Obamas Leadership Deficit: Twitting While America Burns

"We are still fighting two increasingly trying wars overseas, witnessing terrifying new levels of creativity from would-be terrorists (underwear bombs, etc.), mopping up a greasy mess in the Gulf of Mexico and trying to right an economy that seems insistent on remaining off the rails. And the so-called leader of the free world thinks the best use of his time is to yuk it up with Whoopi Goldberg."—S.E. Cupp, New York Daily News (July 28, 2010)

America is in dire straits.

Unemployment stands at 9.5% (and a staggering 34.5% for young black men), with more than 15 million Americans out of work, and 6.3 million of them having been unemployed for six months or longer. More than 11 million mortgages are now underwater. In fact, July 2010 marked the 17th consecutive month in which more than 300,000 American homes were undergoing foreclosure.

The number of people receiving food stamps has reached an all-time high, with assistance being doled out to more than 40 million Americans. This translates to one in eight Americans and one out of every four children. However, with more than 20,000 people a day being added to the roster, that number is projected to rise to 43.3 million in 2011.

For the first time in close to three decades, the government will have to pay out more in Social Security than it pulls in. According to the Washington Post, by 2037, Social Security reserves will have been drained and the income flowing into the program will only be enough to pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits—troubling news for the 66% of senior citizens who rely on the payouts as their main source of income.

Our public debt is in excess of $13 trillion and continues to grow at a rate of about $3.83 billion each day. According to the Congressional Budget Office, U.S. debt could rise to 87% of the GDP by 2020—thats just ten short years away.

While the fiscal cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to skyrocket, the human cost is also growing exponentially. More than 5,600 American servicemen and women have died so far in Iraq and Afghanistan. That does not include the rising numbers of military personnel who have committed or attempted to commit suicide at a rate exceeding that of the national standard. (By late November 2009, more U.S. ...