I Was Right, Obama Was Less Qualified Than Sarah Palin

My Democrat friends always laughed when I would say that Barack Obama was less qualified to be president than Sarah Palin. They were justified in their remarks by her performances in interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. But, I never claimed that Palin was as smart as a brain surgeon. That is not what the job of president requires.

Case in point...who do you think was the smarter man, Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan? Most would argue that Carter had more intelligence, yet who is viewed as the more successful president? Reagan, hands down.

I never claimed that Obama was not intelligent. He clearly is. However, he never managed a small business, let alone a city, a county or a state. Palin had experience as mayor of a small town and governor of a small state. One could argue that she was successful at both.

At the time of his election, much like Jimmy Carter, the country wanted to move on from scandal and a Republican party that had controlled the White House for eight years. Any Democrat would have won election against John McCain.

Unfortunately, Americans made the wrong decision. Let's review Obaman's presidency to date...yes, he inherited a financial mess. But, what did he do first? He allowed Nancy Pelosi and her very liberal friends in Congress to craft a disaster of a stimulus bill. The original cost was $787 billion, and now is projected to be over $850 billion. Yet, what do we have to show for it? This stimulus bill was designed to invest and create many so-called "green jobs." Yet, as George Will has recently pointed out, the administration has not even defined what a "green job" is yet.

Remember when the Democrats used to say that the stimulus would "save or create" millions of jobs? Well, we don't hear that phrase any more do we? The economy, tied to the natural business cycle, would have rebounded on its own without the stimulus because of all the monetary easing being done by the Federal Reserve and Treasury. How much it would have rebounded, no one knows, but that is how the business cycle works.

After the stimulus, Obama and the Democrats turned their attention to health care. After a year, they finally rammed through legislation that most Americans didn't want, and most want to repeal today. This hugely complicated bill has caused tremendous uncertainty among individuals and businesses alike. The effect has been to stunt growth further.

Let's turn our attention to foreign policy, and specifically Iran. Last summer, Iran held bogus elections that held Ahmedineajad in power. The country was on verge of civil war as protesters greeted the election results with disdain. Obama showed no support for the protesters, because he was too involved with trying to appease Ahmedinejad so that Iran may pull back from its uranium enrichment program. Late last year, the administration signaled a major deadline for Iran to comply, or else. Or else what? The U.N. Security Council has finally passed new sanctions, none of which will do one thing to keep Iran from continuing on its current path. Basically, Iran thumbed its nose at Obama.

How about Israel? Obama totally disses the Israeli Prime Minister and now has a 4% approval rating in Israel. Our only true ally in the Middle East, and he treats them worse than Iran. No wonder the birthers continue to beat their drum about where Obama was born.

Now we have the Gulf Oil spill. The reaction to Obama's handling of the oil spill is worse than the reaction to Bush's handling of Katrina. He was slow to react, and now comes off as a petty man just looking to blame others and make a scapegoat out of someone. Instead of providing leadership and getting the best people together to solve the problem, Obama is looking for an "ass to kick." Now it comes out that the administration actually falsified a recommendation that there be a moratorium on drilling.

Finally, let's look at how things are going in Washington. Obama ran as a "post-partisan" candidate. Washington is now beset by more partisanship than any time under the Bush administration. I never believed he would be a moderate president, based upon his voting record in the Senate.

So where are we now, less than 18 months after Obama took office? We have 9.7% unemployment (hire if you count the people who have given up the search and the underemployed), $13 trillion in government debt, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, three terror attacks on American soil and an administration that refuses to use the terms Islamic terrorist, jihadist, etc., a disastrous health care bill that will only add to our debt, continued problems in the Middle East with foreign leaders who show zero respect for our president, and an extremely partisan Congress.

Sarah Palin is a polarizing figure, but remember, John McCain was the man at the top of the ticket, a man who has a record of working with the other side. Who would you rather have as president now America?

In the last 18 months, Palin has actually helped to successfully elect Scott Brown in Massachussetts, and helped several other candidates win primaries against Republican establishment candidates. I suspect that as time goes on, if there are Republican successes in November, Palin will become a much stronger potential candidate.