BARACK OBAMA'S NEVER ENDING CAMPAIGN - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

The 2008 campaign has been over for nearly five months. The inauguration took place just over 60 days ago. Yet Barack Obama still acts as if he is campaigning and trying to convince voters to elect him to office rather than fulfilling the responsibilities of the office he already holds with some sort of sanity.

Every press appearance he makes is staged like a campaign stump speech. In fact even the speech given during these press appearances whether to announce an appointment or to present yet another socialistic program, Obama rhetoric follows a campaign mode rather than a confident informative press briefing that is the norm for a President.

He has continually used every opportunity to make town hall or rally appearances to, "sell," his agenda. While meeting directly with the people is not unusual for a President, Obama's rallies like his press appearances are staged like campaign stump stops with slogan laden signs and campaign style rhetoric that use high sounding words with little if any true information to garner support from, "voters."

He still refers to the American people as ,"voters," rather than making the distinction between a President talking to and about the people and a candidate seeking support for an election from ,"voters."

Last week was a prime example of the never ending campaign that Obama is running. His office announced a prime time press conference which will take place on Tuesday of this week, which already promises to be as dull and uninformative as the last teleprompter staged prime time press conference that accomplished nothing except giving the appearance of yet another campaign stop for the road to socialism that Obama is staging.

He used the NCAA tournament as a means of getting tube time by selecting his brackets for the tournament and spreading campaign rhetoric to basketball fans. His quest appearance on the Leno Show was a nothing more that campaign hype. An appearance which in this writers opinion was demeaning to the Office of the President and was advertised by Obama's PR people as promoting his budget plan. Then he embarrassed himself and the Office with a insulting gaffe about the Special Olympics. Pitiful for a President but normal for a candidate.

Why does Barack Obama feel that he must continually campaign like a candidate who is seeking office rather than someone who has already been elected to office ? There have been many pundits who have talked about Obama's continual campaign mode, yet nobody seems to grasp exactly why he cannot stop campaigning.

The answer to this $64 thousand dollar question is simple. He cannot stop campaigning because campaigning is all that he is truly qualified to do. Take a look at his dismal record before taking office. He was a State Senator who campaigned to be a United States Senator who campaigned to be President.

Especially that last three years before being elected to the highest office in the land, campaigning was all that Obama did. He was on the stump during his entire tenure as a United States Senator and campaigning for office is his only real political experience and his only true political qualifications. And that is the experience that he has brought to the Presidency and the same experience he is using to act and appear , "Presidential."

During the actual campaign when the experience, or lack thereof, issue was becoming more intense in the few moments when what little media scrutiny that he received reached its peak, Obama stated that he had executive experience and used his campaign as the only example of that experience.

This particular example of Obama's executive , "experience," came to a head when it was stated that Governor Sarah Palin, the number two on the GOP ticket had more experience as an executive because of being a Mayor and a Governor than the number one, Obama, on the Democrat ticket.

Obama's response to this criticism was given on Anderson Coopers show on CNN. In reference to his campaign being executive experience Obama said, "Well, you know, my understanding is, is that Governor Palin's town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We have got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So, I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute, I think, has been made clear over the last couple of years."

Now that Obama is an executive and the most powerful executive in the world he runs his office and his public relations in accordance to the only, as he believes, executive experience that he can follow. The running of a national campaign. And this limited , "experience, " if it can truly be considers executive experience is showing in everything that has happened since taking office.

Campaigns always appoint people who either do not work out or have skeletons that are discovered after hiring. When these people don't work our they are quickly replaced with someone else and many times key positions in a campaign are frequently replaced. Obama's appointments during his transition and since taking the Oath have followed a similar path with the same indifferent attitude to the skeleton's in the closet as are expressed when a campaign position is changed.

The tax problems or scandal problems of his appointees has bee fluffed off as if it they matter little and like a campaign many key positions are still left open as if not needed. Look at all of the vacancies in Treasury. 17 of 18 top spots are still empty and the Secretary is a tax evader who is a complete imbecile, lost in a sea of confusion during hard economic times. Obama's campaign response to Geithner's failings is to state that he is the best Treasury Secretary since, "Alexander Hamilton." Frankly I am surprised that Obama even knew who Hamilton was.

Like a national campaign when he speaks Obama presents high sounding rhetoric with almost no substance leaving out key details that are quickly pounced on when the legislation or the plan that he is campaigning for is actually revealed to the public. In most instances his rhetoric is so far from the truth found in the plan or legislation that it then comes across as a lie to which Obama again hits campaign mode to cover his butt.

He signs legislation and Executive Orders to the fan fair and hoopla of a political campaign only to see it come back to bite him when it is discovered that neither he nor any of his staff have bothered to read what he signed. Much like a candidate who makes a big deal about signing some sort of campaign pledge that he never intends to keep in the first place. Like pledging to use public financing for instance and then not doing so.

What we are seeing with the havoc and total confusion that is becoming normal activity in the Obama Presidency is a Chief Executive who is continually campaigning because that is all that he knows how to do. A President who sees his job responsibilities as a candidate who heads a campaign. Doing what impresses voters while promising to give away the house. Except as President he has the power to truly give away the house and is doing so.

This works fine during a campaign when what the candidate says has nor real ramifications or policy implications. But when this same campaign experience translates into complete and utter failure because of no real executive experience and that failure happens to come from the President of The United States then it becomes dangerous to the country, the people and our allies as the inexperience creates chaos and trouble.

The Presidency is collapsing because of Obama's inexperience but Leno's rating skyrocketed while Rome burned during Nero's appearance with his violin on late night television.


Ken Taylor