“The notion that two months or three months after something as horrific as what happened in Newtown happens and we’ve moved on to other things? That’s not who we are. That’s not who we are. And I want to make sure every American is listening today…Shame on us if we’ve forgotten. I haven’t forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we’ve forgotten.”
—-President Obama, at a White House event designed to re-energize the push for stricter gun control laws.
Wrong.
Right back at you, Mr. President.
Shame on the President…for not only making a facile, lowest-common-denominator appeal for gun control regulations, but for implying that policy should be made in the heat of emotional rather than after rational debate and analysis, looking at all sides of an issue, rather than just the most sensational.
Shame on the President…for insulting principled opponents of the Democrat’s irresponsible, hysterical and cynical effort to portray the complex issue of fire arms regulation as a matter of “saving the children” by accusing them of forgetting the horrendous massacre of toddlers at Newtown.
Shame on the President…for dishonestly suggesting that the measures under consideration, good and bad, would have necessarily done anything to prevent the Sandy Hook rampage by a deranged killer. If it would not, then why is the date of the event, whether it was 10, 100, or 1000 days ago, relevant to anything? Investigators found that Adam Lanza had a 28 inch Samurai sword in his arsenal. How many children might he have killed in the same amount of time with that, rather than his assault rifle? Watch “Kill Bill, Part I” and get back to me.
Shame on the President…for endorsing a reflex, fear driven, hasty and thoughtless approach to sweeping policy-making. This week, an independent and reliable group of analysts reported that, contrary to how it was sold, President Obama’s health care law —rushed through Congress with tricks and maneuvers and without legislators reading or understanding it—will raise some health care insurance premiums by a whopping 32%. That bill was made law by the skin of its metaphorical teeth by, in part, the President’s hyping and disingenuous assurances. It was a textbook case of how bad laws get made. Now the President is chiding us for not urging Congress to do the same on guns. We’ll find out what’s in the law after we pass that one too, no doubt.
Shame on the President…for once again, like the entire anti-gun mob this time around, using children and grieving families as props and tear-jerking aids. Obama was introduced at the event by Katerina Rodgaard, a lawyer, mother and dance instructor from Maryland who taught a student killed in the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech. After the Newtown shooting, Rodgaard said, “I no longer felt it was safe to raise a family in this country.” Well, I can understand her feeling that, but the fact is that she is wrong, and her feelings are a delusion. It is much safer to raise a family today than in many periods in America’s past, and this is one of the safer ones. Her reaction is based on pure emotion and fear, without any connection to reality, and Obama says “shame on America” for not thinking just like her. By all means, lets pass laws in the grip of misconceptions, panic and hysteria, because then proponants have no need to make substantive arguments.
Gabby Giffords, brain damaged and programmed, says that “it’s time” for gun control. Wow, that convinces me! Charley Rangel says that “millions” of kids are being killed by assault weapons. Holy cats! It’s a holocaust out there! Sen. Diane Feinstein says she knows best what kinds of weapons we “need” because she saw her friend, Mayor Moscone, right after he was shot! Dang! She’s an objective expert! Alleged comic Jim Carrey sends out a wave of insulting tweets representing the proposed measures as necessary to “save our kids” and opponents as “heartless.” You’re so wise, Jim! Just like when you warned us about how vaccinations caused autism. “Maybe just one life would have been saved,” writes Post columnist Eugene Robinson, if these measures had been in effect before Newtown! Sure! One life! That’s sufficient justification for limiting the freedom of millions of law-abiding Americans! The President, speaking as if he believes it, says that measures are worth taking if “one child” can be saved, an irresponsible standard for legislation if ever there was one. Hey, everyone! The President thinks we’re morons!
And shame on the President…for not learning his job after four years and more. Barack Obama’s comprehension of the President’s role in the legislative process is to use his bully pulpit to demand, command, hector, mock and insult opponents in public, so he has someone to blame for his failure to lead later: he’s still playing community organizer. This is the opposite of how Presidents get things accomplished, yet this is the extent of Obama’s mastery of his role. I wonder if any major legislation has ever been advanced by a President publicly calling down shame on not only legislators from the opposing party, but his own.
My guess is no.
Allow me to repeat: I favor many of the reforms the President wants—not all, but many. Nonetheless, the miserable and unethical manner in which this policy debate has been conducted by the biased media and the, yes, shameless Democrats has me rooting for the efforts to fail. These methods must be recognized, condemned, and rejected as the irresponsible, debasing tactics they are, and this will never happen if we allow them to succeed.
And that’s a shame.
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Sources: Market Watch, New York Times, Washington Post
Ethics Alarms 
Is this some facile outrage against the president using politics to energize the Democratic base? Because this is EXACTLY what the highest ranking politician does.
Remember President Bush and the Terri Schiavo debacle, the Palm Sunday compromise? He kept that expensive legislative and legal battle alive for only one reason.. To energize the Republican base.
You know this as does everyone else. Don’t act surprised.
The President is not supposed to be campaigning, he’s supposed to be leading a nation. And talking insulting nonsense isn’t how to do it. Quit making excuses for incompetence and arrogance.
The role of the president as the founders saw it was not to be partisan one iota.
It was only corrupted throughout the years, beginning its rapid downward spiral during the early 1900s into an activist and often times single issue activist role.
On occasion singular presidents have risen above that activist partisan corruption and Led the nation. But not so much
I’m not sure how Jack’s outrage is facile. I think his argument is anything but superficial. On the contrary, he explains his points clearly with context and examples. Or were you just offended by his characterization of Obama’s performance as facile and wanted to reference the word as a literary device? I hate to break it to you, but that reminds me suspiciously of the “No, YOUR a jerk” arguments we all remember from middle school. Let’s leave that aside though. I am astounded that anyone familiar with this website would respond to one of his posts by immediately turning to the Golden Rationalization. You didn’t even hesitate. As someone who has disagreed with Jack and posted my arguments, I gotta tell you, you need to do better than, “But the Republicans do it too”.
Here’s my cynical answer that is even worse than your analysis Jack:
The president isn’t even making an irrational invocation of the children to advance gun control.
He’s making a devious invocation of the children to advance to the forefront of national discourse an issue that is simple obfuscation and smoke screening of the real issue that he wants kicked down the road.
Fiscal responsibility.
Oh yes, it’s a “Look over THERE!” too, I’m pretty sure.
He’s not wrong to think that – he got re-elected, didn’t he?
How fucking smart could we collectively be as a nation if we’ll do that?
Well, as is almost always the case, a substantive argument could also be built for the moronic factor if we elected the opposing candidate, given the fact that nobody, probably including Romney, knew what he would do if elected. Yes, I believe firmly that he couldn’t possibly have done worse, and almost had to do better, because he has a better grasp of Leadership 101. That’s not a ringing endorsement.
Certainly, but to pick the man who’s economic record, his every “claim to fame” was an abject and abysmal failure, that just speaks to a special kind of stupid for us all.
You can’t possibly be serious.
Oh, about 75% serious, to make a point, The point is that someone who knows how to use a combat sword could mow through little kids like grass. He would have killed a lot with baseball bat, too. The argument that a different weapon assortment might/would/probably/ have resulted in less carnage is 1) pure speculation elevated to cant by repetition and 2) irrelevant anyway. We don’t make national policy involving the Bill of Rights, home and self-defense autonomy, massive new bureaucracies and more by guessing how it would have changed one unique and rare tragedy, though that’s what Obama is encouraging here.
Surely you’re not defending that crap, Barry.
Also, if Adam Lanza had the skills to chop down dozens of people wielding a Samuri sword he probably would have the skills to evade capture.
Then we’d all be hyping up sword control.
Gun control does NOT improve public safety, and anyone in a position of authority should know that.
They do know that.
Recognizing that this may be an over – reaction, I’m trying not to lose all faith in our politicians. Budget, deficit, sequestration, health care, this issue… the ineptitude boggles my mind.
“The President is not supposed to be campaigning, he’s supposed to be leading a nation. And talking insulting nonsense isn’t how to do it. Quit making excuses for incompetence and arrogance.”
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I’m glad that someone else sees it and isn’t afraid to say so.
I am one disgusted American at the moment.
“Oh, about 75% serious, to make a point, The point is that someone who knows how to use a combat sword could mow through little kids like grass. He would have killed a lot with baseball bat, too.”
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Research mass school killings in Asia.
(In particular, China)
Most are done with blades of some sort.
I’m just about to give up. There is no rational political discourse any more. It’s all “us” and “them,” and how each side can most effectively blame the “opposition.” (“Opposition?” Right. But what about the needs of the nation as a whole?) And the more outrageous the statement, the better.
We need “citizen” elected officials (the Founders’ original plan) like we needed “citizen soldiers” during World War II. Be called to service, do it the best way you know how, and then go back to “civilian” life. The career politicians are so jaded that they’ve lost the ability to think clearly — on any issue. But, because Americans are lazy and stupid, they vote over and over again for people simply because they recognize their names! And/or they’re cynical enough to know that the long-termers become Committee Chairs and bring home more Federal bacon to their districts.
I don’t believe in term limits — all that would mean is that staffers and bureaucrats would be running the country, as they “trained” the changing neophyte elected officials. And THAT would be dangerous.
What makes you think the staffers don’t run a lot of the congressional offices now? The administrative assistants (top staffers who run everyone and everything in each office) are frequently the powers behind the empty smiles.