Finally, someone who sees things the way our president does has found just the right words to express his ideals of accountability and honesty in public service. “We all are outraged.… It is obvious that mistakes were made,” she said. “I take full responsibility. What happened is unacceptable.” There was more along these lines, as she noted, “There is no such thing as ‘business as usual’ in our line of work. We have to be successful 100 percent of the time, and we are constantly making changes and doing everything possible to ensure that we are.” Music to any Obamaphile’s ear. The next day she was ousted, the first woman head of the Secret Service to be fired by the man who first named a woman to that position. Another day, another transformational moment.
There are indeed heady times for him, thanks to what the White House is describing as “the resurgence of the American economy” under our president’s guidance. Hundreds of thousands of new jobs created every month, unemployment disappearing below 6 percent, wages skyrocketing, workforce participation booming, housing flourishing, welfare dependency shrinking, government size diminishing, test scores soaring — we can’t keep up with all the good news. Maybe after November 4 we’ll get a better take on these-just mentioned achievements, some of which we’ve had to infer from all the good cheer our president as been sharing with the nation he leads his party toward Election Day.
He really cares. It never stops. Does he sometimes go too far? Time we explained the photo at the top of today’s column. It was actually the propaganda site WhiteHouse.gov’s Photo of the Day on Sept. 19, and is described this way in its photogallery of September 2014.
President Barack Obama listens through a door in the Green Room of the White House as Lilly Jay relates her experience as a sexual assault survivor during the launch of the “It’s On Us” campaign, a new public awareness and action campaign designed to prevent sexual assault at colleges and universities, in the East Room, Sept. 19, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
A President of the United States secretly listening in on a woman’s description of the sexual assault she suffered. Is he a perv? Might this be something his Democratic predecessor told him came with the job? Or was he himself compelled to do the job that the Secret Service can no longer be relied on to perform at White House gatherings? Whatever the case, this is a disturbing turn of events. First, selfies with a blonde prime minister. Next, opening up a new kind of front in the War on Women. Then having photos of himself acting creepy posted for all the world to see. Even Putin hasn’t tried that.
Chalk it up as just the latest sign of an administration and the country it purportedly leads in free fall. Ebola is hardly the only contagion out there. NFL Football, for instance, has been under disease control watch for sometime now, not only over its impact on the human brain but also its effect on social behavior, family stability, and the role of violence in our society. One of its teams has even been targeted for ruination because the nation’s nonfootball playing elites have taken a dislike to its storied name. Most recently the contagion has set off unprecedented hysteria regarding one of the great franchises in professional football history.
The team, the New England Patriots, got off to a rough start this season. After it was pancaked on Monday Night Football last week, all hell broke loose. The immediate consensus was that a once-great franchise was finished, its legendary coach now certifiably mad, and its mythical quarterback as over the hill as an ISIS rat on the receiving side of an airstrike. What we essentially saw was a drunken media-led rampage to tear down anything connected to greatness and achievement. Then came last night and the Brady-led Pats overwhelmed a previously undefeated team, 43-17, in a display very much in keeping with its usual performances of yesteryear, not to mention last year. Well before the two-minute warning, all the haters scurried for shelter. They comprise too many EOWs to single out by name. But we know who they are. Did they think our president is the only to eavesdrop from behind closed doors?
