Monday, November 16, 2009

Bow-gate, How Low Can You Go?

Let's just say that you move into a new office with a new group of co-workers and the very first day you are approached by a particular gentlemen named Bill. Bill seems to have some kind of problem with another co-worker, we'll call him Joe. Every morning Bill greets you with the latest screw up that Joe has committed. "Did you see where Joe parked this morning" he snidely remarks on Monday, "Who does he think he is parking right next to the V.P. of operations, what a suck-up." Tuesday you notice that Joe has hung a picture of his wife and kids in his cubicle. "He thinks we don't know he's trying to look like Mr. Goody Two-Shoes for the regional manager's visit tomorrow" remarks Bill. This goes on day after day, week after week, until you finally feel the need to confront Bill. "Bill" you say, "I have an issue with this Joe business. I think you are obsessing and I wonder what it is that you have against Joe, he seems like a nice enough guy to me?" Here's the question, if Bill says that he has no problem with Joe, he just happens to notice these obvious issues and feels that it is his duty to bring them to your attention would you believe him?

George Bush held the hand of, and kissed a Saudi King


Groped a German Prime Minister


and generally made a bungling idiot of himself abroad for eight long years.

However, the most ardent Bush apologists have become the most nitpicking critics America has ever known. Their latest gripe? President Obama bowed to the Japanese Prime Minister. If President Obama walked across the ocean to Japan they would have criticized him for breaking protocol by not taking Air Force One. The right wing echo chamber criticized the President for not wearing a tie in the Oval Office until pictures of Reagan without a tie appeared. They criticized him for taking his wife to a play in New York, for trying to bring the Olympics with its thousands of jobs to the U.S., for not going to Berlin, and for giving the Queen of England the very gift that she requested. Then CHEERED wildly when the United States lost its Olympic bid.

It's only been ten months but you have to wonder how long these clowns can keep up this kind of pace. You need only pay attention to what the President has, or hasn't done on a given day to predict the next round of absurd criticisms that are about to be leveled at him. I believe that we are rapidly reaching a point where the wing nut Obama critics are becoming caricatures of their own movement. However, I doubt they will be discouraged by a loss of credibility. One of my favorite quotes explains these people and their criticism quite clearly:
"Any argument that is not founded in logic and reason, will not be swayed by it"