As journalists reported in lockstep with historic hyperbole all week on yet another electronically scrolled speech delivered by President Obama, it made me wonder how his actions not just his words will stand up to the test of time and the scrutiny of historians.  My guess, barring (possibly even with) the ever growing chance of a catastrophic WMD enhanced terrorist event, is that he will be viewed as a President of soaring rhetoric and little action, a man of pretty words and a lot of hot air. 

Lecturing audiences with conciliatory platitudes from the podium, he still sounds more like the community organizer in Chicago explaining what could be rather than a leader that can make it happen.  A man eager to be praised for his vision, Barack Obama is an attention monger adept at peddling both at home and abroad his Big Shtick Diplomacy that he has been polishing since the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

Even his rabid lefty base is having a hard time ignoring the continuing military commissions, troop deployments, and the installation of new lobbyist troughs that are a polar contradiction to his campaign rhetoric.  His speeches- promises of hope and change that while inspiring have been so far completely vacuous.   Each one specifically tailored not for truth or purpose, but for political and personal adulation.  How soon will it be before the distracting new President smell wears off and the hungrier journalists not fattened on Bair Force One fare begin to detect the absence of leadership and lack of any substance or follow-through? 

Ignoring the history he seems so eager to make, his lack of intelligent forethought before making inflammatory statements and proffering dreadfully decisive legislation virtually assures more than just one future crisis.  In the near future I predict his sunshine bi-partisan allies and even some party congressional stalwarts will start to gravitate away as we near the upcoming elections being more interested in survival than promoting a tax scheme that punishes both wage earners and the economy.  His foreign diplomacy?  Well let’s face it, all carrot and no stick leaves you stranded with no carrots and bag of full of severed head videos.  Going around the world speaking apologetically and delivering his big shtick is the stuff of college classrooms and liberal blogs, not realpolitik- he’s doomed for failure. 

Already his supporters in the media do their best to avoid the fact that his only real accomplishments so far have been to marginalize the real strength of his party while surrounding himself with mediocrity.  And then there is the almost not worth mentioning little thing about quadrupling the national deficit (now that’s historic!)… but at least he looked good on TV while doing it. 

During the elections it was obvious that our media had let us down, taking sides instead of seeking the truth.  Now it will be up to those that report on the past to point out the obvious, that history does indeed repeat itself.  Barack Obama was a community organizer, and after three years in charge of his organization in Chicago his success was measured not in deeds, but instead by the fact that he ballooned the size of his organization and increased spending exponentially.  Results?  Top ranking in murder and substance abuse still maintained to this day.  

Obama has quickly jumped from one job to another without accountability, each with a bigger budget while playing up his Big Shtick Diplomacy to the applause of an ever growing audience.  What happens now when there is no “next job” and bigger budget?   

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big. ~ Theodore Roosevelt