Jim Stillman
Nevar
Keep the cigarettes away...
March 16th 2010 08:32
It would be best if the President stopped smoking, for his personal health, certainly, but also for the general welfare of the nation. As a former two-pack a day smoker of some 25 years ago, I can attest that, the effects of nicotine withdrawal can make one cranky, out of sorts and, all in all, a real SOB. And that is what Barack Obama is becoming, and it’s about time!
President Obama came into office facing two wars, an economy melt-down rivaling the Great Depression, a feeling by the American public that government had failed to serve, a stock market in crisis, massive unemployment, soaring deficits caused by the profligate spending by the former Administration and, perhaps, worse frustration and hopelessness by the people. The campaign was built upon a theory that, if only political opponents would work together in a common desire to make the nation that which it was and could be again would we advance. “Change we can believe in” was the slogan, “hope” the motto.
So, for over a year, Barack Obama kept hoping that the hate by the opposition would dissipate, that the collegial atmosphere that allowed, even mandated, Ronald Reagan to share a cocktail with Tip O’Neill at the end of the day or that Orrin Hatch and Edward Kennedy work together to further legislation would reappear. And so he hoped and ignored the foolishness about whether his real name was “Barry Soweto”, whether he was born in Kenya, whether he was the anti-Christ; he ignored the characterizations that equated him to those responsible for the Holocaust who murdered over 13 million humans; he assumed that when the opposition wrote and raved about “death panels” otherwise rational folks would pass it off as the blithering of idiots.
Rather than discussions on the actual merits of the President’s proposals, not that far different from those advocated by Republicans in the past, we (and he) were faced with ill-tempered mobs, coming to political gatherings armed with assault weapons. Chris Broughton, a 28 year old man from Phoenix, made national news when he showed up to protest a speech by President Obama with an AR-15 automatic rifle slung over his shoulder and a handgun on his hip. The night before, he attended a sermon by his pastor, Rev. Steven L. Anderson, at Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. Rev. Anderson, also 28, explained that God and he both want the president dead.
For over a year, Barack Obama has vainly sought bi-partisanship, looked for the slightest indication that the Republicans would place country over hate and blindness, that good hearted and patriotic Americans would repudiate the excesses of the paranoid. In its place came the bash-Obama craziness. Obama is personally blamed for the H1N1 virus, the rejection of Chicago as site for upcoming Olympic games is an example of a repudiation by the world of Barack Obama, the award of the Nobel Prize is a sarcastic joke on the United States and is evidence of his poor world standing, his ability to speak in coherent sentences proves that he is a charlatan and on and on.
Republicans have demanded that the 2008 election be ignored. If only, they say, our views were adopted, if only we could start over, if only, if only . . . things would be different.
And, finally, Barack Obama has become “cranky”! If you in the opposition, he demanded, really want reform and regulation of the health insurance delivery system, if you really feel that the wholesale deregulation of government controls was and is a mistake, if you truly would be in favor of at least incremental reforms, where the Hell were you during the many years the GOP controlled Congress and the White House?
The fervor of the campaign, the excitement in his voice, the power of his intellect -- all is back and none too soon.
So Michele, keep the cigarettes away. I like him cranky.
President Obama came into office facing two wars, an economy melt-down rivaling the Great Depression, a feeling by the American public that government had failed to serve, a stock market in crisis, massive unemployment, soaring deficits caused by the profligate spending by the former Administration and, perhaps, worse frustration and hopelessness by the people. The campaign was built upon a theory that, if only political opponents would work together in a common desire to make the nation that which it was and could be again would we advance. “Change we can believe in” was the slogan, “hope” the motto.
So, for over a year, Barack Obama kept hoping that the hate by the opposition would dissipate, that the collegial atmosphere that allowed, even mandated, Ronald Reagan to share a cocktail with Tip O’Neill at the end of the day or that Orrin Hatch and Edward Kennedy work together to further legislation would reappear. And so he hoped and ignored the foolishness about whether his real name was “Barry Soweto”, whether he was born in Kenya, whether he was the anti-Christ; he ignored the characterizations that equated him to those responsible for the Holocaust who murdered over 13 million humans; he assumed that when the opposition wrote and raved about “death panels” otherwise rational folks would pass it off as the blithering of idiots.
Rather than discussions on the actual merits of the President’s proposals, not that far different from those advocated by Republicans in the past, we (and he) were faced with ill-tempered mobs, coming to political gatherings armed with assault weapons. Chris Broughton, a 28 year old man from Phoenix, made national news when he showed up to protest a speech by President Obama with an AR-15 automatic rifle slung over his shoulder and a handgun on his hip. The night before, he attended a sermon by his pastor, Rev. Steven L. Anderson, at Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. Rev. Anderson, also 28, explained that God and he both want the president dead.
“When I go to bed tonight Steven L. Anderson is going to pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell. . . . I don’t care how God does it, [but] it had be better now than later... However it happens, I’m going be happy that it happens, I’m going to be a happy man.”
For over a year, Barack Obama has vainly sought bi-partisanship, looked for the slightest indication that the Republicans would place country over hate and blindness, that good hearted and patriotic Americans would repudiate the excesses of the paranoid. In its place came the bash-Obama craziness. Obama is personally blamed for the H1N1 virus, the rejection of Chicago as site for upcoming Olympic games is an example of a repudiation by the world of Barack Obama, the award of the Nobel Prize is a sarcastic joke on the United States and is evidence of his poor world standing, his ability to speak in coherent sentences proves that he is a charlatan and on and on.
Republicans have demanded that the 2008 election be ignored. If only, they say, our views were adopted, if only we could start over, if only, if only . . . things would be different.
And, finally, Barack Obama has become “cranky”! If you in the opposition, he demanded, really want reform and regulation of the health insurance delivery system, if you really feel that the wholesale deregulation of government controls was and is a mistake, if you truly would be in favor of at least incremental reforms, where the Hell were you during the many years the GOP controlled Congress and the White House?
The fervor of the campaign, the excitement in his voice, the power of his intellect -- all is back and none too soon.
So Michele, keep the cigarettes away. I like him cranky.
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