shhh, the adult is talking

Today, our president had his last press conference before he is sworn in for his second term.  He is sitting on an economy that has the slow burn of healthy growth, the fastest deficit reduction since WWII, passed comprehensive healthcare reform, the ending of one war and the moved up schedule to end the second, and the momentum to carry forth an actual conversation about gun control that doesn’t consist of radical explicatives (for the most part).  And most of his questions pertained to how he was going to get congress to not hurt the country.

Sure, he's done a lot, and this House of Representatives is the least productive ever, but certainly its his responsibility to babysit who we voted in, right?

In this press conference, Obama explains that he will not allow the previous strategy of using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip.  He is happy to entertain any conversations on moving forward.

The questions asked suggest that Obama is crazy for letting the congressional republicans do this.  Wait – he didn’t hire them, did he?  The cherry on top was the question about Obama’s unsocial behavior.  The question itself didn’t ask if he was not social, no.  It asked why this ‘truism’ of his administration being dissocial exists and what he could do about it. 

Oh happy wet-dream for the mighty republican who wants to believe it.  Now the media are calling it a ‘truism’.  Dad doesn't want to do anything we want to do because he doesn't like me.  It doesn't have to do with anything else, but that.  I had soccer players on the team I coach say the same thing about me when I wouldn't play them in the positions they wanted.  They were 15 years old.

The very first thing that was commented on CNN after this press release was that both sides weren’t talking.  As if they have their backs turned on each other.  Seems to me Obama is sitting at the table with a chair pushed out.  It has always seemed this way.  And it has always seemed as though the republicans are outside the room screaming about how he won’t talk to them.  Yet the door is open, the refreshments are ready, and Obama has his notebook out.

Even more crazy is the notion that something the congress will do is somehow the responsibility of the president.  It’s the perfect political posturing for the republicans.  If Obama does something about the debt ceiling it will either be to give in to their demands or to over extend the powers of the executive branch.  If he doesn’t do anything, then he is partly blamed for the US, yet again, shooting themselves in the foot.

But he isn’t doing it.  They are.  They are actually the ones who need to take action on the debt ceiling or vote against it.  It is their actions.  People actually voted in representatives who are immature and shallow enough to slow our progress, even hurt our progress, for political capital.

But the children that this country put in to play, are running amuck with their tantrums like some baby in a walmart, undoubtedly screaming like all hope is lost while their mom waits it out. 

And thus, this ridiculousness continues, and Obama has to be like an annoyed mother in Walmart, waiting out the crying.  Instead of being a leader in Washington and the partner he wishes to be in discussions of progress, he is forced to be the tough-love parent.  What a waste of his time – and he knows it.  His State of the Union address will be both is message to the US about his goals, and his lecturing to the youngsta's about what all this political stuff is about.

I hope someone in the House will say, "Shhh!  The adult is talking."  It would be easier than counting on them picking up a history book and actually learning something about this country.  Maybe we should take them all to my elementary school cafeteria and have them sit on the floor cross-legged like the 4th graders during an assembly.  We can pass out popcorn and have teacher moderators on the sides making sure that Billy won't pull Alice's hair.

It has been pretty entertaining, but man do I feel sorry for Obama.  At least the arguments during Lincoln’s time having to do with slavery and the economic destruction of the south had some point.  Slavery was wrong – they were wrong, but when you watch the movie don’t fool yourself into thinking that the zealots and children who occupy Washington today are anywhere near as reasonable as Lincoln’s opposition to the amendment to abolish slavery.   It is that absurd from my point of view.