Resign, Mr. President.

Resign, Mr. President

By Arnold Ahlert

August 12th 2011



What I am about to say, I say with no joy in my heart, or any sense of ideological gloating. I take no pleasure in being correct when I warned my fellow citizens that putting people who believe America is a fundamentally broken nation in charge of running that nation was a tragic mistake. I called the 2008 election the worst choice of candidates in my voting lifetime. Yet immediately following that election, I wrote a column saying that Barack Obama was president and, as such, I would support him as I would support any American president, even if it was only as a member of the loyal opposition any vibrant democracy requires. Unfortunately, I believe we have moved past the point of no return. Mr. President, if you are truly concerned with the nation above all else, it is time to consider resigning.



There was time, most notably during national emergencies when politics stopped as the so-called water's edge. During WWll, there were Americans who believed FDR knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor in advance. Those people were quickly cowed into silence by Americans who recognized that the threat imposed by Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany transcended anything resembling partisan politics. A country battered by a decade of economic mayhem submerged their differences and united behind the idea that America must survive as a nation.



I believe we are at an equally transcendent moment. And I'm not the slightest bit naive enough to believe that when the moment passes, America will not go right back to the ideologically-inspired bickering that we have engaged in ever since we became a nation. Nor do I expect those on the other side of the ideological divide to have reasons that even remotely resemble my own for wanting this president to step down. But I do believe many of them have reached the same conclusion, regardless of the different route it may have taken them to get there.



That is what historically transcendent moments are all about.



Quite simply, irrespective of reasons for believing so, more and more Americans are coming to realize that the fundamental qualities of leadership that any president must posses are utterly lacking in Mr. Obama. If I'd been alive at the time, I would likely have fought every policy enacted by Mr. Roosevelt tooth and nail. Yet that being said, it is impossible not to recognize the gift that FDR had for shepherding this nation through some of its darkest hours.


Despite all the media ballyhoo, replete with tingles up peoples' legs and references to "G0d-like" qualities, Mr. Obama possesses no such gift. His speech Monday, in the middle of a stock market meltdown, were the crib notes from the same speech he gave when he signed the debt ceiling deal. And as I said, it no longer matters if you're pro or con such things as extending payroll tax cuts or unemployment benefits, or do or don't believe earthquakes, spikes in oil prices, and slowdowns in other parts of the world are the reasons for our current troubles. As crazy as it may sound, all of those are side issues which, much like the debt ceiling debate, will be resolved in one fashion or another.



The over-riding issue is this: the nation is adrift, in dire need of inspiration — and the man who is supposed to do the inspiring is fundamentally unsuited to the task.



And despite what some might think, such a realization is not a partisan observation, any more than recognizing some people have certain character traits and some do not. And though it would be easy to say some of us knew it all along, it would be dishonest. Despite the ideological differences, I can recognize that Mr. Obama ran a great election campaign. Forget McCain. When you can take down the Clinton machine, you're no lightweight campaigner.



Unfortunately, campaigning isn't leading. Campaigning is all about me. Leading is all about us. And as hard as I try to recall a president from either party more detached from us than this one, I cannot do it. I don't care how many times this president tells me he's "fighting for America" in some way or another, I don't believe it. Not because I'm conservative, but because I can't name another president from either party who seemingly chose to put their own interests above those of the nation in the middle of a crisis.



Prove me wrong, Mr. President. Nothing would make me happier than writing a column where I would be forced to eat the humblest of humble pies and admit that the country does come first for you. So much so that you recognized, much like presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon before you, that you are no longer capable of leading this nation out of our current morass.



Crush the cynicism of millions of Americans who believe that statesmanship and an over-riding sense of patriotism are dead. Show the nation that hope and change wasn't some empty bromide that applied to everyone else. In perhaps the greatest irony in the history of the nation, it would be one of the finest moments any president has ever produced. One that would secure your place in history.



Resign, Mr. President.