THE WORD OF THE DAY: OBAMA FLIP-FLOP
"America, What a country?" the Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff would always say. Well, today many people trying to learn english as a second language are saying, "English, What a language?' Take for instance the simple word flip-flop. That is easy, it is a noun and refers to a type a shoe, more specifically a backless sandal held to the foot by a thong between the big toe and the second toe. On to the next word, but wait not so fast, flip=flop can again be used as a noun and mean: a decision to reverse an earlier decision. And again, as a noun, flip-flop is a backward somersault. Flip-flop can also be used as a verb, for example, Obama flip-flops. The point, I am trying to make is that the English language can be very tough to learn as a new language, there are so many nuances to even simple words, not to mention slang and geographic usage. This also introduces an article by Karl Rove that appears in the Wall Street Journal, "Flip-Flops and Governance, Our President isn't quite as Advertised."
The point of Karl Rove's opinion piece is not that the favorite footwear of the president is a backless sandal, but that the President Obama has backtracked and reversed earlier decisions or has don the opposite of what Mr. Obama campaigned. In either case, Karl Rove does an excellent job of highlighting the Flip-Flops. He ends his article with this great conclusion:
Mr. Obama's appealing campaign images turned out to have been fleeting. He ran hard to the left on national security to win the nomination, only to discover the campaign commitments he made were shallow and at odds with America's security interests.
Mr. Obama ran hard to the center on economic issues to win the general election. He has since discovered his campaign commitments were obstacles to ramming through the most ideologically liberal economic agenda since the Great Society.
Mr. Obama either had very little grasp of what governing would involve or, if he did, he used words meant to mislead the public. Neither option is particularly encouraging. America now has a president quite different from the person who advertised himself for the job last year. Over time, those things can catch up to a politician.In my little experience, the reason a man flip-flops on decisions, as much as, Mr. Obama, is the fact the man is very unprincipled, in that, the person does not have a firm grasp on what they believe-in or what principles to base their lives upon. In other words, Mr. Obama lacks the discipline and principles to effectively lead this nation.
-Lex Rex
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