Presidential Leadership

For over two hundred years US presidents have faced the challenge of upholding the Constitution, securing the borders, and protecting American citizens. Some have been more successful than others, but it could be said of most of our presidents that they at least tried to do what was right for our country. That has changed.

Now we have a president who, by appointing unelected and unconstitutional “czars,” by the use of Executive fiat, and by the appointment to the Supreme Court of anti-American jurists, is trying to overturn the Constitution. He disdains the sovereignty of the country he was elected to lead and protect by refusing to secure our border with Mexico, and he could care less about the security of American citizens. While drug warlords in Mexico have spilled their war into Arizona, the president is holding border security hostage to his plan of comprehensive immigration reform. Give 12-18 million illegal aliens amnesty and he’ll build the border fence is essentially what he told Arizona Senator John Kyl in a private White House meeting.

Can the president really be believed? He promised 1200 National Guard troops to help the Border Patrol police Arizona’s border. To date the troops have received no orders. He promised 500 million to build the fence. To date nothing has been appropriated. The only thing the Obama administration has done is put up signs warning people as far as 80 miles north of the Mexican border that it is dangerous to travel any farther south, but it has done nothing to alleviate the problem. Moreover, the Justice Department is filing suit against Arizona for taking measures to protect its citizens into its own hands because of the dereliction of the president.

Even if the president got his immigration reform he still wouldn’t build the fence. The track record has proven him to be a consummate liar. He doesn’t want the fence no matter what he says about it. In fact, it is now being alleged that since he apparently doesn’t have the votes in Congress to pass his reform bill he is going to grant amnesty to illegal aliens by executive order.

Obama is showing himself to be an absolute failure as a leader. His community activism was obviously not sufficient to prepare him for the demands of office or the decision making needed in times of crisis. Even MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, the one who gets tingles up his leg when Obama speaks, declared he is lacking in leadership after his address to the nation on the Gulf oil crisis.

The only thing he has done lately that even looks presidential is removing General Stanley McChrystal from leading NATO forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal, much like MacArthur sixty years ago, took his criticism of the president to the public. That was something the president could not abide and still maintain the dignity of his position as Commander-in-Chief. Truman had to relieve MacArthur, and Obama had to relieve McChrystal.

What was most disappointing, however, was that McChrystal didn’t stand by his criticisms when he was called to the White House. He should have known at that point his career was over, so why apologize? Rules of engagement under Obama are so similar to the ROE of Vietnam that one has to wonder if the president really wants to win that war. Our troops cannot shoot first, and when fired upon they have to wait an hour in order to determine the intent of the enemy before defending themselves.

Irony of ironies, the man Obama has chosen to replace McChrystal is General David Petraeus, the one liberal Democrats including Obama were calling “Betray us” in 2007 when he truthfully told them the surge in Iraq was working. For the ordinary right thinking person it would be humiliating to rely on Petraeus now, and for the Democrats in Congress it ought to be a slap in the face. But Democrats have no shame and now, without even an apology for his previous unjustified criticism, Obama anoints General Petraeus as the hero we must have to win. I am all in favor of this choice, but Obama needs to take the handcuffs off the soldiers and let them fight to win or the late Senator Kennedy’s prediction that this will become another Vietnam quagmire will come true.

We are suffering, and have been suffering for a long time, from a real lack of firm leadership in the presidency. JFK betrayed the Cuban freedom fighters at the Bay of Pigs while he dallied in the White House with Marilyn Monroe. LBJ took us deep into Southeast Asia with trumped up charges against North Vietnam, and then refused to let military commanders on the ground win the war. Richard Nixon could have been a great president but protecting crooked cronies on his cabinet became more important to him than the truth and it cost him everything. Gerald Ford failed to understand the mood of the country and suggesting we send troops to fight the communists in Angola caused the country to fear another Vietnam and cost him the presidency.

Jimmy Carter didn’t understand Economics 101 and led the country into a malaise (his own word). Bush 1 started out well but lost his chance at reelection when he broke his promise and raised taxes leading to a recession he denied was happening. Bill Clinton was a philandering playboy who put his own selfish lusts ahead of the interests of the country. Bush 2 also started out well but he turned out to be a globalist with no will power to keep spending under control, and no plan to see the War on Terror through to a positive conclusion.

And now we have Obama. If all we could say was “1.5 trillion dollar deficits,” it would be enough. But we can also say “Gulf oil crisis,” “Arizona border,” “Illegal immigration,” “health care,” “cap and trade,” “unemployment,” “failed stimulus package,” “attempts to buy off Congressmen,” “union payoffs,” “ACORN,” “denial of Second Amendment rights and selling our sovereignty to the United Nations,” “no understanding or appreciation of America’s history,” “disrespect abroad,” and on and on it goes. His approval rating according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is at 45% and dropping.

What we lack in American politics is leadership that puts America first; that loves our country more than life; that is proud to be called American, proud of America’s Christian heritage, and proud of the United States Constitution, the greatest government document ever written; that is proud of America and its accomplishments rather than apologetic for its greatness; that has a vision for the future of a free people unrestrained by excessive government regulation and socialist programs designed to make everyone equally poor; leadership that does not fear special interest groups and political correctness, but has the common sense to do and say what is right for America.

What America needs today is a statesman, a patriot in the White House. We need someone who believes the following:

“There is, in America, a greatness and a tremendous heritage of idealism, which is a reservoir of strength and goodness. It is ours if we will but tap it. And because of this – because that greatness is there – there is need in America today for a reaffirmation of that goodness and a re-information of our greatness.”

These words were spoken at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., March 20, 1981, by the only president in the last fifty years to have seen America as the ultimate moral good in the world, and who used that standing and influence to bring to its knees the ultimate immoral evil in the world, the Soviet Union. His name was Ronald Reagan.

What America needs today is a leader with the positive vision, the morality, the humility, and the love of country that Ronald Reagan had. Reagan was the last true statesman we have seen in American politics. The answer to our leadership problem is someone like him, but where on the horizon can we find one?

Meddling in Foreign Affairs

Sunday evening, June 13, a peaceful demonstration at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi was broken up by two explosions 15 minutes apart that left five dead and 75 wounded. The meeting was led by Christian ministers and politicians who oppose the new draft constitution because, among other things, it will legalize abortion. The assembly was mostly over, the politicians had left, but many were still around joining a prayer vigil and thousands were still in the park when the bombs went off.

Critics of the new draft constitution, called the "No Team," are many. Along with abortion they also object to the establishment of a Muslim court to handle all marriage and inheritance issues for Muslims. People see this as the first step toward a Muslim push for an autonomous zone similar to what they've done in Mindanao in the Philippines. The fear is that Muslims will claim Mombasa and much of the coastline as their inheritance and drive all land owners not of the Muslim faith out. This could set the stage for a civil war.

Another clause that may affect missionaries allows the government to reclaim all "lease-hold" land when their 99 year leases expire. Lease-hold land is rented on a 99 year lease which has to be renewed with the government at the end of the lease. Under the new constitution these 99 year leases will not be renewed. Renters of lease-hold land stand to lose everything. This would primarily affect whites, mostly British, whose forbears settled here in Kenya's infancy, developed the land, built homes, businesses and basically the entire infrastructure. In the long run it would also affect missionaries who have purchased land for churches and schools. It sounds a whole lot like what is going on in Zimbabwe right now.

Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the first president, Jomo Kenyatta, and a former member of an outlawed blood cult called the Mungiki, who is now the Minister of Finance, is campaigning vigorously for the passage of the constitution. He was quoted by the Daily Nation as saying on Saturday June 12, "It is true that there are some issues in the law, and which Kenyans have pointed out, but this should not deter us from getting a new constitution. The opponents are using these contentious clauses to woo Kenyans to vote against it while they can be amended later."

This movement for a new constitution has been going on for over a decade. When President Kibaki was elected in 2002, he ran on a platform promising a new constitution. His administration dilly-dallied, however, and nothing was done until his first term was almost over. Then in a last minute bid to restore people's confidence a new draft constitution was hurriedly put together and rushed to a vote. It was soundly defeated.

Now, three years later, another draft constitution has been submitted to be voted on August 4. Both the president and Prime Minister Raila Odinga support the new draft. However, it does not appear to have popular support among the people. Then this peaceful "NO" demonstration was violently ended by the bombing.

You almost can't help but think somebody in favor of the constitution is behind this, and that would probably mean somebody high up in the government. Odinga was quick to ask the NO team not to accuse the YES team, and in all fairness, Odinga is right. A panic rush to judgment before an investigation is carried out would probably lead to more violence. At a June 15 reception to honor Philippine Independence Day, Kenyan Minister for Tourism, Najib Mohamed Balala affirmed that this was a criminal act, not a political one, that tourists are not being targeted, and that the government is investigating the incident.

Kenyatta's appeal to amend the problems later sounded very similar to something we heard in the States a few months ago about health care. Last week Vice President Joe Biden (pronounced "Bee-den" by many Kenyans) was here promising big bucks if Kenya passes this new constitution. One has to wonder if he didn't tell Kenyatta what to say, but more importantly, what is America's interest in getting this new constitution passed anyway? You don't suppose the most pro-abortion president in US history is trying to influence the abortion movement here do you? What business is it of ours anyway, and for heaven's sake, where does Biden think we're going to get the money to give to Kenya? And what makes anybody think that a new constitution is going to change Kenya's status as one of the most corrupt governments in the world? The same corrupt people will be in it with a new constitution that are in it now.

With the failing economy, 10% unemployment, the Gulf oil spill, the illegal alien war on the Arizona border, the threat of war with North Korea, the Sestak bribe, and all the other problems he's got at home, Obama needs to be careful what diplomatic missions he gets involved with. He's been a total failure at foreign policy so far. Now my workers are telling me that Biden's visit and this bombing are going to do more to turn people against this constitution than anyone can imagine. Come August 4, we'll find out. If the new draft constitution goes down to defeat it will just be more evidence that Obama is out of his league in foreign diplomacy, and another stain on his already soiled administration.

Remembering Two Great Americans

Six years ago today the greatest president of the 20th century, Ronald Reagan, was laid to rest at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California. Lest we forget, Reaganomics turned the Carter recession of 1980 around and gave us six years of the greatest expansion of the US economy in history. It was Reagan's hard hand, moral high ground and military build up that forced Gorbachev to start Perestroika and Glasnost in the USSR. Let us also not forget that those programs were not designed to dismantle the Soviet Union as Time magazine so piously announced when they named Gorbachev man of the decade in 1990. Those programs were designed to try and rescue the Soviet Union from its impending economic collapse, and they did not work.

The Soviet Union came apart in 1991 and ceased to exist on Christmas Day of that year. What a fitting day that was, and a fitting gift from God to all the world that the atheist USSR disappeared from history. But it happened as Reagan predicted it would. Reagan always had a positive vision for the future of America, and if we can get the conservative movement in America and the Republican Party back to Reagan's policies, maybe "there will always be a brighter day ahead." I miss Ronald Reagan and all that he stood for in America.

The other one I miss passed off the scene thirty-one years ago today. Known as "Duke," he became the number one conservative in Hollywood at a time when communists were trying to take over the industry. He stood for the American value of liberty and was very loudly outspoken about his beliefs. He became an institution, a living legend, and a symbol of all that was great about America. Mostly through western films, John Wayne became America's quintessential hero.

Duke Wayne has received a lot of criticism, particularly by leftists, because he never served in the armed forces, and while other movie stars had enlisted he was still making movies and money in Hollywood. There is a very interesting story behind all that and I recommend a book to you called, "John Wayne; the Man Behind the Myth," by Michael Munn.

Munn is a British author who has no agenda in American politics, but had several personal interviews with John Wayne and many other Hollywood figures who knew him well. The truth of John Wayne's military service is this. He applied for the Naval Academy out of high school but didn't get an appointment. He then went to USC on a football scholarship but a shoulder injury ended his football career and disqualified him from the draft. He was also deferred from the draft because he was 34 years old and had four children. Still, the criticism goes, other movie stars enlisted and served even though they had large families. The fact of that is, most of them wound up serving in rear echelon service areas and not on the front lines. Only Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable of already established movie stars at the time actually went into combat. John Wayne did try to enlist, but he was an up and coming star at Republic studios and he had a long term contract from which the studio would not allow him to get out.

Everything seemed to be against him trying to serve so he became the number one cheer leader for the American effort in the war through his movies. He went on a USO tour in 1943 to the South Pacific. I have a book called, The Bushmasters, about a special forces unit that went behind Japanese lines. They were surprised one day to see the Duke visiting them. The author claims John Wayne begged their commander to let him go with them on a mission, but he was denied.

John Wayne became such a huge rallying figure for America, that both Joseph Stalin in 1950, and later Mao Tse-Tung put contracts out on his life. In a very interesting real life story, John Wayne helped FBI agents capture his intended assassins from the USSR. On another occasion, Yakima Canutt, the greatest of all movie stunt men, put his stable of stunt men on the prowl looking for more agents and caught two of them at Durango, Mexico, where John Wayne was making a movie. It was Nikita Krushchev who finally called off the contract after he met John Wayne and the Duke told him what he thought of communism.

The stories are verified by interviews with Yakima Canutt, Peter Cushing, and other notable movie stars including Orson Welles, who was as far left a liberal as anybody and no friend of John Wayne. But there were many in Hollywood who knew the stories. John Wayne kept it all a secret so that his family wouldn't be worried!

Don't let anybody fool you. John Wayne deserves to have his face on Mt. Rushmore along with Ronald Reagan. I hope they are both resting in peace.