BloggeRhythms

Several items of interest, all reaching the same conclusion. There’s no effective leadership in the nation today at all.

On “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace,” George Will opined that the incumbent decides when, where and how the effectiveness and worth of his actions are measured by edict.

Mr. Will put it this way, ““Well, ‘the debate is over’ is something of a mantra. The debate is over about climate change -- everyone, be quiet. The debate is over about early childhood education -- everyone, be quiet. Lots of things are supposedly over. You hear that from people who are finding the evidence inconvenient. Now, is it working? That's a fairly minimal claim. I mean, the farm subsidies in this country are working. Whether or not they are doing good work is another matter…And he is contradicting himself. He says, we should all stop talking about this except Democrats this fall should campaign on the basis of the multiform excellence of the Affordable Care Act.”

 

Along the same lines, but with a different slant, other “leading” Dems employ double-talk when cornered by evidence of horrendous mismanagement.

 

Debbie Wasserman Schultz when asked about the once-again delayed decision regarding the Keystone pipeline on “NBC’s “Meet The Press,” replied: “‘The decision over the Keystone pipeline is complex and it has to be examined very carefully. It affects multiple states.” And, “Because of the weight of the issue, she wants to make sure the right decision is arrived at and the president makes that decision carefully and doesn’t put politics in his decision.”

 

However, what she left out was that this “decision-making” process has already taken more than five years. Everybody and his brother has signed off on the project, except for a handful that are in the incumbent’s pocket. And the only reason the project’s halted is that environmentalists have paid off handsomely and intend to keep doing so as California billionaire Tom Steyer announced last Thursday.

 

In the meantime, though, while politics and back-scratching continue, no one seems to want to really consider what the extent of dependency on foreign oil really costs us all. As a general rule of thumb, every one-cent increase in gas prices takes $1 billion out of consumers' pockets.

 

In that regard, Julie Roy of WBTW News 13 South Carolina notes that for gasoline, “The national average has increased 11.9 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 12.1 cents per gallon higher than this day one year ago.” Which means that roughly $12 billion dollars has been taken from citizens for nothing more than political reasons. And, if that isn’t utterly despicable regarding leadership, I don’t know what is.

 

As far as leadership goes, retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters believes there simply isn’t any.

 

While explaining on Fox News that no one should be surprised that one with no experience, whose Senate voting record was mostly “present,” has no leadership capabilities, the colonel compared the presidency to a parent. 

 

Leadership and decision-making aren’t about making people happy, he said, they’re about doing what's called for when difficult circumstances arise. And just because so many don’t like war, or even getting seriously involved, doesn’t mean that the issues will go away or somehow or other be resolved.

 

He than made an excellent comparison, which is what really drew my attention. The colonel said ducking tough decisions was like a parent of a difficult ten and twelve year old finding out he can’t raise them. But, realizing you don’t like the situation you’re in doesn’t mean you can just walk away and leave them, it simply doesn’t work that way.

 

And that’s what every issue facing the nation has come to. The one at the top doesn’t know how, nor even want to, make decisions that really call for leadership. Relying instead on like-minded constituents who always want the easy way out, regardless of the horrendous damage left behind them. 

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios