Obama: Whiner or Winner?

In the Opinion Journal article Barack Wrote a Letter, the Wall Street Journal ridicules Senator Obama's toothless letter to Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernacke that Senator Obama cited as "action" to save the American people and economy from the banking crisis. The acts of salvation Senator Obama requested were:

a stirring call to "assess options"
a bold suggestion to "facilitate a serious conversation"
a Churchillian proposal to get various interest groups together to "consider" best practices in mortgage lending.

Frequently in campaign speeches, Senator Obama has described his early work as a community organizer. He notes that he worked to improve the living conditions of people living in government provided housing who had maintenance problems. He relates his supreme efforts to get them to petition an uncaring city government to provide need maintenance for their apartments. He taught them to whine and to no avail. What he did not do, was organize the tenants to learn to fix their own leaking water valves and toilets. What he did not do, was organize union plumbers to provide direct aid to these tenants.

Just as Senator Obama's feckless 'actions' in the banking crisis consisted of suggesting that people talk about considering practices and assessing options in a serious conversation, his similarly feckless 'actions' as a community organizer failed to actually involve fixing the problems of the tenants he cared so much about.

Bottom line, Senator Obama if elected President will find that whining is not action enough, he will need to lead and do, and experience leading and doing is what he has the least of. American does not need a whiner in chief, it needs a Commander in Chief and Barack Obama fails that test utterly.