Obama gets pass after pass

Those who know me know that I was neither a fan, nor a hater of Bush. I respected some of the actions he took, and loathed others. But it always left me distressed when I heard and read the pure hatred that was directed at Bush, the man.

I remember a relative of mine telling me how he hated Bush. "Surely", I thought, he means he hates the actions of Bush and said so. "No", said this relative, "I hate him". He was serious and you could see it in his eyes. I remember thinking at the time, "I have hated the actions of many presidents, but I have never hated the man."

During this same discussion he told me of his thinking all the hoopla about Bill Aires was not justified. In justifying Aires, my relative said "You had to be there to understand what he was so mad about and why he did what he did".

I tell this story about my family not to drag my relative through the mud, but to give context to the point of this post. I think this relative was pretty representative of the Bush-haters.

The point is, Bush was never given any slack, ever. That is right I suppose, as the President's job description includes public scrutiny of his every move. But the confusing part, to me anyway, is that Obama gets a pass on everything. I often play a game with myself, replacing the name "Obama" with the name "Bush" as I read current events. Picture this headline: "Bush plays three more rounds of golf as another terrorist attack unfolds". Try this one on for size: "Bush accepts peace prize even as he escalates war". I can even easily envision "While unemployment remains near all-time high, Bush goes to the movies."

The point is, Obama is getting a complete pass on EVERYTHING, while he whittles our great country down to size. I am beginning to understand the Bush hatred. I feel it towards Obama. Yes I know, he's merely the figurehead of the moment, much as Bush was. But there is nothing "presidential" about him and he, along with his willing accomplices in the congress and media, is trashing any chance we have of survival as a country.

I think that makes me all the madder. The promised hope and change included the (albeit tiny) hope that indeed, coming from a lesser circle, he would balk at the bankers, lobbyists, and the similar ilk his predecessors had embraced.

Instead, he uses these same puppet-masters' resources to achieve his stated goal of bringing America to her knees.