PrintJune 14, 2010
A Squally Maiden Voyage
How apropos: A teenage girl boards a yacht intending to circumnavigate the globe, hits turbulence, and needs to be rescued. Sounds a lot like Barack Obama’s maiden voyage. On Inauguration Day, Barry climbed aboard the U.S.S. America, destination unknown. Disregarding the consequences of being too inexperienced to handle tempests such as international instability, nuclear threat, near-economic collapse, and terrorism, like the unproven Abby Sunderland, Barack hoisted sail and set out to break all political and presidential records.
People ask, What were Abby’s parents thinking, letting a sixteen-year-old child board the Wild Eyes and set out on a yachting expedition to become the youngest solo person to circle the globe?
Her parents have come under criticism from some observers for allowing the high-risk adventure.
Veteran sailors questioned the wisdom of sending a teenager off alone in a small boat, knowing it would be tossed about for 30 or more hours at a time by the giant waves that rake the Southern Hemisphere's oceans this time of year.
Veteran sailors questioned the wisdom of sending a teenager off alone in a small boat, knowing it would be tossed about for 30 or more hours at a time by the giant waves that rake the Southern Hemisphere's oceans this time of year.
A more pressing question from shocked Sunderland observers would be: What in the world was America thinking, putting a raw recruit like Obama at the helm of the nation? Electing a novice like Barry was like "sending a teenager off alone in a small boat, knowing it would be tossed about" by international and political waves.
Unlike Abby’s unaccompanied trip, three hundred million people are aboard Captain Obama’s dinghy, and each day, America gets whacked upside the head with an eagre more devastating than the prior day's.
A confident Abby was sure she could sail around the world, break records, and successfully complete the expedition. Two thousand miles from Australia’s western coast, the self-assured teen found out what Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. is in the midst of realizing: Harsh conditions oftentimes override sangfroid.
Abigail Sunderland, "stranded in heavy seas[,] set off a distress signal after the mast collapsed, knocking out … satellite communications." The young Ms. Sunderland found herself in the same position as Barry O -- stranded, distressed, collapsed, and in need of rescue. The great orator’s satellite communications might as well be knocked out, because although Captain Barry talks incessantly, no one seems very interested in being pounded by a squall of vacant rhetoric.
Not too long after shoving off, Abby ran into problems with Wild Eyes' equipment and "had to stop for repairs." Sunderland was forced to relinquish the "goal of setting the record…but continued, hoping to complete the journey." Similarly, not long after a historic departure from port, the president addressed economic problems and "stopped for repairs" by instituting a $787-billion stimulus package. With a huge hole in the side of the Obama craft, the president, like Abby, held fast to the goal of "completing the journey."
Right out of the harbor, America began to quickly take on water. The nation should have boarded life rafts and disembarked from the sinking vessel long before drifting so far from the dock.
Abigail Sunderland and Barack Obama are two tough customers. Both simply refuse to give up. Adrift on the open seas of the turbulent southern Indian Ocean, Abby was "being tossed by 30-foot waves -- as tall as a 3-storey building." Prior to losing satellite communication, the seafaring teen "made several broken calls to her family." It wasn’t until sixty minutes after Abby’s last communiqué that the girl's emergency beacons began signaling.
Aimlessly wandering around on the open political sea of international and domestic policy, Barack is likewise being tossed about and unable to keep control of the ship. Taking into consideration the magnitude of Obama’s pomposity, it is surprising that three-storey waves encircling Captain Barry's maiden voyage have managed to rise over his head. Bailouts, stimulus, unemployment, a war in Afghanistan, rogue nations, illegal immigrants, unpopular and overbearing health care reform, and now, scudding through millions of gallons of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico, Seaman Obama seems unable to navigate even friendly waters.
Yet despite the storm, America's liberal timoneer refuses to loosen his grip on the helm. If the nation capsizes, blame will fall on a wind-bound president indisposed to tack in any direction other than to the left.
Abby Sunderland was saved by the French ship Ile De La Reunion. According to French authorities, rescuing the teen was a "delicate operation," and at one point, the captain of the fishing boat "fell into the ocean." Laurence Sunderland said the crew used its dinghy to retrieve his daughter. "We are just ecstatic that she is alive and well and survived the ordeal."
Unfortunately, it’s much more tenuous for the United States of America. There isn’t an Ile De La Reunion big enough to recoup America from the storm toward which a socialistic shipmaster has directed the nation. If attempted, such a "delicate operation" would likely entail fishing millions of people from the deep.
When Abigail was spotted by rescuers in a "chartered Qantas Airbus A330 jet that made a 4,700 mile round trip from Perth to Sunderland," the young woman was "on the back deck of her boat, sail dragging in the water." Spotting Obama's sinking sea craft would require searching for a skipper clinging steadfastly to the port side and a tattered United States flag at the rear, torn by Obama’s rudder and being dragged through the sludge of false promises, socialistic programs, and lost freedoms.
A Sunderland family spokesman said Abby's "vessel is so badly damaged, her attempt to circle the globe is over. This is the end of the dream. There is no boat to sail."
Abigail Sunderland will soon be safely home. The prayers for Abby have been answered, and a teenage girl, who shouldn’t have been attempting to navigate the high seas alone, is out of harm's way. Laurence Sunderland said his daughter's boat will likely be "sunk because of the difficulty to tow such a great distance."
Skirting the waves on the squally high seas, there remains yet another vessel steered by a mulish novice. Barack Obama's seamanship has brought our nation such a great distance from the shoreline that in the wake of the voyage, and because of the great expense of towing an overturned craft, an unsalvageable America will likely be delivered to the same unfortunate end as Sunderland's wild-eyed yacht.
Author’s content: www.deangej@optonline.net
