The generation gap
The President can't help himself
The generation gap
I’m not really surprised that President Obama is touting his achievement in nabbing Osama Bin Laden. He has that right, since it was momentous. Of course, he has a tendency to pat himself on the back for bringing us all of that ‘hopey, changey stuff’ as Tina-Fey-channeling-Sarah-Palin might say. He also has a very high opinion of himself, and doesn’t miss an opportunity to show the rest of the country (and the world) how wonderful he really is.
The man writes books.
The man goes on late night talk shows and schmoozes with the hipsters.
The man is funnier than Jimmy Kimmel (which is actually not hard to do these days.)
So again, why shouldn’t we give him his due for being in the right place at the right time when Seal Team 6 took out Enemy Bin One?
The thing that I find distasteful about the President’s “Look How Great I Am” campaign is not that he’s attacking Mitt Romney (it’s politics, after all) but that he’s a perfect example of what the Baby Boomer generation spawned.
Barack Obama, like me (we were born exactly five months apart) was raised in a world that catered to his every need. We were all so special. The advertisers loved us. Our parents told us we were exceptional. We were at the vanguard of that wave of pampered, privileged puppies who never had to deal with the problems and privations that stymied our parents and grandparents. And most important, we took society along with us on our self-obsessed, egotistical ride.
The kids that followed, our kids, and grandkids, are worse than we ever were.
That’s why we have a President who did so little to merit election to the Oval Office and yet hoodwinked everyone into believing it was well-deserved.
That’s why we have able-bodied kids camped out on the sidewalk smoking cigarettes and begging for money (or maybe a Septa token.)
That’s why we have people suing to have entrance examinations and test standards made easier, less demanding, because getting the job or education we want is our ‘right.’
Because we’re special. Just…because.
John McCain is from another generation. He did more for this country than Barack Obama could ever hope to do in whatever remains of his charmed life.
And yet he was reluctant to have his campaign managers talk about his season in hell at the Hanoi Hilton on the campaign trail.
Come to think of it, Bob Dole rarely talked about how he got that withered arm.
Neither did Daniel Inoue.
And not having served in combat (or even the National Guard,) I have a feeling that even Bill Clinton would have been a little reticent to make political hay of dismantling Al Qaeda.
That’s why Barack Obama is different. And that’s why I don’t blame him for his actions.
He just can’t help it. As Janice Ian might say, he’s society’s child.
Comment removed.
Chris, I never read any of Obama's books, so I cannot speak to how privileged he was. Certainly everyone admits that he is one of the luckiest presidents ever.
That seal team made him avoid what happened to Carter when he tried to rescue the Iranian hostages. McCain's choosing of Sarah Palin to be his VP was not the wisest thing and proved his undoing. Mitt Romney's unrealistic view of young people's chances for and education is startling.
Your and Obama's mutual generation may indeed have been the last to prosper in this country in recent history. When I read that about 80,000 bartenders hold bachelor's degrees, that is depressing.
The number of students applying for teachers' college is dwindling, and entrance standards are actually getting harder.
Obama has kept some and broken some promises. But he is still the luckiest president in history.— Magistra- Comment removed.
- Obama has tried to do everything he said he would do; you are conveniently forgetting (in your zeal to suck on Chrissy's heinie) the obstructionist Congress with which he has been plagued. Our president has actually accomplished a good deal, despite the obstacles and haters... — sophistry
- Comment removed.
- This column is DISGUSTING. Imagine me puking all over this column. That is how I feel. You, Christine Flowers, have crossed the line. Not once, not twice, but five thousand times, and this is the final straw. You sicken me, and you sicken thousands of other people too, I am sure. What LIES. What garbage! What a disgusting, steaming pile of...you should be ASHAMED, you privileged, know nothing twit. You are to blame for all the stupidity, I would be. You and your idiotic ilk.— sophistry
- Thank GOD you never reproduced! I would hate to see what someone as stupid as you would raise...shudder the thought and thank God for small favors. Philly.com, get rid of this haggish hack. PLEASE!— sophistry
- By the way, McCain crashed three planes. My father the fighter pilot could tell you stories about how DEAD you'd be if you crashed one...yet, McCain got a pass over and over (why? Talk about privilege!). That man had no business being in the military, and he just got lucky to be able to brag now that he is a "hero" who did not confess to his captors. Big deal. We dodged a real bullet with him (he is not even remotely intellectually qualified to be president, unlike genius Obama) and Palin...I like to think God protected us. Look at McCain now: All he does is declare that we should attack and bomb other countries. He is a scary broken record. You are brainwashed and delusional if you think he would have been a great president. Thank God you were outvoted there. As for war vets and heros...we don't have a draft these days, or haven't you noticed? It's hard to blame current pols for not being vets when they weren't forced into it like so many of their predecessors...but speaking of draft dodgers or yellow bellies, what about George W. Bush who was drunk or coked up while in the national guard (or whatever other BS service he "served)....and them went AWOL. I'd like to see you address that!
Obama deserves to crow about killing OBL because you Rethugs took that victory away from his the second it happened. He was cool about it then, but now it's re-election time. And the good "half-breed" will win handily, no thanks to lie spewers and hate mongers such as YOU. I really detest you, CF.— sophistry - Comment removed.
- I am so mad about this column that I can't even deal...— sophistry
- The reason I say that Obama is "lucky" is because he entered the 2004 race with precious little political experience. McCain could have defeated him with a better VP choice. Some women were miffed that a "surrogate" for Hillary was put on the ticket.
I also mentioned how the daring raid that got OBL actually worked. It could easily have been a debacle. No American lives were lost and they eliminated Enemy #1.
Do I have to explain the Republican primary comedy show?
And Hamblin, I don't see the "hatred of women" that you see in Christine's writings. I see rather a disdain for special entitlements or preferences that some demand on the basis of, take your pick: race, sex, or other accidental attribute.
Asking for a preferential entrance score as part of "affirmative action" would be an example.
Nor is her position on abortion, which we just debated, a slap at all women, but only those who demand that their babies are theirs to dispose of at any time during pregnancy.— Magistra 
NEWS FLASH!!!!!!
Christine, the call to get OBL was not made by Obama.
The call was made by Admiral William McRaven, a three-star admiral and Navy SEAL.
The actual risk and attendant success was undertaken by SEAL Team 6.
Obama did nothing more than sit in the corner and watch.
He had as much to do with the success of the mission as I contributed to the Flyers win yesterday by watching on tv.— PlumberJoe- Yo, a hole: "Here are two helpful reminders for apoplectic conservatives. Until Barack Obama shows up on a U.S. aircraft carrier in a flight suit and an over-sized cod piece, no GOP loyalist can criticize him for boasting about the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. And no Republican can claim that "other presidents and candidates like myself" would have ordered that high-risk mission in Pakistan. After all, in 2008 John McCain said he wouldn't. Mitt Romney said we shouldn't. And despite his tough-talk about getting Bin Laden "dead or alive," George W. Bush simply couldn't." — Google It
- Plumber, no matter who gave the order, the mission was accomplished on Obama's watch. If it had failed, he would have been the one embarrassed.
Lucky man.
— Magistra - Comment removed.
Email Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com Reach Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com.
