As one who had never felt as though George H.W. Bush was a man of presidential caliber and, if nominated and elected, would be a one-term president, I was more than happy to serve as deputy campaign manager in the presidential exploratory committee of former White House Chief of Staff, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had a far more impressive resume than Bush and was a far more capable, competent, and decisive leader.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the combined efforts of conservatives were unable to deny Bush the nomination and, as predicted, he was no match for the Democratic congressional leadership.\u00a0 He allowed himself to be lured into a political trap by the Democrats in which he reneged on his \u201cno new taxes\u201d pledge and was defeated for reelection in 1992.\u00a0 His poor performance in office caused me to write what was the first of many \u201cMust Go\u201d columns titled, \u201cGeorge Bush Must Go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cGeorge Bush Must Go\u201d column was followed in subsequent years by columns suggesting that Senator Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor \u201cmust go.\u201d\u00a0 However, lest I be accused of rejecting only members of my own party from positions of power and influence, I should point out that I have also called for the resignation or impeachment of former Attorney General Eric Holder.\u00a0 But now it\u2019s Barack Obama\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n
In a November 14 column for the New York Post<\/em>, columnist Michael Goodwin assessed Barack Obama\u2019s approach to the war against radical Islam.\u00a0 He said, \u201cIn any time and place, war is fiendishly simple.\u00a0 It is the ultimate zero-sum contest… you win or you lose.\u201d\u00a0 True, but that\u2019s not how Barack Obama sees things.\u00a0 In his childlike world view he sees things not as they really are, but only as he wishes them to be.\u00a0 As Goodwin describes it, \u201cPresident Obama has spent the last seven years trying to avoid the world as it is.\u00a0 He has put his intellect and rhetorical skills into the dishonorable service of assigning blame and fudging failure.\u00a0 If nuances were bombs, the Islamic State would have been destroyed years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cHe refuses to say \u2018Islamic terrorism,\u2019 as if that would offend the peaceful Muslims who make up the vast bulk of victims.\u00a0 He rejects the word \u2018war,\u2019 even as jihadists carry out bloodthirsty attacks against Americans and innocent peoples around the world<\/a>.\u00a0 He shuns the mantle of global leadership that comes with the Oval Office, with an aide advancing the preposterous concept that Obama is \u2018leading from behind.\u2019\u00a0 He snubs important partners like Egypt, showers concessions on the apocalyptic mullahs of Iran, and calls the Islamic State the \u2018jayvee team,\u2019 even as it was beginning to create a caliphate.\u00a0 Having long ago identified American power as a problem, he continues to slash the military as the enemy expands its reach. \u00a0In a globalized era, the Obama doctrine smacks of cowardly retreat and fanciful isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n Goodwin reminds us that, in an accident of timing that demonstrates his profound cluelessness, Obama expressed his view of the current status of ISIS in an interview with ABC\u2019s George Stephanopoulos just hours before radical Islamists staged a bloody attack on Paris.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI don’t think they\u2019re gaining strength.\u00a0 What is true, from the start our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them. \u00a0They have not gained ground in Iraq and in Syria.\u00a0\u00a0 They’ll come in, (then) they\u2019ll leave.\u00a0 But you don’t see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n The interview was aired at approximately 8:00 AM (EST) on Friday, November 13, on ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America.\u201d\u00a0 The first bomb exploded outside the Stade de France, a football stadium north of Paris, at 9:16 PM Paris time (3:16 PM Washington time), followed almost immediately by volleys of gunfire and explosions at the Bataclan Concert Hall, the Le Carillon Restaurant, the Le Petit Cambodge Restaurant, and two other locations in Paris. \u00a0In a matter of minutes, 132 innocent people were killed and 350 others were wounded by Islamic terrorists.<\/p>\n The coordinated ISIS attacks in Paris began just 7 hours and 16 minutes after Obama declared ISIS to be \u201ccontained.\u201d\u00a0 Even as he pontificated for the TV audience, the terrorists were likely pacing the floor in their rented safe-houses, inspecting their AK-47s and their Kalashnikovs, loading ammo clips, and making last minute adjustments to their suicide belts.<\/p>\n It was the most deadly attack on Paris by enemy forces since World War II, prompting French President Francois Hollande to condemn the attacks as an \u201cact of war,\u201d vowing that France will be \u201cmerciless toward the barbarians of the Islamic State group.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cWe will lead the fight and we will be ruthless.\u201d\u00a0 Sadly, those are the words we expect to hear from Barack Obama.<\/p>\n Goodwin concluded, \u201cThe time has run out for half measures and kicking the can down the road.\u00a0 The enemy must be destroyed on the battlefield before there can be any hope of peace.\u00a0 If Obama cannot rise to the challenge of leadership in this historic crisis, then, for the good of humanity, he should resign.\u00a0 Those are the only options and it is his duty to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, Goodwin is correct in his call for Obama\u2019s resignation.\u00a0 But is it even remotely possible that he\u2026 addicted as he is to the narcotic of holding power\u2026 would even consider the possibility of resignation?\u00a0 Unlike the Nixon example, wherein Republican congressional leaders\u2026 Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-PA), Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), and House Minority Leader John Rhodes (R-AZ)\u2026 went to the White House for the purpose of informing Nixon that his support in Congress had all but evaporated and that, if he chose to fight impeachment, there was not sufficient support in the U.S. Senate to avoid conviction and removal.<\/p>\n Is there a man or woman alive who can honestly visualize their Democratic counterparts of today\u2026 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)\u2026 going to the White House to tell Obama that his presidency is over and that he must resign to avoid impeachment?\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 The sort of patriotism that Republican leaders have demonstrated over and over again\u2026 e.g. Watergate, Iran-Contra, etc\u2026 just does not exist in the Democratic Party.\u00a0 The desire to put the country\u2019s best interests ahead of party interests is just not present in the Democratic DNA.<\/p>\n At the outset of Bill Clinton\u2019s impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, every one of the 45 Senate Democrats went to the well of the Senate, raised their right hands, and swore: \u201cI solemnly swear that in all things pertaining to the trial of the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton, now pending, that I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws. \u00a0So help me God.\u201d\u00a0 Yet, every one of those 45 Democrats made that solemn promise to God, knowing that they intended to violate that oath.\u00a0 In spite of mountains of irrefutable evidence of \u201chigh crimes and misdemeanors\u201d on Clinton\u2019s part, every one of the 45 Democrat senators voted to acquit.\u00a0 The only member of the U.S. Senate to be seriously punished for voting \u201cnot proven,\u201d in spite of irrefutable evidence that Clinton had perjured himself before a federal judge, was Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who was turned out of office in a primary election by Republican voters.<\/p>\n And while impeachment is the most logical solution to the problem presented by Obama, it is clear that, if Republicans had the stomach to impeach Barack Obama, who has to his credit a long list of impeachable offenses, would they not already have done so at some time since January 20, 2009?\u00a0 The fact is, Barack Obama continues to serve for no other reason than the color of his skin.\u00a0 As a black man, he relies on the collective guilt of white liberals to engage in whatever \u201chigh crimes and misdemeanors\u201d he feels are necessary to his political agenda.\u00a0 It is indisputable that, if he were a white man, he would have been removed from office long ago.<\/p>\n The one remaining alternative is for the military to remove him\u2026 non-violently, if possible; by force, if necessary.\u00a0 The Framers created a constitutional republic in which the military was, by design, made subservient to the civilian branches of government.\u00a0 However, Thomas Jefferson knew that there were no guarantees where governments instituted by men were concerned.\u00a0 In the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, in referring to the right of the people to enjoy the benefits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he wrote, \u201c\u2026 that to secure these rights, governments are institutes among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government\u2026\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n Inasmuch as Barack Obama has been, from the first day of his administration, destructive of our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and since he has repeatedly violated his oath of office by failing to \u201cfaithfully execute\u201d the office of President of the United States, the American people are left with no alternative but to bring an abrupt end to his presidency, even at this late date.\u00a0 And since congressional Republicans lack the courage to impeach him and leaders of his own party demonstrate insufficient love of country to call for his resignation, it is left to our military leaders to advise him that it is time for him to do the honorable thing.<\/p>\n If the joint chiefs of staff were to request an audience with Obama, accompanied by a delegation of the most highly respected retired flag and general officers\u2026 such as General Tommy Franks, General Paul Vallely, General Stanley McChrystal, and General Ray Odierno\u2026 to remind him that, inasmuch as he no longer enjoys the loyalty and the respect of members of the military services, from the top generals and admirals down to the lowest of enlisted ranks, he should summon up the courage to do what is in the best interests of the nation and its people.<\/p>\n If we were to judge our 44 presidents by their failures and their accomplishments, several would receive very low grades.\u00a0 Barack Obama would be the only one to receive a grade of less than zero.\u00a0 He has been, by far, the worst president in American history.\u00a0 And if we stop to consider the damage that has been done, globally, by radical Islam in just a matter of months, imagine the damage that an embittered Obama can be expected to do in the remaining 14 months of his presidency.\u00a0 For the good of the people, he should be forced to resign.<\/p>\n Paul R. Hollrah is a retired government relations executive and a two-time member of the U.S. Electoral College.\u00a0 He currently lives and writes among the hills and lakes of northeast Oklahoma\u2019s Green Country.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As one who had never felt as though George H.W. Bush was a man of presidential caliber and, if nominated and elected, would be a one-term president, I was more than happy to serve as deputy campaign manager in the … Continue reading