Playing At Being President

By W. A. Bussey

The longer he is in office, the more it appears that Barack H. Obama doesn't really want to be president but only to play at being president. He doesn't seem interested in dealing with the messy, day-to-day responsibilities of the president's job. He doesn't want to be the Chief Executive and propose legislation that will move the country forward to new heights. He doesn't want to be Commander-In-Chief of the military and execute a necessary war. He doesn't take on the fiscal responsibilities required of the executive to deal with our economic issues. He doesn't want to be leader of the United States and act with dignity and forcefulness to put American interests forward in the world community.

Barack Obama, like a child playing a game, seems to ignore reality and live in a make-believe world. He goes to international conferences and makes speeches so that (as he imagines) the countries of the world see him as the organizer of a global community; he appears on radio and television to speak and be seen as the leader of the country that he refuses to lead; he wants to talk; he loves to talk. And like the child who plays at being doctor or father or mother, he talks about what he wants. Like a child, he overuses the first person pronouns. All his rhetoric is "I" and "me" and "my" and, sometimes, the inclusive "us" and "our." He wants to be seen and heard. But he doesn't want to do (except to make speeches, and even these are prepared by others, canned, and read from a teleprompter). Those speeches in which he does seem to be taking charge are followed by a child-like loss of interest in the subject. He loses interest in playing that game and goes on to another.

In the meantime, other world leaders, especially our enemies and potential enemies are operating in the real world of economic turmoil, international power rivalry, and horrendous weapons. In these perilous times, made more so by his apparent lack of interest in dealing maturely with real issues, we cannot afford to have a chief executive who abdicates his duties and only plays at being president.

Walt Bussey, a retired computer systems analyst, publishes The Lemming Watch