Barack Hussein Obama: You Clean Your Room This Instant!

posted at 11:13 am on October 1, 2009 by Howard Portnoy
[ Education ]   

Yesterday, the panel on FOX News’s Special Report with Bret Baier devoted a segment to things that President Obama has done in his first 9 months in office that have pleased conservatives. The panel, consisting of Charles Krauthammer, Mort Kondracke, and Fred Barnes, seemed less hard-pressed to come up with plaudits than Obama and his media cheerleaders would be to find praise for Obama’s predecessor in the White House. Nevertheless, the panel identified two particulars: They named Obama’s commitment to the war effort in Afghanistan, at least up until recently, and his support for charter schools, again up until his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, came out opposed to the idea.

To be sure, the president has proved a tough read at times. I myself have spent time pondering the motivations for some of his actions. I think I have finally hit on an answer. Barack Obama, age 48, is belatedly going through adolescence. His mind obviously is on girls and fast cars, not affairs of state, which are BOR-IINNG!

In the same way your teenager needs to be told twice to take out the garbage, so Barack of the raging hormones needs to be told repeatedly to meet with his general in Afghanistan. Say what one will about George W. Bush’s famous infelicity with the English language, at least he conducted himself like an adult. Faced with a similar situation in the Middle East, Bush spoke with his generals on the ground every week or two. Not Obama — not until the conservative press (which nags, nags, nags) finally goaded him into meeting with his security team in the White House Situation Room yesterday to conduct a meeting by satellite with Gen. Stanley McChrystal. (“You should really visit your grandma. She’s not getting any younger.” “Aww, I don’t wanna. I’ll call her, OK?!”)

Like an adolescent, Obama has plenty of homework right now. He has health care reform, which he chose to make a priority in his young presidency. He has a still-flagging economy to contend with. (He also has a history report due Wednesday.) So what does he do? He hops on a plane (in the back seat of a friend’s car) and heads off to Denmark to make a pitch to the International Olympic Committee on behalf of his buddies in Chicago (heads to the arcade at the mall).

To make matters worse, teen Obama has no conception of — or at least no concern for — what things cost. His trip to Copenhagen, by some estimates, will cost taxpayers $10 million, partly because his “girlfriend” had to be included and went in a separate plane (car).

And finally there’s the matter of “chipping in for gas.” Can you imagine the carbon footprint of a 747 and a 727, each carrying essentially one half of a married couple, for a trip destined to last 15 hours? Can Obama imagine it? Isn’t he concerned that he might be called into Vice Principal Gore’s office tomorrow?

Cross-posted at Zombie Contentions

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