Turns out Candidate Barack Obama wasn't as charismatic as first thought. Sure there were some folks swooning, composing songs, odes, and poetry. A few even got tingles up their legs, a very few, but most people were simply doing what we so often do in presidential elections; vote in a new guy from the other party.
With help from a preponderance of media gurus, Obama was made to appear the "Messiah" or at least "King of America," able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
He even believed his own invincibility and spent most of the first year of his presidency globetrotting, strutting about the world stage, bowing to world leaders and accepting praise and adulation that would turn any head. When he spoke to the American people, which was often, he appeared and sounded confident and promised what many wanted to hear.
He would "change" the country for the better; solve financial crises, end the wars, close Gitmo, lower taxes for all but the "rich," solve the energy crisis, put people back to work, provide health care for everyone at no additional cost, defeat terrorism, and everyone who wanted a college education could get one, no worries.
Surely, American Utopia was just around the corner. If only those damn Republicans and FOX News would get out of the way. Almost immediately his liberal agenda and questionable appointments brought waves of skepticism and not just from the opposition party. None of which had anything to do with race rather with ideology, so much so that the president was compelled to promise recently that he is not an ideologue.
Problem solved, or is it? We are reminded of past presidents who said "I am not a crook," and "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
Well then what's so bad about being an ideologue? It's not illegal or immoral is it? Maybe it is if it damages our country, if it betrays our values and ideals, puts us in harm's way and destroys our economic free enterprise system. Surely the president has good intentions and means no harm. Isn't that enough?
Can we also say that congressional leaders who offer bribes to their members in exchange for their votes have good intentions?
President Obama is now starting another round of promises to the American people, this time to counter the affects of recent losses in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia which have severely impacted the liberal agenda. This time he'll try to persuade Middle America, not "mainstream media."
Promises will flow like melting snow, this time the blush is off the rose. This time the people aren't buying the "cure all" of "snake oil."
Reynolds lives in Pleasant View.
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