Most polls show that Hillary Rodham Clinton leads all other candidates for nomination for the office of President of the United States. Some supporters may already have a vision of the inauguration of the first woman President in 2017. But one has to ask: What achievements offer such rising convictions of her leadership talent and operational acumen?
Mrs. Clinton’s reward for losing the Democratic nomination for President in 2009 was the office of Secretary of State. One of the qualifications for this meaningful post was probably that she had been in the White House for eight years living in the shadow of husband Bill. This was the President who lied under oath and was challenged by societal norms in the field of dalliances with interns and other women.
Assigned by her husband and President in the 1990’s to develop a healthcare plan, it became an abject failure. As Secretary of State beneath the current President, her crowning achievement was probably her indignant remarks at a Congressional hearing regarding the Benghazi tragedy that took the lives of four US Patriots. As if she were above reproach, Mrs. Clinton responded to a question by Senator Johnson (R) Wisconsin in January 2013 with these words, “What difference – at this point, what difference does it make?”
Two years ago at a meeting in Seoul, Korea, President Obama whispered to then Russian President Medvedev, “After my election I have more flexibility.” The “re-set” with Russia doesn’t seem to be going well; Putin has manipulated Mr. Obama like a disobedient child. Russian forces rolled over the Crimean Peninsula using justifications reminiscent of those spoken by Corporal Adolph Hitler turned German Chancellor in 1933. It appears that President Putin places little credence in the threats or promises of comrade Obama and other critics like the UN.
Over the past couple years, our President has been critical of tyrants in Syria and Russia who have invaded their neighbors and slaughtered their own people. Mr. Obama has withheld sending weapons to help those who would overthrow tyrants who plunder and kill.
It is interesting to note that when a conflict arose recently with rancher Cliven Bundy outside Mesquite, Nevada, armed and uniformed federal agents appeared in substantial numbers to break Rancher Bundy’s habit of grazing cattle on federal property. Threatening citizens with weapons is what dictators do.
In the April 9, 2014 edition of the Wall Street Journal, the following headline appeared on the first page of the second section (Marketplace), “U.S. Fines GM for Missing Deadline.” The deadline was an arbitrary one established by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA plans to fine GM $7,000 for each day until answers to 107 questions have been submitted. Involved are 2.6 million vehicles worldwide that have defective ignition switches allegedly causing 13 deaths. GM has provided 21,000 documents related to the defective ignition switch.
GM has failed its customers including those who died and their families but also their employees and the public in general. The $7,000 per day fine means that GM is being held accountable, as it should be. Now consider why the NHTSA wasn’t quick to force a recall a decade ago when they too became aware of the problem. No one in government has been held accountable in the ‘Fast & Furious’ illegal government gunrunning scheme of 2010. Consider that no government official or agency has been held accountable for the Benghazi disaster on September 11, 2012. Not one person has been held accountable for the IRS scandal of 2013. Some documents have been submitted to investigators while myriad other documents are being withheld at the highest levels of government. Is any government agency paying a fine for delinquency for withholding communications relating to any of these outrageous scandals?
In our form of government (Federal Republic), every person in private industry and in government should be recognized when they succeed and disciplined (think accountability) when they fail. A single standard for all is liberty. Dual standards – one for government and one for everyone else – is tyranny.
– Dick Baynton
