September 20, 2012 - 1:19 pm
President Obama, ultimate Washington insider after nearly four years in the White House and part of a Senate term before that, says that this is the most important lesson he has learned in the presidency.
Here are some other lessons he could have learned:
Balancing a budget.
Having a budget in the first place.
America is a nation of laws, not of men.
The American flag actually means something very important to a majority of Americans.
Free speech isn’t optional.
Defending free speech isn’t optional for an American president.
Defending free speech used to be routine for American presidents.
Feel free to add your own lessons that Barack Obama should have learned either before or during the presidency in the comments.
Update: Heh –
h/t WFB
A code order to Occupy Washington?
So, “You’re screwed” said the screwer-in-chief?
That it’s not the role of the federal government to pick winners and losers among private businesses.
That when private equity firms run screaming from a new business with unproven technology, it is not for government to step in.
Arming Mexican drug cartels kills Mexicans and Americans.
On the positive side, arming Libyan cartels doesn’t kill Mexicans.
He points out why the states have got to be given back a check on the national government. Thanks, Barry!
That he was elected to be the President of all of us, not just his lefty constituents.
Don’t mess with God, another lesson he did not learn.
The next lesson not to be learned: Haman was hanged on his own gallows. In other words don’t build it if you don’t want to be hanged on it.
Other things he learned:
Trillion is the new billion.
Women on the left are so shameless that they will grovel before Congress and the American public for “free” condoms
It’s really not a lie if the press doesn’t report it.
Being a black president means you are not held to the same standards as your predecessors.
Lying at least 38 times in your autobiography doesn’t matter.
The $850 billion stimulus was too small
Maybe you can’t keep your doctor after all.
It is patriotic to accumulate $6 trillion in additional debt.
Should have learned:
That the nation’s debt is over $16 trillion, especially before going on Letterman.
That his exotic name, swarthy visage, big smile and rich baritone would not make the world love and respect this country.
That George W. Bush is no longer president.
That no straight man should ever have a “body man.”
That staffing the entire executive branch with hacks, flacks and flunkies may not be the ideal way to run a government.
How to count. (“57 states,” “three proud words: Made in the USA.”)
Something, anything about economics, finance, business.
Should have learned also:
That by definition you cannot have twelve different number one priorities.
That failure to enact immigration reform may not have been his biggest failure.
That borrowing and spending hundreds of billions, willy-nilly, does not spur increased productivity, higher profits, growing employment or rising incomes.
That Iran is an enemy and that Israel is a friend.
That Paul Ryan is not his enemy, he’s a political opponent.
That neither Egypt nor Pakistan is an ally, but the President should not say so publicly.
That if you keep setting goals and failing to achieve them, the problem may not be everybody and everything else, it may be you.
That the lives of American soldiers and Marines are not an expendable commodity and that their deaths are not mere statistics.
That it’s useless to secure a diplomatic mission after it has been overrun, burned down and the personnel have been killed or scattered.
That every family suffering from unemployment, underemployment, lower incomes is a American tragedy.
That it’s not all about you.
Those racist, bible-clinging, gun-toting, exceptional and politically incorrect forefathers might have been onto something. Citizens in other countries are fine with being property of the king, dictator or government. Here, not so much. Most of us have BEEN to the mountain top. We’ve SEEN and UNDERSTOOD “That governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The governed in this nation are not objects, they are not chattel property. They are sovereign citizens.