Government by Lynch Mob -- Obama Should Ignore Critics and Just Lead

President Obama seems to be running from policies rather than leading policies. Instead of acting like a President who won office with a huge mandate for "change," he is acting like he is months away from a re-election and fears offending the public.

Politicians in one of the nation's toughest political rings, Chicago, long recognized that once you are in office, you make the toughest, hardest and dirtiest decisions reflecting what you feel needs to be done. It's only in the final stretch before a re-election that you start running government by public opinion polls, adjusting your decisions to reflect greater public consensus.

On issue after issue, Obama is acting like he is soon to run for re-election, instead of being a president with a massive mandate still only months into his administration.

Instead of forcing Environment Czar Van Jones to resign from the post in light of some silly revelations on YouTube" that he once signed a petition supporting the belief that the government may have been involved int he Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Obama should have brushed the criticism off, pointed to Van Jones' clear qualifications to direct that Greening initiative, and pointed out rightly that in today's world of instant commentary and internet archiving, everyone -- and I mean everyone -- has something in their Constitutionally protected right to free speech that might shock, dismay or challenge someone else.

The fact is there are people in this country believe who believe that either the government was involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or had enough knowledge to know the attacks were coming but failed to act.

So what!

Stand by the Van Jones appointment instead of embracing the criticism as if it is criticism of you, Mr. President. Every one of your appointees has said something that will upset someone. Will you force everyone to resign, on a timetable set by the right-wing conservative fanatics who could care less about Van Jones' comments on 9/11 and care only that it is an opportunity to hurt your administration.

The public supports you. It's when you forget that fact that the public starts to waiver. Act like the public supports you, because they do, and they will stand by their president.

Don't back down on the Public Option in your health care plan. Insist that it remains and put the feet of the congress to the public fire. Changing your mind and backing down from an important policy decision is no different than if you put the policy to a vote and lost. The fact is that for your criticis, this isn't about the policy. It is about you. They want to stop you.

Don't let the screaming lynch mob on the far right dictate policy in this country. Shut them down by having confidence in your decisions.

Maybe the President's liberal supporters should stop being kindler and gentler reflecting their better-than-the-Neocons attitude. Do what they did to us. Fight back and fight back at every turn. When they push on Van Jones, push back on their Iraq war crimes. When they say you have failed to lead, point out that this current Israeli-Palestinian crisies is the result of former President Bush's failure to lead in the Middle East. When they point to Sept. 11, 2001, point to the fact that it took place under Bush's watch and his response was not to go after the terrorists but to instead go after Saddam Hussein in Iraq to avenge his father's honor.

Stop hiding the Iraqi deaths. Shove them in our faces and remind us that we are losing soldiers everyday because of the failed policies of the fanatics on the right who did worse than question the identity of those responsible for Sept. 11, 2001. They failed to go after the terrorists.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Follow Ray Hanania on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rayhanania

Comments

[YoniBeever]

Obama appears to be scuttling his own boat, while still on it.

[tsobserver]

I love this advice. Yes. Obama should continue to call his opponents liars, mobs, political terrorists. He should bully the blue dog Democrats into voting for all his left wing initiatives. He should constantly remind the people of the country that he does not care what they think, that he does not care about their values, and that all he wants to do is control their lives with and every growing government.

Go! Go! Go!

The singular result will be a greater sweep of Congress next year than Bill Clinton ushered in at the 1994 mid term elections. Instead of a Newt Gingrich marching into the beltway with the trump of "Contract for America" the Democrats will be wisked out of office ending Obama's and their "Contract on America."

You tell 'im, Ray!

[Einstein44]

I agree with Mr.Hanania, President Obama needs to roll with the punches.It is obvious that bipartisan will not work.It is time for President Obama to move on and be FIRED UP.There are millions on his side......It is time Mr.President. Once more,get FIRED UP!!!

[MarionWatts]

So ... when are you planning on running for public office, Mr Hanania? I'd like to see you put your theories into practice as a politician.

May I receive an answer to this?

http://emiliawahoo76.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/virginiadem

[Ray Hanania]

Hey Marion ...t hanks for writing. I did run for office in 1992 -- biggest mistake I ever made. Politicians live in a fishbowl but the one thing I did was to stand up for what I believed and refused to let bullies and caustic critics deflect me from my principles or second-guess what I knew to be right. I lost the election but this isn't a campaign for Obama. He is in office and has four years before he has to run again.

I've covered Chicago and Illinois politics 32 years as a political reporter and I have seen this phenomena of "good people" and "principled people" compromising on what they believe thinking that they can make their critics happy and they can't make their critics happy. The fanatics are hammering Obama not because the issue of addressing the schools means anything but because they know they can bully him and make him change his mind, back down or be silent enough to allow them to exploit it for their gain.

Standing up to the bullies -- Hannity, Limbaugh, Malkin, Coulter, Beck -- would help reinforce the confidence that the majority of principled Americans have in his leadership. If you believe in something, fight for it.

That's what I believe and I don't think it takes much to stand by good principle even if there is a small chorus of bomb-throwers who only want to destroy you.

Thanks so much
Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

[Matt7]

I understand your point, and would also like to see the President silence the bullies before their nonsense gets a foothold and then burn out of control. I just don't agree with you that his "fear of the polls" is the reasoning.

I really do think that there is some strategy at play here -- one that perhaps I don't fully understand, or might not employ myself -- that is based upon believing people to be honorable at the core, and that Americans will put their differences aside and coalesce around a common "enemy" or issue. Unfortunately, all of the -isms that plague this country apparently run far deeper than most people expected.

I still have confidence in the man and the mission. I just sometimes wish that he wouldn't allow us to become so bloodied in the process of "winning the war." Then again, the battle scars may just help ensure that we'll remember the who, why and how's of the struggle.