When Barack Obama was first elected, this country was impressed by his demeanor, swept off their feet by his words and lifted by his promises. Now, as the threat of terrorism becomes more evident, is Obama ready and able to defend our country?
In a recent interview with ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos, President Obama discussed the major election of Republican Scott Brown and apologized for not “speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are.”
In this interview, Obama has lost his presence. He looks defeated. He is pale and wrinkled. His hair is grayer than ever. Presidency has clearly taken its toll on the once young, hip Obama.
Now, we need his agenda and outlook to change too. While his “cool guy” attitude and lofty commitments clearly appealed to a large portion of the U.S. population, we now need a President who is more than that. In order for many Americans to feel reassured that our country is in good hands, Obama has to drop his laid-back-cool-guy attitude and address the serious issue: our country is being targeted by terrorists.
He needs to make America feel confident again by showing some type of legitimate reaction to the problem and then fixing it.
The scariest and most frustrating part about the recent terrorist attack, the underwear bombing on Northwest flight 253, is that it could have and should have been prevented entirely. Airport security must be increased and each airport staff member should be held fully responsible for making sure that each person entering a terminal is cleared.
President Obama needs to make this happen. He needs to make sure that airport security is up to standards and that all intelligence agencies are working together to solve the problems with airport and national security. This means more than just installing new machines in airports; Obama must make sure that TSA, the FBI and the CIA are working together to prevent future terrorist attacks. This also means more than calmly telling Americans that everything will be okay.
At a time when citizens are stressed about making ends meet and approval ratings are dropping, Obama’s reaction needs to be far-reaching. He needs to get angry, he needs to get passionate and he needs to get real with Americans. Then, maybe, we can once again have confidence in our President.