We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
That is what is called
leadership. When you are a leader, you define the playing field, not just react to whatever the opponent throws at you. And Obama proved in the 2008 campaign that he can be every bit as inspiring as JFK if he chooses to be.
Instead, Obama has chosen to shirk his responsibility to lead in the face of an onrushing calamity that threatens the planet, 50% of its species, and humanity itself.
People like Inhofe are idiots. Obama knows better and has more power. His failure to lead is conscious, his failure to lead is deliberate and his failure to lead is unforgivable.
The bully pulpit is all Obama has left. Let's hope he finally decides to use it for something constructive in the last two years of his empty, cynical, contemptible presidency.
Read, watch or listen to JFK's whole speech here.
Watch Obama deliver a stemwinder here and tell me that his leadership on climate change over the past six years would have made no difference.