Maybe It's Just Me...

Maybe it's just me ......shouldn't the President be a little more involved with the issues facing this country? In a previous post I voiced my opinion that the President should not have gone to Copenhagen to lobby for the Olympics to come to his hometown of Chicago for the probable financial windfall to his Chicago buddies. I kind of thought that Iraq, Afghanistan, health care reform, the latest terrorism plot, skyrocketing deficits, 10% unemployment, the reviewing and updating to the Patriot Act, failing public schools, drug addiction epidemic, energy problems, failing Social Security, really failing Medicare, the housing market in the dumps, and a few other issues should have his complete attention.

Maybe it's just me but...... has the President done anything to merit the Nobel Peace prize? Was it just a weak year for peace and he slipped in as a dark horse candidate? Jon Gruden, former head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had a favorite saying" You are as good or as bad as your record." Given Obama's record, I really do not see where he actually accomplished anything in the realm of peace besides giving good speeches. He has not gotten us out of the war in Iraq like he campaigned to do, the Afghanistan war is a mess, he is no closer to achieving any movement towards peace in the Mideast than Bush was with his road map, Iran is progressing towards a nuclear bomb quicker than we expected, North Korea still has its nuclear program going, he has not closed Guantanamo like he promised, he postponed a meeting with one of the the world's most peaceful leaders, the Dali Lama, in order to not tick off China, and while he and the current Russian premier promised to cut down on their respective nuclear weapons stockpiles, that is is all it is right now, a promise. His record is at best inconclusive so it must have been a poor field of candidates for peace this year. At least he did not fly off to Oslo to lobby for the award and he is donating the money award to charity, a very nice gesture.

And finally, maybe isn't just me but..... I do not think that shilling for a comedian's new late night cable talk show is either worthy of a United States President and a winner of the Nobel peace prize. As you may have heard or seen, the President filmed a commercial for the new George Lopez talk show on TBS. Have we become so shallow as a country that the leader of the free world is selling something on cable? I would have hoped that the time spent arranging and filming this ad spot would have been better spent on the items and issues listed in the first paragraph above. I cannot imagine George Washington selling cherry tree axes, Abe Lincoln selling log cabins, or FDR selling dog food because Fala likes it. It is really sad that the political class has become enamored with hearing itself either insult each other (Congressman Wilson - "You lie" and Congressman Grayson - "Republicans are knuckle scraping Neanderthals."), insult American citizens (Nancy Pelosi - citizens are unAmerican if they oppose Obama's policies and Henry Reid - American physically smell when they visit Washington), or go television to hype a cable talk show or discuss their March Madness brackets (Obama). Maybe it's just me.