Barack Obama's Shameful Day

In what has been described by some to be emotional blackmail, President Obama and his supporters failed to rally enough votes in the U.S. Senate to pass gun control legislation Wednesday.  It was a stunning defeat for this president and he now has to scramble to try and recover some of the political capital spent on this effort.

Weeping families and politicians were trotted out to promote the legislation.  Instead of private meetings with legislators that turned into displays of raw emotion, the cameras rolled and whether it was Senator Manchin or Vice President Biden, tears fell as policy points were made.  Instead of clear headed policy discussions that might or might not infringe upon our Second Amendment rights, Team Obama decided to go right to the emotional arguments.

That failed.

President Obama wants you to threaten your elected official into voting for a bill that he supports, though it has nothing to do with those he is using as the reason to support this bill.  Got that?  The bills voted on in the U.S. Senate - which were all voted down - had nothing to do with the tragedy in Newtown.  Nothing.  Team Obama decided to use that tragedy and those grieving families for his own benefit.  You may notice only a few of them were standing with Obama and Biden and Gabby Giffords in the Rose Garden.  Most have thankfully seen through this disgraceful strategy and remained private in their grief.

To all the people who supported this legislation -- law enforcement and responsible gun owners, Democrats and Republicans, urban moms, rural hunters, whoever you are -- you need to let your representatives in Congress know that you are disappointed, and that if they don't act this time, you will remember come election time. To the wide majority of NRA households who supported this legislation, you need to let your leadership and lobbyists in Washington know they didn't represent your views on this one. The point is those who care deeply about preventing more and more gun violence will have to be as passionate, and as organized, and as vocal as those who blocked these common-sense steps to help keep our kids safe. Ultimately, you outnumber those who argued the other way. But they're better organized. They're better financed. They've been at it longer. And they make sure to stay focused on this one issue during election time. And that's the reason why you can have something that 90 percent of Americans support and you can't get it through the Senate or the House of Representatives.So to change Washington, you, the American people, are going to have to sustain some passion about this. And when necessary, you've got to send the right people to Washington. And that requires strength, and it requires persistence. 

If you watch the video of the Rose Garden statement by Obama you will see an unhinged hissy fit from the leader of the free world.  Never have I seen such undignified contempt shown for our democratic process.  That whole balance of power thing, it sure is pesky to our president.  He was the one using the slogan that "they deserve a vote" but it turns out he didn't mean it if your elected official wasn't going to vote in favor of the legislation.  So, he stomped out to the White House press corps and called out Republicans for torpedoing his demands. Obama allowed a grieving father to start off the appearance before the White House press corps.  Funny, though, he remained silent on the Democrats who voted their voters' wishes and voted no with the Republicans.

This demand of Obama's for voters to punish their elected officials for the no votes on gun control legislation will fail, too.  The four Democrats in very red states voted no because that is the will of voters there.  If money is cut off from Democrats in D.C. or the big activist organizations, it will not cause them to lose re-election bids.  And, if they are opposed by liberals farther to the left of them, well, do you really think a primary challenger to Senator Pryor will gain much ground in Arkansas?  Of course not.

Liberal NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent millions of his billion dollar personal fortune to support this legislation.  He is an angry little man today.  The same reaction goes for former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, seriously wounded in an attack herself at the hands of a deranged gun man.  President Obama went so far as to say those who opposed the legislation "willfully lied".  Hardly dignified speech from our leader but sadly it is what we have come to expect.

President Obama has never learned how to come off the campaign trail and out of candidate mode.  He has not been able to transition into a leader.  Our country suffers today because of his lack of personal growth.  A petulant teenager is incapable of leading the world's most powerful nation and her people.

Team Obama will continue to push for another round in this battle.  To them, there are no common sense or reasonable compromises.  Obama's raw contempt for the number of Americans opposed to his agenda will not persuade anyone to move to his side from a different point of view.  Team Obama is ramping up efforts using social media to push his agenda, as they do so well. Those opposed to the agenda would do well to step up their efforts using the same platforms.

The president called the vote "shameful".  I describe the president's reaction with the same word.