Posted by
flagwaver on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 9:17:39 AM
David Letterman. David. Letterman. David Freaking Letterman.
When I saw that our president was going to appear on David Letterman, I was outraged. And I don't get outraged by a lot of things, but this was one of them. The idea that a sitting POTUS would go on Letterman, after having appeared on Leno earlier in the year, was too much for me to take.
Why?
Because the office of the president is not some celebrity position, that's why! And I resent like hell any president that dishonors the office in any way, shape, form, or fashion. I resented Richard Nixon for attempting to abuse the claim of executive privilege during watergate; I resented Jimmy Carter for...well...just about everything he did as POTUS; I resented Bill Clinton for his tryst with Monica Lewinsky; and I resent Barack Obama for reducing the office to a laughingstock by appearing on a celebrity driven late night talk show.
Does this clown not understand that he is the United States while he serves in office? Does he not know that he is the current living symbol of this nation? Does he not grasp the fact that whatever he does, for good or for ill, reverberates around the world and shapes the image that the world has of the United States? And what image does it send to the rest of the world when the POTUS spends his valuable time yukking it up with Alfred E. Ne....uh, David Letterman in advance of the UN General Assembly meeting? You think Vladimir Putin was trying to get onto TMZ this week? Was Mahmoud Ahmedinijad appearing on Entertainment Tonight? Was Hugo Chavez angling for a spot with Conan on the Tonight Show?
Everyone keeps telling us that Obama has the best and brightest around him to guide his presidency, but my question is: Where the hell are they? Whose brilliant idea was it to have the POTUS become just another celebrity "get" for the bookers at Letterman? And where are the savvy political operators who should be telling him that he needs to act like a president, not some B-list movie star promoting his latest flick? Why are these people not acting as good stewards of the highest office in the land?
I guess that John McCain was right when he called Obama a celebrity, because he seems more concerned with his public image than with his public policy.
2012 cannot get here fast enough!