I’m old enough to have experienced, from afar, quite a few American Presidents by now. Some I’ve disliked and then later seen their value and some I’ve been enthusiastic about, but later found out that they had feet of clay.
I used to admire President Clinton’s easy way with people and found him a refreshing change from the more reserved manner of President HW Bush, although President Clinton descent into sleaze disappointed me greatly . President Reagan initially worried me because of his bullishness, but later I appreciated both what he had done for America and for the World, and also learned to see that President Reagan was a man of admirable character.
President Ford made no impression whatsoever on me at the time of his presidency, he didn’t come over as having any zing in his personality at all, although later readings of some of his words told me that he was definitely not mindless automaton. President Carter looked good at first but rapidly showed his incompetence. The now ex-President Carter is still showing his incompetence and also his detachment from reality, by some of the causes to which he attaches himself. I can also remember President Nixon resigning and saw the mantle of shame that he brought to the Presidency.
George W Bush, came over as gung ho and that worried me, as no sensible person would want to see the world plunged into war through wrongly chosen words used at the wrong time. However, now I greatly regret that assessment of the man, because a bit of gung ho was what was needed in the face of the threat from Islamic terrorism.
Which brings us to the current incumbent of the office of President of the United States, Barack Obama.
I must say that out of all the Presidents I have experienced, President Obama is the worst one I’ve seen in my lifetime.
On the issue of sleaze, he is streets ahead of Clinton. He has the incompetence of Carter without any of Carter’s genuine, if misguided, desire to help others, Obama is purely a machine politician, with no burning passion apart from self-advancement. The causes he emotes over are chosen purely to advance himself, all his passion is false.
Obama has none of the moral clarity or communication skills such as those possessed by Reagan, nor does he have the ability to make effective political speeches to Congress, which Ford had, even if Ford appeared a little stiff in public. Obama doesn’t have the reserved but effective manner of GHW Bush, nor the necessary ‘go for it’ attitude of George W Bush.
To me Obama has been given all the negative features of previous presidents but none of their positive attributes.
Obama, has done the impossible and made me nostalgic for Nixon, who although he fully deserved his sobriquet ‘tricky Dicky’, was at least an American patriot, something that cannot be said of Obama.
Obama’s recent utterrings and actions with regards to the Syrian confilict are miles away from the competent and effective diplomatic endeavours undertaken by President Nixon. For all his problems, and for all his faults, President Nixon did at least reduce pressure and suspicion between the Chinese, the Soviet Bloc and the free world, whilst not surrendering freedoms to appease the Communists.
Obama makes me wish that that the Oval Office was occupied by the shade of Nixon because even that disgraced president could do a much better job of running America and keeping the free world, free, than anything Obama could do. It is a great shame that the office of US President is currently occupied by such a spineless, idiotic montebank who so clearly believes that murderous Jihadi terrorists are freedom fighters.
