After all, he operates as Conan the Conquerer at home, some of that has to rub off internationally... right?

After no further ado, I give you President Obama's secrets for success in international relations in just 3 easy steps:

Step 1: Apologize, then bow to your Sensai!

For Obama, our re-engagement with the world meant first apologizing, confessing America's sins, and abasing himself before the feet of foreign publics. Time and time again, both here and abroad, President Obama and other senior administration officials have established that they are, truly, very very sorry and embarrassed for their country:

• To Europe, for our arrogance and the global financial crisis.
• To the Middle East, for dictating our values and showing a lack of respect.
• To Russia, for allowing our relations to "drift."
• To India, for our carbon footprint.
• To Latin America, for inconsistent engagement.
• To the United Nations, for our unilateral foreign policy.

And just in case the apologizing tour didn't sufficiently convince the world of the sincerity of his shame, Obama added a dash of theatrics with two well-publicized bows to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Japanese Emperor Akihito. After all, who needs grit and mettle in a leader of the free world when you have America's first Gaisha President?

Step 2: Bend at the ankles and relax your buttocks, sir

Seizing on the momentum of his self-flagellation tour, Obama's next step was to prove the sincerity of his anti-Bush-ness by backing up his apologies with with more concrete acts of capitulation-- which meant unilateral disarmament of a variety of strategic negotiating positions, inspired acts of weakness, and general retreat from a variety of safeguards of American security. And the War on Terror was just the issue to prove his point.

Fresh off his inauguration in January 2009, Obama promised to return America to a "high moral ground" by way of his signature on three executive orders: The closing of the Guantanamo Bay military prison "within a year," a formal banning of torture, and the establishment of an inter-agency task force to review our detention policies and procedures. And on a side note, congratulations to the State of Illinois-- last we heard the feds were eying a prison site in Thomson with which to relocate the still-current residents of Guantanamo. Sleep well now.

Also on the scrap heap were all those pesky rhetorical traps of the Bush administration; Obama set out to destroy Bush's hardheaded war paradigm by changing the very language his administration would use when addressing the conflict with al Qaeda. The antiqued "War on Terror" was now "overseas contingency operations." Individual acts of terror were referred to as "man-caused disasters." Enemy combatants were simply called "persons" whom the president "has the authority to detain." Clearly, the art of nuance was back in a big way at the White House.

Next up was his much anticipated June speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. Among the highlights: On the American melting pot, Obama claimed that opportunity had not come true for all people in America (ah, but "the promise exists for all who come to our shores." Hooray!). On American perceptions of Islam, Obama remarked that he believed it was his responsibility as president to "fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they exist" (well, at least he wants to fight something). And, most noteworthy, on the ghoulish dilemma of a nuclear-armed Iran, Obama maintained that "no single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons." On that last statement, many, particularly those in the Middle East, interpreted it as tacit acceptance of the legitimacy of Iran's nuclear program.

In November, Obama's Department of Justice announced their decision to try five 9-11 defendants, including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in a federal court in New York City. The defendants would naturally possess all the rights and protections guaranteed to any American citizen under the Constitution, including attempts to put the U.S., itself, on trial for human rights violations in its detention and interrogation procedures, including practices such as "waterboarding" that Obama has publicly denounced as torture, as well as the ability to subpoena sensitive intelligence and investigative materials.

Also in November, we learned that the three Navy SEALS who captured the highly-valued ringleader behind the grisly murder and mutilation of three Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004 would face criminal charges for what the terrorist alleges was a punch in the lip during his detention. Yep... a fat lip. The three soldiers will face court martial before a military tribunal in Virginia later this month.

Step 3: Okay, Now Love Me

After acquiescing to European demands to set the agendas off the 2009 G-20 and NATO summits during his inaugural April trip, Soeren Kern of Pajamas Media characterized Obama's diplomatic philosophy, which seemed to put the interests of other countries ahead of those of the United States, as the "Obama Doctrine." But given that the policies of his predecessor were so sullied with "flawed ideology," surely the President's first year in office brought with it some green shoots of hope and promise among the many global quandaries he *uniquely* inherited upon taking office. After all, he has claimed many times that he was hired to "clean up the mess"... so, what of his 2009 accomplishments?

• Under his watch there have now been two terrorist attacks; one that killed 13 American soldiers (along with an unborn child) and wounded 30 others at Ft. Hood; another a failed attempt to blow up 300 passengers aboard a Northwest jetliner.

• Iran continues laboring unabated on its nuclear and missile programs, while simultaneously slaughtering its citizens on its streets not once, but twice, under Obama's watch... rebuked with vague, whimpering condemnations by his feckless State department.

• Obama dithered for nearly three months after the top U.S. and NATO Commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McCrystal, requested additional troops to fend off a revitalized Taliban insurgency that jeopardized the success of the entire 8-year war.

• North Korea operates in continued defiance of international sanctions for its rogue missile program, as well as for its shipments of arms to Myanmar. And for added measure, a Japanese news agency was fed a story last June in which North Korea was allegedly preparing to launch a missile aimed at Hawaii. Obama's response was to send Kim Jong-il a letter.
  
  
• And at the Copenhagen climatefraud talks, Obama received the diplomatic middle finger from the same countries that bedeviled his predecessor. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao refused to meet with him. Venezuelan troll-dictator Hugo Chávez accused Obama of smelling like sulfur. Cuba's Fidel Castro called his trip to Copenhagen a "show." Sudan compared his environmental plan to the Holocaust. Well, at least it went better than his prior trip to Copenhagen when he lost the Olympics.

The fact is, despite the hope Obama placed on the power of dialog without preconditions, listening without dictating, and leaving repressive regimes paths to an "open door," the problems that faced his predecessor remain firmly in place under his watch. And while much of the world indeed disliked George W. Bush's policies, at least the bad guys feared him. Not only have Obama's apologies, bows, and unilateral concessions failed to achieve a single foreign policy success after a year in office, the behavior by our adversaries suggest they regard him as a lightweight who can be rolled without consequences.

And really, why should anyone unclench their first to grasp at his outreached hand? The Obama Doctrine suggests that there is much more to be gained through defiance. At almost every turn, when faced with a decision to stand behind those striving for liberty and freedom against a totalitarian oppressor, Obama failed to seize the right side of history: Stand by Poland and the Czech Republic with missile defense, or appease Russia? Stand by Israel for their right to exist, or appease the Islamic Fundamentalism? Stand by democracy in Honduras, or prop up an ousted dictator reviled by their citizens but chummy with Hugo Chávez?

A Liberal Divided?

Dick Morris ruminated in this piece on what progress President Obama would achieve were he a third as tough on North Korea and Iran as he is on the Republican party. What a contrast of style indeed-- that a man could operate so tyrannically with his domestic political opponents, yet show such naive, reckless passivity when confronted with the world's emissaries of oppression.

Yet, digging deeper, the commonality between the Domestic and International Obama isn't all that illusive-- the link is arrogance, directed at the American people. He stepped into office believing that our problems were a self-created offspring, borne of a lack of sophistication, empathy, and nuance on the international stage. For Obama, the honor and principles of America are simply bargaining chips to be negotiated with other nations in exchange for cooperation that would allow him to focus on his societal restructuring of America. At times he appears to almost relish the opportunity of juxtaposing the power of the American Presidency with his cartoonish demonstrations of submissiveness and guilt, as if the gesture would be sufficient to win their love and cooperation, as if the American people didn't deserve more dignified representation.

Karl Rove argued in this Wall Street Journal op-ed that Obama, in his desire for world popularity, acts as if there is moral equivalence between America and her enemies, where our perceived historical shortcomings can be leveraged in the form of apologies, humility, retreat and retrenchment, to compel our adversaries to respond in kind. In fact, he's been forthcoming in his hope that his very election would help repair America's standing in the world, as he stated as much in this press conference during his inaugural April trip to Europe.

Liberalism is at home is as it is abroad, the subjugation of substance for style, of results for intentions. What an odd dilemma for the American people, to be under the thumb of a man so lacking in trust of his fellow citizens that he would seek to remake the country into a Liberal Utopian playground for unchecked Big Government, who would nonetheless place so much faith in the good intentions of world figures who openly plot our destruction.