Obama & The Economy: A Casualty of Consequence?

Today, over a cup of coffee I decided to look around CNN.com to catch up on my political news. I ended up coming across an article by Gov. Bobby Jindal entitled, "Obama's Message of Divide and Blame". According to most Northern Democrats, Mr. Jindal is usually pretty good at making himself look silly. However, as many of you should know, he actually has proven himself to be quite a leader in spite of adversity and chaos (ie, during the Katrina Crisis). As a result, I have enormous amount of respect for him.

Here, Mr. Jindal argues that in regards to the economy, President Obama still regards himself as a victim of consequence. Moreover, that America doesn't need someone who makes excuses. Rather, America needs a leader. I tend to agree.

Four years ago when President Obama first came into office, I agreed with many of his supporters that he did come into a very precarious situation. Our economy was down the drain; our military was engaged in two wars in the Middle East with no exit strategy in sight; and most Americans were desperately seeking some type of change from this abysmal situation. No one expected that President Obama's message of "change" was perhaps not what everyone wanted or expected.

Americans were expecting a leader who was going to whip everyone on the Hill into shape. Americans were expecting a military strategist who knew a smart way to exit the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan without increased damage to the region. Moreover, Americans were expecting a type of openness that would ultimately lead to an increased trust in our elected officials. Wow, were we in for a surprise.

Although, I know that the President did keep a majority of his promises regarding the military. He created exit strategies for our nations military to get out of the Middle East. At the same time, by not placing stable leadership in place before existing could lead to increased turmoil in the region. In addition, the Hill is more dysfunctional than ever. But most important is how the government has yet to gain the trust of the people.

So, although President Obama claims to be a casualty of consequence, Americans need to ask ourselves if Obama is what we still need? He has already been in office for four years, can America take a supposed leader who would rather claim to be a casualty rather than own up to his mistakes for another four years? Because I last I checked it was the American people who are the ones suffering from a hemeraging economy, forclosures, and uncertainty. Maybe these are the true casualties of consequence....