What I am about to say, I say with no joy in my  heart, or any sense of

ideological gloating. I take no pleasure in being correct  when I warned my

fellow citizens that putting people who believe America is a  fundamentally

broken nation in charge of running that nation was a tragic  mistake. I called

the 2008 election the worst choice of candidates in my voting  lifetime. Yet

immediately following that election, I wrote a column saying that  Barack

Obama was president and, as such, I would support him as I would support  any

American president, even if it was only as a member of the loyal opposition

 any vibrant democracy requires. Unfortunately, I believe we have moved

past the  point of no return. Mr. President, if you are truly concerned with

the nation  above all else, it is time to consider resigning. 

 

There was time, most notably during national emergencies when  politics

stopped as the so-called water's edge. During WWll, there were  Americans who

believed FDR knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor in advance.  Those people

were quickly cowed into silence by Americans who recognized that  the threat

imposed by Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany transcended anything  resembling

partisan politics. A country battered by a decade of economic mayhem 

submerged their differences and united behind the idea that America must survive 

as a nation. 

 

I believe we are at an equally transcendent moment. And I'm not the 

slightest bit naive enough to believe that when the moment passes, America will 

not go right back to the ideologically-inspired bickering that we have

engaged  in ever since we became a nation. Nor do I expect those on the other side

of the  ideological divide to have reasons that even remotely resemble my

own for  wanting this president to step down. But I do believe many of them

have reached  the same conclusion, regardless of the different route it may

have taken them to  get there. 

 

That is what historically transcendent moments are all about. 

Quite simply, irrespective of reasons for believing so, more and more 

Americans are coming to realize that the fundamental qualities of leadership 

that any president must posses are utterly lacking in Mr. Obama. If I'd been 

alive at the time, I would likely have fought every policy enacted by Mr. 

Roosevelt tooth and nail. Yet that being said, it is impossible not to

recognize  the gift that FDR had for shepherding this nation through some of its

darkest  hours. 

 

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Despite all the media ballyhoo, replete with tingles up peoples'  legs and

references to "God-like" qualities, Mr. Obama possesses no such gift.  His

speech Monday, in the middle of a stock market meltdown, were the crib notes 

from the same speech he gave when he signed the debt ceiling deal. And as I

 said, it no longer matters if you're pro or con such things as extending

payroll  tax cuts or unemployment benefits, or do or don't believe

earthquakes, spikes in  oil prices, and slowdowns in other parts of the world are the

reasons for our  current troubles. As crazy as it may sound, all of those

are side issues which,  much like the debt ceiling debate, will be resolved in

one fashion or another. 

 

The over-riding issue is this: the nation is adrift, in dire need of 

inspiration — and the man who is supposed to do the inspiring is fundamentally 

unsuited to the task. 

 

And despite what some might think, such a realization is not a  partisan

observation, any more than recognizing some people have certain  character

traits and some do not. And though it would be easy to say some of us  knew it

all along, it would be dishonest. Despite the ideological differences, I 

can recognize that Mr. Obama ran a great election campaign. Forget McCain.

When  you can take down the Clinton machine, you're no lightweight campaigner. 

Unfortunately, campaigning isn't leading. Campaigning is all about  me.

Leading is all about us. And as hard as I try to recall a president from 

either party more detached from us than this one, I cannot do it. I don't care 

how many times this president tells me he's "fighting for America" in some

way  or another, I don't believe it. Not because I'm conservative, but because

I  can't name another president from either party who seemingly chose to

put their  own interests above those of the nation in the middle of a crisis. 

Prove me wrong, Mr. President. Nothing would make me happier than  writing

a column where I would be forced to eat the humblest of humble pies and 

admit that the country does come first for you. So much so that you recognized,

 much like presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon before you, that you

are  no longer capable of leading this nation out of our current morass. 

Crush the cynicism of millions of Americans who believe that  statesmanship

and an over-riding sense of patriotism are dead. Show the nation  that hope

and change wasn't some empty bromide that applied to everyone else. In 

perhaps the greatest irony in the history of the nation, it would be one of the

 finest moments any president has ever produced. One that would secure 

your place in history. 

 

Resign, Mr. President.

 

 

for this article website:

_Click  here: Arnold Ahlert_

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