January 3, 2018
By: Linda Case Gibbons
Rushing in where angels fear to tread. It's not for everyone.
Trump and Company like it, but Obama never got the hang of it.
He knew how to draw a chemical weapons line in the sand, but didn't know what to do when Syria's President Bashar al-Assad crossed it.
Trump knew. When Assad made a repeat performance, gassing his own people, President Trump ordered a cruise missile strike.
It's all about leading from behind. Obama did it, but it doesn't work, and it leaves the country in a pickle.
Obama ignored "Little Rocket Man" as a nuclear threat, and cut a deal with Iran which allowed that country to become a nuclear power. Then, messing up his Art of the Deal, he tossed $1.3 billion to Iran, in cash, at night.
No one here is really quite sure what the money was for. Or, when Obama sent another $400 million, what that was for.
And we still don't.
Some said it was repayment of an old debt. Some said it was part of a hostage negotiation for the release of American prisoners of war. But no one knows for sure.
What we do know is that Obama's actions made it more difficult to handle future hostage negotiations. Negotiating with terrorists always does that.
Like when Obama traded five high-ranking members of the Taliban government in Afghanistan for U.S. Army deserter, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
Under Barack Obama we were told we had to accept a "New Normal," a less than 3 percent GDP, that "stimulating the economy" meant Cash for Clunkers, and that green companies, that failed before they got started, were the way to go.
And this is the man the denizens of the Deep State miss and yearn for his return. This is the man for whom the Snowflakes weep.
Obama never fully appreciated that the country is in debt, and that he was the guy who was supposed to tighten the government's belt and fundraise, for the country, not just the Democratic Party.
He didn't care that nixing the Keystone XL Pipeline meant the loss of jobs and U.S. energy independence. He ignored that the State Department gave the project a clean bill of health --five times -- instead choosing to defer to environmentalists.
"Ultimately, if we're going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable, but uninhabitable in our lifetimes," Obama said, "we're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground, rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky."
Years after the BP oil spill, Obama continued the ban on off-shore drilling in the Gulf, and allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to levy more than 4,000 regulations on small businesses, costing them hundreds of dollars in compliance fees.
But President Trump saw these actions as bad business decisions and took steps to turn things around. He pulled out of the Paris Accords, reversed the ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and approved the Keystone Pipeline.
Obama never got the hang of doing business. After all, not everyone knows how. But Trump and his people can walk the walk, do it while chewing gum, and while saving the country some bucks.
This week U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced the U.N. budget will be cut by $285 million. This came, ironically, after the General Assembly voted 128 to 9 to condemn President Trump's decision to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem.
"The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known," the gutsy ambassador said. "We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of, or remain unchecked."
This week, Trump announced the U.S. will withhold $224 million in aid to Pakistan.
"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years," the president tweeted, "and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help."
He also also announced that the U.S. will support the anti-establishment protestors in Iran, something President Obama did not do in 2009.
"The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime," Trump tweeted. "All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them, went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights."
In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Obama's former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, agreed. Obama should have done more.
But now, it's all water under the bridge and, thankfully, we have an administration that fears nothing and is willing to risk being politically incorrect. We are in the second year of the Trump Administration and 2018's off to a good start.
Stuart Varney of the Fox Business Channel predicts a 4 percent GDP this year;
Al Franken has officially left the building, and former Rep. Michele Bachmann is considering a run for his seat;
And Queen Elizabeth has finally bestowed a knighthood on Ringo Starr.
It's all good.
Hold the line, America.