“Birther” Myth

The Multi Tasking President In His Prime: One Week In Barack Obama’s Presidency

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Everyone knows that the American Presidency is a tremendous burden, with the occupant of the Oval Office having to deal with so many issues and problems at the same time, that he MUST be able to multi task with great skill.

So is the case of Barack Obama, who in one week, did the following:

1. Had Hawaii issue his official Certificate of Live Birth to silence his critics, which now have dropped dramatically, according to public opinion polls.

2. Toured Alabama and other states that were victims of the worst tornado destruction in decades, and was praised for the quick federal response to the natural disaster, as compared to Hurricane Katrina uncer President George W. Bush

3. Traveled to Florida to witness the Space Shuttle launch, which was unfortunately delayed, but also to visit Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, wounded in an assassination attempt in January, who was there to witness her husband, Mark Kelly, the captain of the shuttle crew, begin the space mission.

4. Performed great standup comedy at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, including teasing of Donald Trump, who has been bad mouthing Obama for the past month, including on the “birther” controversy.

5. All of that week, and even earlier, Obama was planning the raid on the compound in Pakistan to eliminate the Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, the most daring action by a President in many decades!

And in the past week since, Obama has also visited the site of Ground Zero and commiserated with the families of victims of the World Trade Center, and also visited the Navy SEALS who were engaged in the most delicate operation possible, the attack on the Bin Laden compound and retrieval of the body of Bin Laden after he was killed.

This period of the last week of April and first week of May, a two week period, will go down in history as one of the most momentous periods in the history of the nation!

150 Years After The Civil War, It Is Still Being Fought!

Ronald 2 Comments

When one studies the Civil War, the most significant event in US History, being commemorated on its 150th Anniversary this year, it makes one realize that the issues being fought then are still being fought today!

Not only is there still sectionalism and regionalism between North and South.

There is still a racial problem, with the South being the area having the most trouble accepting a black President, and therefore, perpetuating the “Birther” Myth, which claims that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

It is also being fought in the sense that there seems to be no political center in America in recent years, similar to what the situation was before the Civil War.

It is also compared as to the growing influence of evangelical Christianity, which tends to be rigid and unwilling to make any concessions with what they consider the battle between evil and good, and with Biblical language which demonizes the opposition with self righteousness and the sense that compromise is unnecessary and wrong.

It is still part of America today also due to the debate over federal power as compared to the states, and the constant threat of states rights and secession being brandished.

Also, there is the constant debate over the powers of the President to promote his world view, whether Abraham Lincoln then or Barack Obama today.

The parties in control may have switched, with the Republicans replacing the Democrats in the South, but in so many ways, the present party division geographically resembles the North-South split of Lincoln’s time.

The need to escape the same trap of tensions and disagreements in the present and the future is imperative, so we must learn from the Civil War so as to advance the American experiment in freedom and democracy.

This is even more essential because of the major world role now being played by the United States, compared to the insular republic of the mid 19th century.