Who is qualified to be President of the United States?

Election 2012

WHAT ARE THE DUTIES of the President of the United States? When you vote in November, you will be choosing the person best qualified to perform the duties of that office. How can anyone choose well if they don't know what those duties are?

Click to enlarge

Simply put, the President is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States and its chief diplomat as well as the Commander in Chief of its armed forces. Although that's just three basic duties, each entails tens of thousands of detailed tasks that require staffs of tens of thousands organized into departments and bureaus, and the President is responsible for supervising them all.

Although there were far fewer laws to enforce when George Washington became the first President, he understood intuitively that he needed help. He fell back on his experience as a military commander and delegated his authority to a staff, a Cabinet of Secretaries. No, the Constitution didn't specify the President's Cabinet, it was Washington's own contrivance. However, inasmuch as the President was delegating executive authority to unelected individuals, who were, in effect officers of the United States, Congress held the right to evaluate and approve his appointments.

Did you notice that I said that Washington delegated executive authority only. He did not, he could not delegate executive responsibility. Thus, all blame as well as all fault for the conduct of the Executive Branch of government falls on the shoulders of the President. Indeed, as Harry Truman discovered, all credit and all blame for virtually everything that happens in the United States, even things over which he has no responsibility or authority – such as the economy – fall on the President's shoulders. That is why he had a brass plate engraved and placed on his desk stating that “The Buck Stops Here.” Truman had broad shoulders.

President Harry Truman (click to enlarge)

No President has ever ducked responsibility with as much alacrity as Barack Obama. He and his supporters have attempted to shift blame in almost every instance where things have gone wrong. 

• The economy – blame George Bush – Not only has the economy failed to rebound, but also, every government investment in business has failed. Some point to General Motors as a success, yet it hovers near bankruptcy again sustained only by massive infusions of cash and credits from a government that can ill afford them. All has occurred during the tenure of Barack Obama.
  


• The national debt – blame George Bush – The debt has more than doubled during Barack Obama's tenure. More debt has been accumulated in the past three years than in the entire history of the United States.
  


• Unemployment – blame George Bush – Unemployment stood at 5.3% when George Bush left office. It has persisted above 8% during all of Barack Obama's tenure.
  

Notice, I did not say that Barack Obama is responsible for the failing economy, the rising debt, and persistent unemployment. I only mentioned that these problems have persisted and grown during his tenure in office. The truth is that the root causes of these issues go well beyond Executive authority and responsibility. Barack Obama has simply been absent as the elected leader in helping to resolve them. If anything, he has exacerbated these problems, but is not fully responsible for them

In fairness to President Obama, these problems were thrust upon him, not by George Bush or Congress. We did it to him when we elected an unqualified individual to be President. If you must place blame, look into a mirror.

Barack Obama was the least qualified individual ever to be elected President. He had no executive experience. His legislative credentials were sparse. Yes, he had served in the Illinois State Legislature and the United States Senate. However, he was not a sponsor of even one piece of legislation and was wont to vote “Present” when simple “Yes or No” decisions were required. Where did we expect that he might have learned leadership skills? He never owned, operated, or managed anything other than his own time. He never even served as a Boy Scout or a military leader.

If you owned or were an executive in a business, and Barack Obama applied for a management position, would you have hired him after looking at his resume? Only a fool would answer yes. How then did we the people decide that he was qualified to be President?

Of course, his resume has a little more meat to it now. He has served one term as President. Is there any indication that he learned anything on the job? Or, has he ducked his responsibilities in the same manner that he ducked them as a legislator and a senator when he voted “present”? Not only has he spent more time on the golf course (600 hours) than he has in security briefings (463 hours), he ducked the first security briefing following the attacks on U.S. Embassies and Consulates in the Middle East. Most importantly, he has never learned that “the buck stops with him.” He continues to deflect blame for every untoward occurrence. He threw Hillary Clinton under the bus for apologizing to Muslims for a film that inspired them to attack U.S. Missions and murder U.S. Diplomats, while he has set the gold standard for apologizing to Muslims. 

A recent statement by his Press Secretary would be laughable if it weren't so tragic. In it he averred that the Muslim attacks on U.S. Embassies and diplomats aren't attacks on the United States. Rather, they are attacks on a film. Really? So the buildings they burned weren't really sovereign institutions of the United States, they were Hollywood props? The persons they murdered weren't really American diplomats, they were simply actors? 

On November 21, 2007, then Senator Barack Obama, campaigning to be President, promised that Muslim violence would end if he were elected President. I didn't expect him to keep that promise, did you? It was just another campaign promise by a politician, or did you hope there was going to be a change and campaign promises would be kept?

Can we survive another four years with an unqualified President?