Another President Who Governs By Polls

Leadership is the ability to influence people to willingly follow those in charge. A true leader inspires people to do things and to accomplish great deeds. Those who are not leaders just go along to get along. People want to be led. They want someone in charge and they want someone who takes decisions. Well, at least they used to.

Enter Barack Obama. He won the last election by a pretty good margin and he did it by promising that government would take care of every little thing that comes along. Health care, jobs, money if you are poor, it did not matter because Obama and his Democrats would provide it. The people who elected him and who want these things have lost the ability to be independent. They have lost the will to thrive. These are people who feel they are unable to do for themselves so they must rely on government to do it for them.

George Bush, for all his failings, is a man of principle. One can argue about the principles involved but Bush did not use polls to govern. He led this country and he took unpopular stands in order to keep it safe. He will leave with about a 30% approval rating but he is not worried about that because he said that he did not govern by polls, he took decisions he thought were in the best interest of the country. Yes, there is debate as to whether they were in the best interest. Perhaps we can say that Bush was not a great leader because he failed to get people to willingly follow.

Or is that the case? The members of the military, by and large, support him and what we are doing. Perhaps they are not the dumb, uneducated people that John Kerry described but are well informed instead. The people who disapprove of our safety or who blindly follow Barack Obama would be a closer fit to the people John Kerry described, or to paraphrase; If you don’t stay in school and get a good education you become a liberal.

George Bush had high approval ratings and was perceived as doing a good job especially after 9/11. The Democrats and their media wing could not allow this so they tried to systematically destroy the president for political gain. They were successful in 2006 and 2008 but after January 20th they will hove only themselves to blame.

Barack Obama is not a leader. He has never been in charge of anything and his boldest move in office was to vote “present”. Obama, like Clinton before him, relies on polls. His transition team is now using polls and focus groups to try to ram a stimulus package through Congress. This package will undoubtedly cost over a TRILLION dollars and will prolong the recession and might well drive us into a depression.
[note]If spending money is the answer to the financial crisis then we should not be experiencing one because our government has done nothing but spend.[/note]

Relying on focus groups and polls is not leadership. The military would not be effective if leaders took a poll before every mission. Soldiers follow leaders. Outside the military people will follow a leader.

Unfortunately, in hard times people will also follow charismatic individuals who promise them the world. The people somehow lose focus on being independent and follow the person who says what they want to hear. Jim Jones, a charismatic leader, led hundreds of people who were looking for something better, something better he promised to deliver. He got them to drink poisoned Kool-Aid in a mass suicide. This is where we get the term, “drinking the Kool-Aid.”

Many in this country drank the Obama/Democratic/liberal Kool-Aid because the sainted one is a charismatic person who was able to make them believe he has the answers. Have those who consumed that Kool-Aid caused the suicide of this nation?

Obama’s decisions are based on polls which means that he is trying to govern by using popular decisions to get things accomplished. This is a recipe for disaster as Clinton demonstrated. He was not a great president and he brought us the events of 9/11. Clinton diddled while Rome burned.

“Leadership” by poll watching is ineffective and counterproductive. The popular position is not always the correct position and depending upon where polls are taken and who is asked, any preconceived conclusion can be obtained.

Sometimes a true leader must take an unpopular decision. When some serious problem exists, people do not take polls to determine how to handle the issue. However, the sheeple in this nation have decided to put their faith in a Kool-Aid dispensing, charismatic, poll watching, empty suit who could not lead them out of a burning building.

Regardless of what the polls say…

Big Dog

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Harry Reid; Don’t Know What To Do – Do Nothing

In midst of all the turmoil on Wall Street when Americans are looking to their elected leaders to finally do something, the Democratically controlled Congress is set to recess and leave the mess for the Fed and the Treasury. The House will adjourn on the 26th and the Senate a week later and they will not reconvene until after the national election in November where they will diddle around for a few weeks and leave for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They call this the do nothing Congress for a reason.

The Democrats want you to believe that they are fit to lead this country. They want you to believe that they are equipped to handle the problems facing America. In two important items facing us they have the same general plan and that plan is retreat. They want to pull the troops out of Iraq and hand them a defeat (though Obama does not want the Iraqis negotiating for this right now can you say – treason). They also want to retreat from the mess that they caused on Wall Street.

Make no mistake about it, the Democrats are the reason we have this mess. They can call it failed policies of George Bush but that is incorrect. The whole mess was out in place under Bill Clinton. He and his Democrats made it easy for people to get loans regardless of their creditworthiness. Now those people can’t pay their loans. Couple this with the number of Democrats who held positions of power in Fannie and Freddie, people who raped us to the tune of millions, and you have the perfect storm. Throw in a little corporate greed and mix it with Democrats ignoring warnings from Bush and McCain and you end up with the mess we are seeing.

The Democrats are criticizing George Bush, John McCain and the Republican party for this mess but they are doing nothing to fix it. They talk about failed policies but the only thing the Democrats have offered came from Democratic Senator Harry Reid who said; “no one knows what to do.”

This is a supposed leader and he is saying no one knows what to do. Senator, the thing to do was to have tighter control five years ago when George Bush wanted it. Instead, you Democrats played games. To give you the benefit of the doubt though, maybe no one knows quite what to do but I can assure you this, going home is not the proper course of action. I know all you pampered idiots are tired from all the work you have done after returning from your FIVE WEEK VACATION but going home is not acceptable. Real leaders would stay and get this resolved.

Then again, no one ever accused Democrats of being leaders.

No one knows what to do so let’s go home and watch it on the news.

Keep both chambers of Congress in session as long as it takes to get things in order. Anyone who leaves in the midst of this does not deserve your vote.

The Democrats all talk about leadership and how they are ready to lead the country. It would appear that the only thing they will lead is the way out of the Capitol so they can take another vacation.

Losers, losers, losers.

Senator Reid, terrorists just detonated a bomb in [name a major city]; what should we do?

No one knows.

Moron.

Big Dog

George Bush Saved The Gulf Coast

Hurricane Gustav is losing strength by the minute though it will likely stall out and cause flooding in some areas along its path. However, the levees in New Orleans held, for the most part, and though there will no doubt be some flooding, the devastation will be nowhere near what it was during Katrina. This is because of George W. Bush.

Now I know George Bush did not rebuild the levees, he did not drive the evacuation buses and he did not open shelters to house people. In fact, all he did was lead from the top and provide assistance that state governors requested. But since the left blamed him for all the failures that occurred when Katrina hit, it is only fair to give him all the credit for the successes that occurred during this disaster.

It would seem ridiculous to give him ALL the credit when the five Gulf State REPUBLICAN governors worked together to ensure success by planning early and requesting federal assistance in a timely manner. However, since the president was to blame when state and local leaders were woefully inadequate he must be credited with the success when other leaders do their jobs well.

During the 2006 election season and during last week’s Democratic Convention we were reminded about the failures during Katrina. The stories about Americans being abandoned never mentioned the Democrats in charge of Louisiana as part of the problem. We were (and have been since Katrina hit) led to believe that this was a failure of George Bush and his administration.

Now that things went fairly smoothly during Gustav Americans must be reminded of how well the plans worked with REPUBLICAN leadership. America must be informed that George Bush did a great job when he was not hamstrung by a Democratic governor who was afraid to ask for help and too overwhelmed to demonstrate real leadership.

George Bush saved the Gulf Coast. I bet the Democrats who laughed about this disaster approaching are taking a second look. You see, when real leaders are in charge the probability of success increases.

I wonder if the MSM and the Democratic party leadership will acknowledge this amazing feat that President Bush pulled off. I imagine not since they were blaming him this far into Katrina and they have not said one word of praise since Gustav arrived.

The five Gulf Coast Republican Governors all worked well together and coordinated with the federal government. They were not lying in a corner sucking their thumbs like Ray Nagin during Katrina (he did a much better job this time) and they were not on TV crying about the destruction like Blanco did back then. They were leading people to get things done. Thank God Louisiana has Bobby Jindal as its Governor this time around.

I have little use for New Orleans and have been soured since the way people acted about Katrina. Having said that, I am glad that people evacuated and that the levees held. Those who stayed behind did so at their own peril and they are the only ones responsible for their fate. I pray for them and the rest of the Gulf Coast as Gustav exits and Hannah and Ike prepare to make their presence known.

Let us pray that the people down there get things back in shape before the next one hits.

Big Dog

Obama Wants Us to Sacrifice Our Lifestyle

Barack Obama was in Oregon where he is expected to win the state’s Democratic primary. He held a rally where, according to reports, 70,000 mindless people showed up to listen to their new Messiah. There are still questions as to whether this was the “Walk on water tour” or the “Fishes and loaves tour” but whichever it was the Messiah of Socialism did not disappoint. Barry O told the crowd that America must lead by example. What example is that you ask? Is it by living in freedom? Is it by following the rule of law as laid out in our Constitution? Is it by demonstrating acts of kindness to everyone including our adversaries (like in China)? No, Barry wants us to lead by giving up things we have gained as a result of our freedom

Pitching his message to Oregon’s environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to “lead by example” on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.

“That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added. AFP [emphasis mine]

In order for the world to embrace the myth of man made global warming Americans have to give up eating what they want, driving what they want or keeping their homes at the temperatures they want. How exactly Barry O expects this leadership to take place is unclear but it is a sure bet that some type of government intervention will be involved. Perhaps increased taxes on SUVs, heating fuel and food deemed to be in excess of what the government thinks is required. Regardless of the method, it will certainly be a denial of our freedom to choose. As for exporting technologies, where is the money for that going to come from?

Despite what Barry O says, Americans should be free to drive what they want, eat what they want and keep their houses at the temperature they want and if the rest of the world does not like that then tough. Al Gore certainly does not set any examples for the world to follow. He has a carbon footprint that is larger than many small nations. Barry O has not given up traveling all over the country in jets in order to preach to the minions. He has a huge house that uses energy even while he is on the road or living in DC. I am not sure what he drives but if he is like most Democrats in Congress he drives a leased vehicle that uses lots of fuel.

Americans need to be focused on their own lives and on living the way they want. We do not need to care if people in third world nations around the globe are living a life that is substandard to ours. If they want improvement then they need to rise up and change their own situations. If they are waiting for me to stop driving a jeep for them I hope they are not holding their breath.

Others:
The Astute Bloggers
Big Dog Salute to Always on Watch

Big Dog