I have been silent for a few days, but I also have a very good excuse: I was finalizing the author's draft of my new book for submission to Evergreen Umbrella, and it is now in their capable hands. So I am back in the hot seat and ready to go once more!
It was with next-to-no surprise and certainly no shock and awe that Barack Obama came out (pardon the pun!), as it were, and stated his new-found support for same-sex marriage. Notwithstanding the fact that his hand may have been tipped by that old loose cannon, Joe Biden, the song remains the same: that he suddenly had one of his pal Oprah's "Aha!" moments; the Red Sea parted, a massive million watt light bulb shone down on him, and he completely changed his opinion on this very sensitive issue. While most in the media are now fawning over him for doing so, I cannot help but remind them all that he is known as the campaigner-in-chief with very good reason. Extremists claim that he would change his religion if it guaranteed him four more years living in the lap of luxury in that big old white house. I am not sure that I believe that, but I do believe that if he could turn brushing his teeth into a vote-catching moment, he would. Oh my God, POTUS uses the same Aquafresh toothpaste that I do, wow, I can't believe that, he's so amazing, four more years, four more years, rah rah rah! The famous supermodel, Linda Evangelista, once said "We don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day". I doubt that anyone has trouble believing that either, especially with her recent gold-digging demands for a staggering $46,000 a month from the father of her one child. In Obama's case, it seems that his version would be "Honey, I don't get out of bed (or lift a finger) for anything other than the votes that guarantee me four more years!".
Everything is always so perfectly (i.e. badly) timed that he leaves himself wide open to accusations of totally transparent campaigning. Campaigning, for his job and his personal wealth and security, not yours, nor for any of the hot current political reasons why you are out of a job or you can't afford to pay for your medication. Some say that even the taking of Osama Bin Lid In was timed to restore his popularity in advance of the big year and general election ahead. Again, an extreme idea, maybe, but not so ridiculous as to be actually funny. It took him to just prior to his disastrous mid-terms to do something or anything to relieve some of the financial hurt in the country, suddenly announcing new measures to put people back to work and to help certain key sectors. But the people are smarter than he seems to think, they no longer bought in to his media darling approach, and they voted in droves in an outright rejection of someone they railroaded into power less than two years before.
So here we are today, with mere months before a general election, and he was suddenly "enlightened" to see the purpose and benefits of same-sex marriage? We are truly expected to believe that he "came out" in such a fashion for anything other than the shameless attempt at vote-grabbing that it surely has to be? He is so transparent that he makes plastic film seem cloudy by comparison!
Don't get me wrong, people, there is no question that the Democrats are always a safer bet than going Republican, but it's sort of annoying that there isn't a better competitor to face BO, and that the election was not such a foregone conclusion. It's not that I want to see BO exited from his beloved big white house, it's more that I think he should face some real fear, some real fight, some real warnings, that if he doesn't get off his rear end and start delivering on so many of the things he promised which were subsequently swept under the rug, that he will face a firestorm of votes against him. In politics, one learns that whatever comes out of someone's mouth a few months before a general election is likely to be the equivalent of mouthwash. Swirl it around for a few minutes, spit it out again, and forget about it.
I prefer to remind him of something he said, cockily, just after an election: a time when they can usually be trusted to spout more realistic pearls of wisdom. "If we are not able to turn the economy around inside four years, then clearly we are talking about a one-term proposition." If I was Mitt Romney and the Republicans, I would have this soundbite gem playing on repeat, on all major networks, from yesterday to the general election itself. BO will win, but let's see him sweat it a little, in return for four more years of luxury, hanging out with celebrities at the parties, and thinking that now with four more years, he and Michelle can try again to achieve their very own dream of being remembered as the JFK and Jackie O of their time and this generation. The reality being, of course, that he's just a very lucky guy who got promoted ahead of his time (we have all seen that before in everyday life); one who is a fairly average politician but who knows how to both handle the media and spout campaign rhetoric, and alas, sadly, one who has also turned out to be rather forgetful in the category of being a great leader. He's so busy trying to please all of the people, all of the time, that by default, he simply cannot lead effectively. The total mess in Congress over the last two years is a very different kind of glaring spotlight: one that underlines his fundamental weakness as a leader. - Kevin Mc
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