RSS
Home
Is Obama treating the office of the Presidency with the dignity it deserves?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Is the White House missing a leader?
Policy-wise, Barack Obama arguably came into his presidency unqualified. His foreign policy naiveté and spread-the-wealth-around fiscal policy mentality has thus far been a disaster. Unemployment continues to rise, North Korea and Iran continue to be pests, Hugo Chavez is emboldened, eco-radicals are taking over the legislative agenda, and Nancy Pelosi is dictating how health care will work in America.
A number of friends in the military have told me that as Commander-in-Chief they must respect the office but they do not respect the person. So is Obama giving the office the respect it deserves by at least conducting himself like a President? The answer, unfortunately, is an emphatic no. Here are the top ten examples to prove this point:
10. Obama nixes the Bush dress code of always wearing a jacket in the Oval Office. This might seem trivial but that office has witnessed some of the greatest Americans making the most difficult and important decisions effecting the entire world. As Andy Card, former White House Chief of Staff put it, "The Oval Office symbolizes…the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I’m going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it’s appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President." Some of his more classless staff even showed up in jeans at the beginning of his administration. Obama was so inspired he instituted "casual weekends."
9. The Obama beer summit. In attempts to cover up his "they acted stupidly" attack on the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department, Obama attempts to solve it by kicking back a few in the Rose Garden. This could only have been more embarrassing if he neglected to at least give a shout out to an American beer company…oh wait.
8. Obama has never stopped campaigning. I suppose when you're good at something you should keep at it. His townhall meetings look more like he's trying to get votes than solve real problems. He has also done more fundraisers (23) than President Bush (6) and President Clinton (5) did combined in their first years in office.
7. President Obama picks Joe Biden as his VEEP choice. Ok…that was just a joke, picking someone to be your VEEP isn’t beneath the dignity of office, but I mean really, Joe "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent" Biden? This is the same man that continues to champion a stimulus plan that hasn't created one job!
6. The war with Fox News. In attempts to bring Chicago politics to the White House, Obama tries to shut out the most popular news channel in America because they dare to hold the President accountable and refuse blind allegiance like the lapdog network of MSNBC.
5. Obama reignites the war with Britain again. In the first visit by the leader of our most reliable ally, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown presents the American President with a pen holder created from the timbers of the HMS President, the sister ship of the HMS Resolute, which the desk in the Oval Office is made from. The American President presents PM Gordon Brown with 25 DVDs that are not correctly formatted to play in Europe.
4. Maybe we should give the President a mulligan on that last one. After all he had a chance to redeem himself when he went to England to meet the Queen. This time he presented her with…drum roll please…an IPod! And what was on said IPod? None other than a couple of speeches made by the O-man himself.
3. Obama becomes a pitchman in a commercial for George Lopez, "George. You need to change late-night. That's the kind of change I can believe in."
2. Obama hits the late night circuit. In March he became the first sitting President to go on a late night comedy show when he went on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. This was bad enough before he decided to poke fun at the Special Olympics.
1. Reality TV comes to the White House. No, seriously. Glamour girl Michelle Obama is hosting an episode of Iron Chef that will air on January 3rd.
1a. Instead of giving an eloquent and heartfelt statement following the tragedy that occurred yesterday at Fort Hood, the President came across as aloof and disconnected. As NBC put it, "instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks." He even "offered a ‘shout-out’ to ‘Dr. Joe Medicine Crow – that Congressional Medal of Honor winner."
Americans, you voted for change and you got it. But of course, change doesn’t always result in a good change. If President Obama can't treat his job and the White House with the respect it deserves then how can he possibly respect the American people who look to him for leadership? If this list was compiled after 10 short months in office, what can we expect in the next 3 years?
Follow me on Twitter: @SecPress
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Related Articles:
Comments
