Obama: the Great Pretender

Written by Laurie Higgins

Obama promised to be the transformative, transparent unifier, one step beyond partisanship and politics. Was he the great and powerful Oz promised to America or the charlatan behind the curtain?

Obama’s transparency:

• Broke campaign promise to televise negotiations on health care bill on C-SPAN
• Asserted executive privilege to prevent Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department from having to provide documents on the “Fast and Furious” debacle that have been subpoenaed by Congress

Obama’s non-partisan, unifying actions:

• Proposed and passed a controversial and highly partisan health care bill that, thus far, has resulted in 30 lawsuits filed challenging the health care law, with 28 states as plaintiffs
• Told American people that the health care law’s individual mandate is not a tax, then had his solicitor general tell the Supreme Court it is a tax
• Undermining religious liberty by forcing religious institutions through his health care law to subsidize abortion, sterilization, and contraception or pay substantial penalties
• Provided federal grant money to Planned Parenthood in states that had voted to defund it
• Reaffirmed his support of abortion and pledged “to protect this constitutional right”
• Issued an executive order that enables U.S.