I read a report that said that Obama has had more TV time so far than Bush and Clinton had accumulated combined by this point in their presidencies, so in a bit of constituent aggravation I posted a thought on Facebook that I thought Obama was getting too much TV time. I wasn't disrespectful, I said nothing idealogical and I wasn't even overly critical. I just commented that I thought he had more things to do than to spend more time yukking it up on TV.
Boy did the flood gates open - but they weren't the flood gates I expected. I expected demagogues to go at me over policy, or Obama-lovers to continue their slobbering love affair but instead I got something else, and as I think about it I guess I should have expected it more than I did.
Bush is gone, but the hatred and the nastiness hasn't faded. For the most part, Bush has remained silent and out of the way in regards to politics (I know, Cheney hasn't, but the hate isn't directed at him, oddly enough, even though Cheney is probably more deserving of it), yet everyone is continuing to lash out at George Bush. Even the Castro/Chavez loving power house that is Oliver Stone was more fair to Bush ("W.") than everyone else has been.
A couple of the retorts:
better on tv than at camp david like some other prez...
Better than him being on vacation most of the year...
I wasn't being mean to Obama, yet people from the left continue to go back in time and attack Bush rather than face today with open eyes and ears. Yeah, okay - Bush screwed up. He wasn't the smartest guy to ever take the office, he was incredibly polarizing because of his religious beliefs and he started a war in Iraq that most view as unnecessary (and I'll even go so far as to say that I was also opposed to extending the conflict to Iraq because the people that hit us on 9/11 were from Afghanistan, not Iraq). But he's not in office anymore.
It's like the schoolyard bully that just beat up the school dork. Except the bully isn't putting his arms up in defeat and walking away victorious. Instead he's continuing to piss on the guy, spit on him, taunt him... he's following him to his home and yelling at him through the screen door, "Come out here so I can kick the shit out of you again!"
"But you won! I lost! Isn't that good enough for you?"
"No! I still hate you and I want to step on your face with baseball cleets!"
"But I haven't done anything to you! I haven't bugged you at all!"
"It doesn't matter. If I keep beating you up, no-one will ever focus on the now and they'll make me stand on my own two feet. If I live in the past, everyone else will too, so get out here and let me womp on you a little more!"
Obama ran on an anti-Bush platform against McCain. Obama continues to roll Bush under the bus (whether it's investigating the CIA, deflecting economic blame, explaining the lack of global support on the Afghan war, or whatever). Even Letterman continues to punch Bush in the face, even when he's got Obama sitting in the wings waiting for the spotlight (again).
I don't want to spend the next 3 years and three months listening to the past. I would rather this administration and its admirers accept their victory and move on towards taking care of the things that need taken care of. Obama - get Bin Laden. That would be good. Obama - find a way to get the money back out of the banks and GM and pay down our debt to China and the taxpayers and whomever else you and your Congress borrowed from. Obama - reform the insurance industry (inflation stays stagnant but the premiums go up? WTF?). Obama - let's fix the financial industry by getting some oversight on Wall Street and by regulating the predatory practices of mortgage and credit lenders. Let's allow insurance companies to sell across state lines without federalizing the system, but let's also set up anti-trust committees to keep large companies (like Chase and AIG) from buying up all the little companies and eliminating the competition that will keep the prices from growing at an unsustainable, unaffordable rate.
In a nutshell. Obama - Quit Bush-bashing and live in the now. Quit taking up TV time and spend some time focusing on what's important. BUT - keep being likable and smiling a lot, because we as the American people need a confident, affable President just as much as we need an effective leader and Commander-In-Chief.
See? I can be politically centered when I want to be.
... and that's the way I see it.
