Obama’s Greatest Failure

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

It’s not the economy. It’s not foreign policy. It’s not the failure of Washington to function. It’s not the loss of respect for America and the strength of America. It’s not the failure to improve the educational system. It’s not unemployment or the downgrading of our debt. Obama’s greatest failure transcends the Presidency. His greatest failure is an affront to the fundament of our society.Lessons often come not from a single event, but from a juxtaposition of events. The riots in London, and the flash mobs in Philadelphia come during a week when Obama has blamed Congress, the system, the Tea Party, the Arab Spring and, in what is surely to become a historical reference for excuses, the Japanese Tsunami, for his inability to get a handle on the economy and unemployment.

The lesson here is not about a President blaming others for his failures. That surely is not unique. The lesson here relates to an historically squandered opportunity. Obama’s rise to the Presidency is a compelling story. Abandoned by his father at an extremely young age, he was raised by his mother and, in his words, white racist grandmother. So many young people and adults have used such a background as an excuse for failure. But Obama did not use it as an excuse. He strengthened himself by this adversity rising to the very top in spite of ample opportunity to blame his others for any inability to succeed. Psychiatrists’ couches are filled with adults bemoaning their fate and blaming their parents for their own failures. So many young people rely on the ability to blame one or both parents or their neighborhoods for justification for their failure. Obama’s rise to the Presidency against overwhelming odds is the quintessential American story. He would have been a beacon to those who have a choice between overcoming obstacles to succeed, and using the obstacles as a convenient excuse for failure. The rioters in London blame others for their financial circumstance. The flash mobs in Philadelphia blame others for their feelings of disenfranchisement. And Obama blames the Tsunami, as if G-d himself wanted not only to assure Obama’s failure, but to do it in a clandestine manner, on the other side of the globe.
By overcoming the harshest of circumstances, Obama earned the opportunity to tell the young people of America, the minorities in America, the urban disenfranchised in America that there is no obstacle that could not be overcome. He didn’t blame his father or his grandmother or anyone else. He rose above his circumstances. He reached the ultimate pinnacle of his journey with a campaign motto that was, after all, “Yes, we can.” That in the three years of his Presidency this motto has evolved into “everyone and everything is conspiring to prevent me from succeeding” is Obama’s greatest failure.

Posted: August 14th, 2011 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2012 Presidential Politics, Barack Obama | Tags: Barack Obama, Stuart J. Moskovitz | 2 Comments »

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