In speech after speech, at fund-raiser after fund-raiser, in press conference after press conference and in countless radio, TV and print media interviews, Barack Obama has whined and complained about how tough his job is.  He constantly bemoans how Bush made his job difficult, how the Japanese tsunami made it a backbreaker, how Republicans have made it Herculean, how the Israelis have made it intricate, how being Commander-in-Chief during two wars is a bit trying, how everything is hard for him. 

For once the media, both main stream and alternative should be able to speak with a single voice to each of the recitation of his complaints with just two words:  So What?

The American people hired Obama in 2008 to solve problems.  The fact that conditions make it difficult is immaterial to them.  They each have their own problems, and candidly no one really cares about Barry's set of issues.  He has a job to do, and if it's tough, well that's why he has a personal 747, millions of subordinates and vast sums of money at his disposal for handling those difficulties and solving those problems.

One doesn't like to use words or phrases such as "dumb", "naïve", "stupid", "willfully ignorant" or "empty suit" when speaking of the President of the United States regardless of who he or she might be, or what their political persuasion is.  But any reasonably intelligent person knew well before November 2008 that whoever was elected should have seen what was coming.

Obama ran on the idea that he knew how to fix the nation's problems, that he was the "smartest-guy-in-the-room", that he could bring us all together in a post-racial, truly harmonious America.  Doesn't that kind of indicate that he was aware that things were not going to be easy?  Or did he think that once installed as President, people would, as they have done for him in the past, smooth his way, bask in his incredible (pre-manufactured) oratory, continue to swoon and do his bidding, and in general allow him to coast for four or eight years?

As a community organizer, how often did he have to speak to, or try to persuade, those who were opposed to whatever it was that he wanted?  They were the enemy, and Alinksy taught not to persuade but to bully them. Most of his face to face interactions were the "preaching-to-the-choir" type.  For instance, he might tell people who wanted mortgages but couldn't afford them that he wanted them to get mortgages regardless of whether they could afford them.  They would swoon, applaud and tell him how wonderful he was.  His job done, he would then go home and tell Michelle that he'd had a good day.

Did he expect his job as President would be that easy?  Seriously?

In his apparently endless series of speeches, Obama sounds a lot like a paramedic who arrives at the scene of an disastrous accident, looks at the injured who are lying among the wreckage and bleeding to death, and then calls a press conference to spend two hours explaining how HE didn't cause the accident, it wasn't HIS fault that there are people bleeding and dying because of the accident, and that he and Michelle will now take a vacation to Vail or Martha's Vineyard or Costa del Sol or somewhere else to relax from this trying experience.

If the Presidency is really that trying for Barack Obama, the people of the United States should offer him an early retirement.  November 6^th seems like a good day to tell him that his days of suffering are over.

And ours will be too.

Jim Yardley is a retired financial controller, Vietnam veteran and an independent voter. Jim blogs at jimyardley.wordpress.com, or he can be contacted directly at james.v.yardley@gmail.com