{"id":3787,"date":"2014-10-21T06:11:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T10:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3787"},"modified":"2014-10-21T06:24:18","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T10:24:18","slug":"trusting-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3787","title":{"rendered":"trusting obama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"images-1\"<\/a>For some time I\u2019ve considered penning this post. For some time more I\u2019ve shied away, knowing the mere mention may be strongly offensive to some. My desire, however, is never to offend nor avoid simply due to offending\u2019s sake; my desire is to dialogue respectfully — and that means taking on the tough topics — even though increasingly often in our hyper-sensitive culture, many will be offended that the conversation ever existed. Such is inconsistent with the Intramuralist\u2019s mantra The more we are willing to discuss the hard stuff — and proceed in a manner respectful of those with whom we disagree, recognizing that good people possess varied opinion —<\/em> the more we can be educated, learn from one another, and grow.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s topic: I don\u2019t fully trust Pres. Obama.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I believe Obama\u2019s a bad person or evil or whatever other sensational adjective some may insist upon. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m an \u201cObama-hater,\u201d \u201cBush-lover,\u201d or any other manipulated moniker one may use to dismiss me and my opinion. I\u2019m not. I don\u2019t hate the President. I simply don\u2019t fully trust him.<\/p>\n

In a cyberspace conversation last week, I made the comment that I wasn\u2019t certain we could trust the President to lead us through the Ebola situation well. A friend asked why not. \u201cFor many reasons,\u201d I thought, but the bottom line? Obama\u2019s \u201cyes\u201d hasn\u2019t meant \u201cyes,\u201d and his \u201cno\u201d hasn\u2019t meant \u201cno.\u201d In other words, his words and the reality of the situation often contradict one another.<\/p>\n

Whether it was the plethora of Obamacare promises, claims of IRS non-corruption, foreign policy mischaracterizations, or the blaming of all things bad on someone else, my perception is that Pres. Obama\u2019s words have often been confusing or even untrue. Have his statements been knowingly false? Great question (and undoubtedly one that partisans will pounce upon).<\/em> My point is that Obama has consistently, in my opinion, misused his presidential platform rhetorically. He has repeated aspects and claims that sound good regardless of truth — appearing to control the dialogue, control his image, or control something<\/strong>…<\/em> i.e. \u201cIn the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores…\u201d<\/em> Two weeks later Ebola was here.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve learned through the Ebola outbreak is that I am not alone in this unfortunate perception…<\/p>\n

NBC \u201cMeet the Press\u201d host Chuck Todd opened his Sunday show two weeks ago addressing the administration\u2019s \u201ctrust deficit.\u201d He mentioned multiple situations and Obama\u2019s rhetorical response…<\/p>\n

The NY Post\u2019s Michael Goodwin ran the following Sunday, discussing how a single Ebola death has morphed into an unwarranted panic: \u201cIn rational and medical terms, they may be right. But their calculations omit another factor. It\u2019s the X factor. In this case, X stands for trust. President Obama has spent six years squandering it, and the administration\u2019s confusion, contradictions and mistakes on Ebola fit the pattern. This is how he rolls. Don\u2019t worry, there\u2019s no chance of an outbreak, they said. Then it was, Oops, we must rethink all procedures for handling cases. Then there was no worry about a \u2018wide\u2019 outbreak, yet quarantines for lots of people. The irrational fear of an alien pathogen is fueled by rational suspicion of an incompetent and dishonest government.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Obama continues to rhetorically assert himself in ways where the perceived reality of the situation does not clearly substantiate his actual words, which causes the nation to\u00a0lose trust in their leader. Therefore, Obama\u2019s current trust problem (which I believe is also evident in his historically low approval numbers)<\/em> is not due to partisan hatred. It\u2019s due to Obama\u2019s own words.<\/p>\n

Let your \u201cyes\u201d mean \u201cyes\u201d and your \u201cno\u201d mean \u201cno.\u201d Don\u2019t say things that aren\u2019t true — regardless of motive — regardless of whether one shares your partisan persuasion. If a person is too concerned at controlling the narrative, he or she will unfortunately, eventually lose trust — even in an over-hyped crisis. \u00a0And trust is incredibly hard to reclaim.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some time I\u2019ve considered penning this post. For some time more I\u2019ve shied away, knowing the mere mention may be strongly offensive to some. My desire, however, is never to offend nor avoid simply due to offending\u2019s sake; my desire is to dialogue respectfully — and that means taking on the tough topics — … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “trusting obama”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[459,293],"class_list":["post-3787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-ebola","tag-pres-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3800,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions\/3800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}