Beyond His Abilities [Reader Post]

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During the previous two months of the Gulf Oil Spill, President Obama has exhibited gross incompetence on a grand scale; consequently, it becomes harder for the average Progressive ideologue to swallow the Administration’s Line and the MSM’s diatribe of Obama’s pretensions of leadership and erudition.  During the past two months of Crude Hell in the Gulf, Obama has had many opportunities to employ his superior intellectual abilities.  However, when America looks to the president for leadership, they see a buffoon playing golf and worrying over whether a vessel has the correct life jackets or whether the blueprints of a foreign vessel meets US standards.

The Ancient Greeks obviously had similar instances of men stepping up to perform jobs that were way beyond their abilities, these ancient stories were useful for teaching the young about life’s lessons and for reminding adults the importance of morality: the story of Phaethon illustrates the situation and could have served us as a template for judging Obama’s capabilities before the election and now serves to show the bitter irony that is Obama’s story.

Young Phaethon’s mother confided that Helios, God of the Son, was the boy’s father.  The boy was overjoyed and told his friends, they scoffed at the idea and mocked the boy for making such claims. Phaeton was hurt and took his problem of credibility to his mother.  She advised him to travel to the East and seek out the temple of his father to ask for a boon to validate his royal heritage.

Phaethon traveled to the temple of Helios, where the purpled-mantled God sat on an ivory throne amid a rainbow of jewels and all around him were the members of his court, the Hours, the Days, the Months, and the most noble the Seasons.

Phaethon was awed by such magnificence and waited until his father called to him by name.

“Welcome my son, to the halls of heaven.”  Helios laid down his crown of sun rays so that a mortal might gaze upon him.  “But say, what brings you from earth.”

Phaethon asked for a pledge from Helios so that mortals on earth would recognize his royal birth right.

“Before the world, will I own thee for a son and grant thee a proof of favor, that I will grant unheard, I swear by the Styx, the oath that binds even the Gods.”

“Father, my wish is to be trusted to drive the Chariot of the Sun for just one day.”

“My son, you ask the impossible, no mortal, nay no god can handle the reins of the fiery horses, not even Jupiter is bold enough to try and drive the Sun Chariot.  Please withdraw your request and I will grant you anthing else I swear by the Styx.”

The boy had been doted upon by an overly indulgent mother and was used to having his way, he refused to listen to reason and Helios, bound by his oath,  honored his promise.

Soon, it was time to commence the daily journey, Aurora was drawing back the curtains of night; the coursers were pawing and lunging as they were hitched to the tongue of the Sun Chariot and they showed their spirit to begin the day’s gallop across the sky.  Meanwhile Helios offered advice to his son, advice that his son virtually ignored as the horses were prepared for the journey.  “Keep between the fearsome beasts, for that will be the trail, keep the horses under control for you need not urge them on, fly too low and you will burn the earth, fly too high and you will scorch the face of Heaven.  Remember to check the reins tight and steady, to reassure the horses, they are eager and want only to get to their task, the labor is but to keep them under control.  Please change your mind, it is not honor you will seek, but punishment and destruction, I beg thee, observe me and be content with that, like thy fellow men.”

But the presumptuous boy jumped upon the chariot and took the reins, bidding farewell to his father as the chariot began to climb into the Heavens.  The boy was amazed at the sheer power the four horses had as they galloped through the morning mists.  Soon the fiery horses felt the indecision and fear of the unsteady hand and began to journey off course.  All the earth was amazed to see the sun traveling on such an irregular path, the young charioteer soon regretted his rash decision to drive the wildest horses in the world and he fought for survival as the chariot careened out of control.  Too late he realized the wise counsel of his father in leaving the chariot to one who has the experience and knowledge.  The horses soared high into the sky and scorched the heavens.  The horses flew too close to the earth and on that day the Negroes were burned black and the Nile dried up and North Africa was turned to sand and rocks.

By now, Phaethon had given up hope and thrown the reins away, he dropped to his knees to ask for help from the frightful path of destruction he was causing; but his cry was lost among the pitiful cries of the whole earth for their had never been such destruction in all the time of the earth.

Zeus was awakened by the cries and the sounds of destruction and seeing the problem, he threw a thunderbolt into the chest of Phaethon and the youth fell dead into the river Eridanus.

Promoting a men beyond the limits of his abilities creates a multitude of problems, in business it often signals a gradual immersion into insolvency; nepotism is responsible for ruining businesses everyday, the effect is a micrcosm and in the US, and there is almost always a competitor who is more than ready to fill the void brought about by incompetent leadership.

On a much larger scale, the presidency of the United States, the vacuum created by incompetent leadership is a question of time, the competitors are our enemies who not only market share, but wealth and resources as well and sometimes the life’s blood of our country as well.  Having incompetent leadership at the helm of the ship of state is a dangerous game of trying to skate on thin ice as the day gets warmer, with time the ice becomes weaker and weaker until a disaster is inevitable.

We are in the middle of an ecological disaster, the worst ecological disaster in our history, and while we look to the White House for Leadership and direction we are sent images of a President working on his golf game who says we are at war with oil and we need solar panels and windmills.  While the president stands by and dithers, the EPA and the coast guard worry about life jackets and clean up measures that leave less than a 1% residue in the water, a considerable improvement of the EPA protected sludge that coats everything.  Obama is definitely a Phaeton type persona who was anxious to jump into the chariot and take the reins; unfortunately, the chariot actually requires leadership ability and knowledge, hype and horse manure only goes so far, especially in an emergency.

Joe Biden, in a moment of cerebral overload, told us that Obama would be tested early in his presidency, yes he has been tested Joe: no doubt thoughtfully, you neglected to make a prediction as to how he would fare or perhaps you knew all to well; he failed Joe, he has failed and is continuing to fail and we the American people will be paying the price of his incompetency for decades.

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Well done Skookum

ditto… good job. There are many parables that fit what we’re living through. This adolescent President is out of his comfort zone. May he resign before a thunderbolt strikes the United States.

My Dad has frequently spoken of people promoted past their competance, Obama is certainly a prime example.

What would a thinking person do in a situation like the BP spill? It seems to me that there are two critical items; plug the damn hole, and keep the oil for reaching shore.

BP, for better or worse, has more of the skills and specialized equipment to plug the hole. Instead of demonizing BP, the government should have been giving them all the support they could. Plugging the hole was BP’s primary mission.

As for containing the oil that reaches the surface, the government can call on many more resources, domestic and international, to combat the spill. Preventing the oil from reaching shore is the governments primary mission.

So, what does the government do to combat this environmental disaster of 9/11 proportions? It lawyers up; it puts its boot on the throat of BP; it refuses assistance; it sets up an escrow fund to pay affected people; it rejects technologies because of quality concerns; it rejects assistance because 1% of oil skimmed might make it back into the water; it has photo ops with oily pelicans; it has many golfing sessions; it has show trials railing against BP; it creates another czar; it makes our Navy Secretary an Oil spill secretary; it places a moritorium on offshore drilling killing tens of thousands of more jobs……..

Being so busy to protect victims, find and prosecute the scoundrels to blame, follow environmental and safety laws to the letter of the the law (unlike how they follow the Constitution) it forgets to do everything in it’s power to prevent the oil from coming ashore.

But then, never let a crisis go to waste – even if it means expanding it for dramatic political effect.

It’s sad that such an article needs to be printed but it does and a good job at that. Our MSM has failed us when we needed them to be fair and properly point out what an inexperienced loser
0-bama and his idealistic liberalism was and how it would destroy our country. I hold them accountable almost as much as the organizer.

Where the hell is Zeus with that thunderbolt?

SKOOKUM: have a good trip. take care, bye 🙄

SKOOKUM: that is so good story, and the moral of the story is right on the beam. thank you. bye 🙄

OLD TROOPER: hi, hope all is well; YOU WiLL LIKE this POST story; bye, long time no read your smarts comments. Y’ALL take care now. 🙄

Look! Up in the sky,it’s a bird! no, it’s a plane! No,it’s ObamaMan.
ObamaMan; strange visitor from another mother with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. ObamaMan; Can change the course of mighty rivers(of oil),bend steel(and other industries) with his bare hands.Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,and who disguised as Barry Obama a mild mannered president of the united states, fights a never ending battle for entitlements and gov’t programs whether the voters want them or not all while lowering his golf handicap at the same time.
How did we ever manage without him?
Quite well,thank you and can’t wait till he’s back in private life so we can get the country back on track again.

I believe that Obama hadn’t even finished his first term as a U.S. Senator when he decided to run for President. With only a couple of years in Washington he was pretty anxious to get into that Chariot.

crusoe: hi, I am sure that SARAH PALIN would have reacted right at the minute; and she would have save all the controversies of thoses 60plus days of ignorance, and help GOVERNER JINDALL who is the most knowledgeble of his own STATE, to ask for preserving the MARSH land which is so fragile and vulnerable to poison and oil spill. AS a matter of fact, she would have done the drilling somewhere else,and stop that deep sea drilling as this would not have happen. bye

Do I remember this correctly?

When in doubt, mumble.
When in trouble, ponder.
When in charge, delegate.

An ambitious striver continues to be promoted until he/she reaches the level of incompetency.
It is the Peter Principle, for sure.

And the story of Phaeton is certainly germane.

A saying which is steadily gaining traction is that we have a suit without a body. Instead of the Emperor with no clothes, we have clothes without the Emperor.

Or the devastating cartoon, reprinted in Sunday’s New York Times, showing an action figure which engages in no action but just pontificates.

C. Northcote Parkinson, where are you? We need you!