"That's Not Leadership."

Despair.com

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK...That's not leadership. That's not going to happen..."
- Barack Obama

Okay, Mr. Obama...

We live in the United States of America.

Our forefathers established the first nation in human history in which the power of freedom was fully unleashed, and as a direct result, we citizens of the United States of America enjoy the highest standard of living on the face of the Earth.

Not only is this high standard of living our birthright, but most of us do the work, and pay the cost every day to maintain that standard of living for ourselves and our families, not out of selfishness or greed, but because we recognize that it is our duty as citizens of this great nation, and guardians of that birthright to maintain, and even improve on it.

To tell me that I should care one whit about how other countries around the world feel about my lifestyle, much less that I should scale back my lifestyle, which is not only my birthright as an American citizen, but that I bust my butt sixty to eighty hours per week for, is not only an insult to me personally, but an open-handed slap at my Country, and the ideals and opportunities which have made my Country the greatest nation on Earth, and the envy, by your own admission, sir, of the rest of the world.

And the fact that you, Mr. Obama, flew to the engagement where you insulted me and my Country on a jet airplane, you live in a mansion, and have never worked a day in your miserable life by my definition of an honest day's work, and then have the nerve to tell me and my fellow citizens that we have to tighten our belts shows without question that you, sir, have no idea what true leadership really is.

If you want to lead America out of the Energy Crisis that we currently face, then get Government out of the way of the Energy Industry, and let them solve it.

And if a market for Environmental Clean-up is created through that, then let the market make someone rich by doing that.

Let us take a leadership role, as a nation, and show the world that we can not only maintain and improve our standard of living, but that we can do it cleanly and affordably, by embracing freedom, opportunity and the ingenuity of the individual, as well as the collective.

Let's lead the world by showing them what made America great in the first place.

But if belt tightening is the only solution you can embrace, then we all await your leadership on that as well.

When we see you living in a mud hut with no air conditioning instead of your mansion, riding a bicycle to Oregon to insult us and our beloved Nation instead of flying on a very comfortable jet airplane, and living on one bowl of rice every day, then you can point to your belt tightening leadership.

So, lead, follow, or get out of the way.

But don't tell us, the citizens of the United States, that we should follow the rest of the world into poverty and depression, just so that the rest of the world will like us.

The rest of us are not so weak.