A BLACK INTELLECTUAL EVALUATES OUR BLACK PRESIDENT

Thomas Sowell is a distinguished author and a conservative intellectual. He also happens to be black which automatically makes him the scourge of the left. The truth is he is a deep and thoughtful individual with a perspective always worthy of consideration. What follows are his thoughts on Barack Obama in his capacity as President of the United States six months in. I have taken the liberty to sprinkle my comments in BOLD CAPS throughout this piece by Mr. Sowell. I ask his and your indulgence for this exercise. Further, I recommend all of Mr. Sowell's work to you for your review. It is worthwhile reading.


Our New President: Disaster In The Making?
By THOMAS SOWELL

After many a disappointment with someone, and especially after a disaster, we may be able to look back at numerous clues that should have warned us that the person we trusted did not deserve our trust.

When that person is the president of the United States, the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited. [AND THAT BECOMES MORE OBVIOUS WITH EACH PASSING DAY]

Many people are rightly worried about what this administration's reckless spending will do to the economy in our time and to our children and grandchildren, to whom a staggering national debt will be passed on. But if the worst that Barack Obama does is ruin the economy, I will breathe a sigh of relief. [THE DAMAGE TO OUR ECONOMY FROM "STIMULUS" SPENDING & FROM HIS IMMENSE FEDERAL BUDGET IS RETARDING ECONOMIC GROWTH AND AS NOTED IS PASSING ALONG UNSUSTAINABLE, GENERATION DEBT. IN BOTH INSTANCES, MUCH OF THAT UNPRECEDENTED SPENDING COMES IN THE FORM OF POLITICAL PORK BARREL PAYOFFS TO OBAMA'S CONSTITUENT GROUPS AND ALLIES. GIVEN THE ENORMITY OF IT, THAT IS SIMPLY WRONG AS WELL AS FULLY HURTFUL TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY]

He is heading this country toward disaster on many fronts, including a nuclear Iran, which has every prospect of being an irretrievable disaster of almost unimaginable magnitude. We cannot put that genie back in the bottle — and neither can generations yet unborn. They may yet curse us all for leaving them hostages to nuclear terror. [SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON IN HER RECENT "TOUGH" COMMENTS ABOUT NOT ALLOWING IRAN TO GET A NUKE WENT ON TO SAY THAT, IF THEY DO, WE WILL BE OPPOSED TO THEIR USING IT AS A THREAT. FAR FROM ACTUALLY BEING "TOUGH", HER COMMENTS WERE NOT ONLY LAUGHABLE BUT THEY WERE AN OPEN ADMISSION THAT WE CANNOT STOP THEM FROM GAINING SUCH A WEAPON. THE ISSUE IS WHEN, NOT IF]

Conceivably, Israel can spare us that fate by taking out the Iranian nuclear facilities, instead of relying on Obama's ability to talk the Iranians out of going nuclear. [BUT WE MUST NOTE THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS TAKEN TO WARNING AND THREATENING ISRAEL AS TO THEIR MILITARY INTENT AND THEIR SETTLEMENTS. OUR GOVERNMENT IS CURRENTLY AS AGGRESSIVE TOWARDS OUR ALLY ISRAEL AS ANY IN HISTORY. WE CODDLE THE IRANIANS AND TRY TO INTIMIDATE THE ISRAELIS. THAT IS JUST PLAIN BACKWARDS]

What the Israelis cannot spare us, however, are our own internal problems, of which the current flap over President Obama's injecting himself into a local police issue is just a small sign of a very big danger. [THE MOST IMPORTANT SUB STORY OUT OF THE CAMBRIDGE POLICE EVENT IS THAT THE FAR LEFT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND REMAINS TODAY DEFIANT TO POLICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY. OBAMA'S SIN IN THIS MATTER, IF THERE IS ONE, IS ALLOWING THE REST OF US TO SEE HIS REAL FAR LEFT SYMPATHIES. HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MAN OF THE FAR LEFT, OF THAT THERE IS NO DOUBT]

Nothing has torn more countries apart from inside like racial and ethnic polarization. Just this year, a decades-long civil war, filled with unspeakable atrocities, has finally ended in Sri Lanka. The painful irony is that, when the British colony of Ceylon became the independent nation of Sri Lanka in 1948, its people were considered to be a shining example for the world of good relations between a majority (the Sinhalese) and a minority (the Tamils).

That all changed when politicians decided to "solve" the "problem" that the Tamil minority was much more economically successful than the Sinhalese majority. Group identity politics led to group preferences and quotas that escalated into polarization, mob violence and ultimately civil war. [PLAYING THE GAME OF RACIAL POLITICS HAS BEEN A MODUS OPERANDI OF THE LEFT FOR A VERY, VERY LONG TIME. THEY USE MINORITIES TO GAIN THEIR VOTES BUT CARE LITTLE FOR ACTUALLY IMPROVING THEIR LOT. INSTEAD LEFTISTS PREFER TO TRAP THEM IN DEPENDENCY PROGRAMS THAT ALLOW THE LEFT TO COERCE THE LOYALTY OF RACIAL GROUPS]

Group identity politics has poisoned many other countries, including at various times Kenya, Czechoslovakia, Fiji, Guyana, Canada, Nigeria, India and Rwanda. In some countries the polarization has gone as far as mass expulsions or civil war.

The desire of many Americans for a "post-racial" society is well-founded, though the belief that Barack Obama would move in that direction was extremely ill-advised, given the history of his actions and associations. [THE RECORD SHOWS THAT THE POLITICIAN OBAMA HAS USED RACE TO HIS ADVANTAGE REPEATEDLY AND CONTINUES TO ATTEMPT TO DO SO AS PRESIDENT]

This is a president on a mission to remake American society in every aspect, by whatever means are necessary and available. That requires taking all kinds of decisions out of the hands of ordinary Americans and transferring them to Washington elites — and ultimately the No. 1 elite, Barack Obama himself. [THAT WOULD BE LEFTIST ELITES OF COURSE. SINCE AMERICA IS NOT A LEFT ORIENTED SOCIETY, THOSE ELITES KNOW THEY MUST DECEIVE, MISDIRECT, MISLEAD AND FOOL AS MANY VOTERS AS POSSIBLE IN ORDER TO GAIN AND KEEP POWER. FOR EXAMPLE, IF OBAMA HAD HONESTLY TOLD AMERICANS WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO ONCE IN OFFICE WHILE HE WAS OUT ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL, HE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ELECTED]

Like so many before him who have ruined countries around the world, Obama has a greatly inflated idea of his own capabilities and the prospects of what can be accomplished by rhetoric or even by political power. [LIKE MOST ON THE FAR LEFT, OBAMA IS AN IDEOLOGUE AND AMATEUR UTOPIAN. HE LIVES IN A WORLD OF ACADEMIC THEORY THAT HAS LITTLE, IF ANY, CONNECTION TO EVERYDAY REALITY. UTOPIAN IDEOLOGUES ALL THINK THEY KNOW BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE AND DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE FACT THAT UTOPIANS THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE ALWAYS FAILED]

Often this has been accompanied by an ignorance of history, including the history of how many people before him have tried similar things with disastrous results.

During a recent TV interview, when President Obama was asked about the prospects of victory in Afghanistan, he replied that it would not be victory like in World War II, with "Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur." [SEE 'SHOWING THE WHITE FLAG IN AFGHANISTAN']

In reality, it was not Emperor Hirohito who surrendered on the battleship Missouri. American troops were already occupying Japan before Hirohito met Gen. Douglas MacArthur for the first time.

This is not the first betrayal of his ignorance by Obama, nor the first overlooked by the media. Moreover, ignorance by itself is not nearly as bad as charging full steam ahead, pretending to know. Barack Obama is doing that on a lot of issues, not just history or a local police incident in Massachusetts. [THE BELIEF ON THE LEFT THAT OBAMA IS A BRILLIANT MAN IS OFTEN BELIED BY HIS BEHAVIOR AND COMMENTS BOTH WHILE IN OFFICE AND ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. TRUTH BE TOLD HE CANNOT HOLD AN INTELLECTUAL CANDLE TO FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON OR ESPECIALLY TO A BONAFIDE INTELLECTUAL LIKE THOMAS SOWELL]

While the mainstream media in America will never call him on this, these repeated demonstrations of his amateurism and immaturity will not go unnoticed by this country's enemies around the world. And it is the American people who will pay the price. [AND IT IS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE SLOWLY BUT STEADILY WISING UP TO THE REALITY BEFORE US: VOTING OBAMA INTO OFFICE IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ELECTORAL MISTAKE IN AMERICAN HISTORY]

Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate, Inc

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