Remember Barney Fife? The lovable, affable (albiet slightly nervous) deputy to Andy Griffith in the fictional town of Mayberry? “The Andy Griffith Show” was a television staple of the 1960’s and represented a certain innocence that was quintessentially small town America. There were no looting hoodlums or gangs, no terrorists and no real need for leadership from the sheriff, the mayor or the city council. Mayberry seemed to just chug right along. The biggest problem deputy Barney Fife (portrayed by the late great Don Knotts) had to deal with was a vehicle illegally parked in front of Floyd’s Barbershop, or Otis the town drunk’s inability to let himself voluntarily into the cell at the police station because someone neglected to hang the key in its usual spot.
Knott’s character was nervous, almost always caught off guard by even the most predictable of circumstances and about as clumsy as humanly conceivable. Barney carried a gun with an empty chamber, but did keep a single bullet on his belt just in case. He crashed the squad car, misplaced bail money and even managed to misunderstand a call to the station form a concerned citizen informing him that a person named Martin was coming to town. When Barney misunderstood “Martin” for “Martians,” you can imagine the comic premise and general anxiety this caused. Barney Fife was about as prepared to deal with enforcing the law in Mayberry as Barack Obama seems to be in leading this country.
Consider the pratfalls of the Obama presidency: When he took office promising “Hope and Change” unemployment was climbing to nearly 7.6%. The new sheriff made fast work of that, claiming he would create jobs. Today the jobless rate stands at over 9%. The Community Organizer in Chief said taxes would not be raised on a single American (except for the wealthiest 2%) Turns out that the wealthiest 2% are largely small businesses, LLC’s and the folks who employ real people in the private sector. It’s actually funny to hear the President continue to refer to these folks as “private jet owners”.
Spending has been a problem and to be fair, President Bush deserves his share of blame for increasing government spending. But Obama came to Mayberry and “Fifed” the debt to to nearly 95% of our GDP. The next foible was a trillion dollar spending plan that would create “shovel ready” jobs which flopped so incredibly that the President’s party was summarily thrown out of office in the 2010 mid term elections to allow Republicans a clear majority in the house and near majority in the senate. Conflicts continue to rage overseas, Guantanamo is still open for business, and the debt ceiling debacle has earned the president the distinction of being the first president in the history of the republic to preside over a downgrade in America’s credit rating. The Chinese hold us hostage by manipulating their currency and killing domestic manufacturing. Violence has broken out across Europe. This guy is making many Americans yearn for the “salad days” of Herbert Hoover!
Alas, all is not well in Mayberry. The President’s failure to lead, his inability to grasp the concept of capitalism and entrepreneurship as a fundamentally “American” means toward a successful and healthy economy are clumsy examples of his Don Knotts behavior. This President, like Barney Fife, is patently unprepared and unable to lead. His failure to lead would be funny, like deputy Fife’s inability to truly maintain law and order in bucolic Mayberry -unfortunately we’re not in Mayberry!
The President appears clueless, unprepared, inept and more than a little bit nervous at a time when real leadership is needed more than ever. Instead of offering solutions; he storms out of meetings with Congressional leadership in a snit. Instead of presenting real ideas for job creation and debt reduction he says “everything’s on the table.” Instead of offering his own ideas, he whines at press conferences for the partisan bickering in Washington to stop. Instead of stepping forward, calling the Congress back to Washington to settle this mess, he’s packing for his annual vacation to Fantasy Island (aka Martha’s Vineyard) to wring his hands with the like minded anti-capitalists and “beautiful people” that inhabit Oak Bluffs and Edgartown.
The difference between President Obama and Barney Fife is this: when it came to a crisis at least Barney had a gun and a bullet if he needed it. He was at least somewhat prepared. The president has nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Crickets. And there’s nothing funny about that!
