Obama's failure the result of his own broken promises

Today, even a majority of Democrats view government as a threat.

A startling reversal in the nearly five years Obama's been President.


Obama, the great believer in what he calls "government" has to look in the mirror. Especially after the 2010 elections, he completely missed the boat. Instead of taking the lead in "bi-partisanship," he behaved as if that meant Republicans accommodating his every desire.

After the 2010 election rebuke, he made a big mistake. Not to say that he didn't "reach out" to Republicans; he claimed he tried to reach out to Boehner all the time. But he reached out to the wrong Republicans.

He should have bypassed Boehner and the entire GOP "leadership" altogether, and reached out to the likes of Rep. Justin Amash and Sen. Rand Paul, seen as either libertarians or libertarian-leaning members of the Tea Party.

To what purpose?

For their help in promoting a moderate-to-liberal agenda on matters of foreign policy and civil liberties. Obama, 2011, could have re-reinvented himself as the Obama of 2006-08.

Instead, he sicced his Congressional attack dogs on them; if I recall, Harry Reid even accused Paul of endangering national security for delaying a Patriot Act renewal vote a couple of years ago.

He also bombed Libya based on lies that were clearly evident before the bombing began.

He sided with the NSA when its criminal behavior came to light.

He also tried to go to war against Syria, for no reason whatsoever.

The only redeemable aspect of his Presidency is that he hasn't bombed Iran... yet.

The question is whether he's "seen the light."

He won't give up on Obamacare, and I don't expect him to; it's human nature to cling on to a sunk cost one's invested large amounts of capital in. But there are policies at the margin, where he can start behaving like the people who elected him in 2008 expected. Such as...

•  Pledge to abolish NSA programs that were never needed to protect national security
• Use pardon and commutation powers in drug convictions, and promote reform of drug laws
• Continue to clear out innocent prisoners of Guantanamo Bay
• Reciprocate good-will overtures from Iran, instead of sending mixed messages
• Admit mistakes on "green subsidies" such as ethanol, and pledge for "reform" if not total elimination

None of the above suggests I think Obama should govern like a libertarian. (That'd be ideal, but he won't.) The above items are not very libertarian at all. What they are, are moderate-liberal proposals, the types of things liberals and moderates were hoping he'd start doing five years ago.

And, he could earn bipartisan support on these issues.

So he might as well start. He has nothing to lose politically anymore, but a lot of innocent people will lose if he doesn't do them.