Today the Associated Press reports that the President of the United States will travel to Copenhagen to make an appeal to bring the Summer Olympics to Chicago in 2016. Really? This is a job for the president himself? This can’t be handled by someone without so many pressing, critical national issues to handle?
The list of current issues that are vital to the national interest is fairly plain: The Iranians testing missiles and the news of secret nuclear facility in that country…The Afghan war at a slow boil…and the economy continues to falter and the unemployment rate continuing to rise. These are the issues I would expect to see the President of the United States busy at work on. I don’t think, if you polled the American people, you would see the 2016 Olympics very high on their list…just my opinion.
But, with all of this going on, President Obama finds time to go on a media blitz to push for a healthcare agenda that is increasingly unpopular with the citizenry and to fly off to Europe to try to bring home a big pay-off to his former state and city politician friends. All during a time when Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, reports that he has only talked to the president once in 70 days.
Former Ambassador John Bolton told the Washington Times, "I think it’s very clear, and has been during last year’s campaign and in the eight months the president has been in office, that he just doesn’t regard foreign policy and national security as important as domestic issues, like reforming the health care system.” He continued, "If you think there are no threats, then it’s not illogical to pay no attention to the rest of the world. The problem is in his [Obama’s] basic reading of the international environment where we do continue to face massive threats for international terrorists and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, among others."
What are Mr. Obama’s priorities? He seems totally unable or unwilling to settle down to the real task of governing. He continues to seek out the spotlight and run in an extended campaign mode. So far, he looks to be in way over his head. This reminds me of the old story of Nero…fiddling while Rome burned.
