The President and Letterman

Was a time when Presidents had fireside chats and speeches before Congress and TV cameras in front of the American People. Time was the President had something to say to inspire and encourage the country to be better than the collective souls it contained.

That was then, this is now.

In the face of sagging polls over his health care initiatives, the reality of his tax and spend and just how many of us will have to pay for his expansion into our lives in taxes and ... fines ... in order for him to appease the 20 percent of the country that believes in cradle to grave society, the President goes on late night television to tell us he is in fact a black man.

The audacity Obama has to convince us the math isn't what it appears, that 5 Sunday talk shows wasn't enough to get the message across, that an additional hour on the Late Show with Dave Letterman was going to somehow guffaw us into forgetting just how bad his policies have been and will continue to be.

Letterman provided what appeared to be the easiest pitch and catch session for the President of the week, firing off questions that presupposed the President's talking points. Talk show hosts often have a stack of papers in front of them to bring them back to point, but a close examination of the papers on Letterman's desk last night shows that they are oriented in the direction of the President, not Letterman.

During the Tough questions on health care and the request for additional troops in Afghanistan, the President spent more time with his eyes looking down that looking at Dave or the audience as he seemed to need support to ensure his message delivered last night was in keeping with the Rhetoric his administration has been delivering.

Among the highlights, we got to see photos of the President's daughter hiding behind a sofa in the Oval office and running with his dog. We also found out that the President is still a Black man. The response was a quip to Letterman's question on the race comments from Jimmy Carter the previous week. He got a fair bit of mileage with it from the audience as well because humor that pokes fun of the obvious is funny. It would have been nice if he had taken the time to tell the American people that the use of the race card should not be the first and best choice weapon by anyone as an answer to legitimate opposition to the current legislative efforts. He could have made that a teachable moment in what would probably have been the dominate ratings show yesterday, but he did not. But I know he is still a black man and it was a funny line.

Of his policy recitations last night, the one that I think I have the biggest issue with is the troop policies concerning Afghanistan. When asked what we should do, the President hemmed and hawed about the need to identify the strategy and be certain of the reason before we commit additional blood and treasure to the cause. While rightly pointing out the reason we are there is to eradicate those who plotted and trained to kill nearly 3,000 Americans nine years ago, he appears to be trying to walk a fine line between what is the right thing and the desire to appease his party's left wing. It is in stark contrast to his statement in February this year that the situation in country was "Urgent." So urgent in fact, that he ordered the first installment of 8000 troops on the way up to an additional 17,000 total.

Current requests for upwards of 30-40,000 troops as being necessary or risk failure of the effort altogether were leaked in a secret memo and the story being reported is that the President told the Pentagon to hold off on asking for the troop request. This clearly was done, not to protect and promote the troops at risk in the field, but to protect the political positions of his most ardent anti-war law makers.

The change Obama promised is a sham. We are all set to pay higher taxes with fewer jobs. Our lifetimes will be cut short by bureaucrats who will have no choice but to ration care to all, not just the elderly. I sincerely hope that everyone who threw George HW Bush out of office for violating his, "Read my lips..." speech will remember Obama's pledge that your taxes won't go up a dime....

My advice to you all is to keep up the pressure on your representatives. Demand the oversight that hasn't been happening and take back your country and throw the bums out when you get the chance. This administration is proof that when you put a rookie up at the plate, you should bet your whole season on a grand slam in the bottom of the 9th.