October 24, 2012

How Many Lies Does It Take?

By Tammy Derouin

How many lies does it take to bring down a president?  No one is perfect but shouldn’t we expect the President of the United States to be somewhat ethically and morally grounded?  We’ve had presidents in the past that fell short.  In recent history, Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal.  He lied to the American people and tried to cover-up his actions.  He may not have performed the act but eventually acting unethically cost him the presidency.  Two very important questions were raised over this scandal.  What did the president know?  When did he know it?  There’s something familiar here.  Bill Clinton was impeached over lying about personal activity.  Clinton lied and acted immorally but remained in office.  The standard by which we hold our presidents has drastically declined.  Americans responded to these presidential scandals.  People wanted to know the truth.  Woodward and Bernstein dug deeper in search of the real story.  Their investigation would eventually lead to the resignation of Richard Nixon.    The American people had questions and wanted answers.  These events make the actions of our current president look like child’s play. The behavior of these presidents was reprehensible but it didn’t cause the death of Americans. 

How many lies, how many cover-ups does it take to bring a president down?  Over the years we have begun to accept deception, reckless endangerment and even treason.  There are so many examples of Obama’s questionable behavior as president.  Obama’s behavior and actions should have landed him before Congress.  Congress doesn’t have the equalizer of checks and balances anymore.  Obama is making Congress irrelevant by bypassed them.  He has even been applauded and encouraged by ignorant Americans to do so.  Dictators come to power usually with the support of the people as they applaud away their freedoms.

The American embassy in Benghazi was attacked.  The reaction by our president was very anti-American.  Four Americans are dead.  American territory was invaded and our flag was replaced with the black and white flag used by radical Islamists.  There was a time, not all that long ago, when I would have expected to see our president give a “How dare you” speech and then follow up with bombs bursting in air, just to give proof that our flag will always be there.  Not Obama, no he has made it clear to the world that America is to blame for the world’s problems.  He spends more time apologizing for our nation than defending it. 

While our embassy was under attack and Americans were dying, our president went to bed.  Reports of the attack were coming in to the White House.  We’ve learned there was a live feed provided by a drone that flew overhead recording the attack.  Our president blamed it on a video.   Clearly, it was a lie.   Obama then left the White House to go to a campaign fund raiser out west. These are not the actions or behavior of a president that is concerned about our country or its people.  You can feel the depth of his concern in his own words, “If four Americans get killed, that’s not optimal.”  Makes your eyes tear up, doesn’t it?      

Obama said, “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation…” the next day.  He used the word terror but he blamed the video and continued to do so for fourteen days.  He didn’t call it for what it really was, a well-planned terrorist attack against the United States of America.  He failed to mention anything about Islamic radicals.  Maybe that’s because according to his administration, they don’t exist.  His administration has removed that term from all training manuals.   So, if Islamic radicals don’t exist, who would they blame?  Obama and his administration decided a stupid YouTube video would be an easy target.  They proceeded to take it on the road in this year’s edition of Lie Fest 2012.  The Libyan president called it a terrorist attack.  Maybe he didn’t get the memo.  The Obama administration continually blamed a video for something they knew was not true. Members of his staff blamed the video repeatedly.  Obama stood before the UN and knowingly lied to the world.  

The most important question is why.  Why did they attack?  Why did our president behave so irresponsibly?  What is he trying to cover-up?  There are too many unanswered questions.  If the press does not go after him, what will he get away with next time?  Where is our current day Woodward and Bernstein?  Watergate and Lewinsky don’t come close to the scandal taking place right now in the White House.  If we do not hold the president accountable for his negligence we will only have ourselves to blame.   

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

Thomas Jefferson