Two Little Things

Actually they are not two little things. They are rather big things in the overall scheme. I had intended to take the day off from writing, but two things in the news this morning got my attention. And of course, as usual, they involve our President. What lately doesn't? These two points, in my opinion, show how much Barack Obama has degraded the office that he holds. An office that is revered by the American people but far less so by it's current occupant.

The first thing that came to my attention was that the President holds fairly frequent, off the record, private discussions with reporters. This buddying up to reporters, without fear that what he says will be headline news, is just wrong. And it is even more wrong for reporters to accept these invitations. The relationship between the press and politicians should be slightly adversarial. A reporter that feels pumped up because he is one of the cool kids and on the inside, is not doing his job. Make no mistake, the President is expert at using people. As long as you are useful he will say and do what he has to to keep you in the fold. When that ends, it's under the bus for you, Dude. And don't look back.

Another part of this whole unseemly situation is that the President's staff passes out posed heroic looking photographs to the media. The media uses them as photos taken in hard news situations. This goes beyond bizarre and well into controlling. The media is supposed to hold rein on our politicians, not aid and abet. Where are the editors and owners that allow this to happen.

The second thing that attracted my attention was an article by F. Michael Maloof about how the President is decimating the upper ranks of our military. It seems that Mr. Obama has purged almost two hundred high ranking officers in the past five years. Mr. Obama is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. No one questions that. He is within his Constitutional rights. No one questions that either. But what I question is the wisdom of weakening our military in a very threatening world. The American people have always lived with the tenet of "peace through strength". Unfortunately there have been times when politicians over reached and used the military as a salve to their personal ambition.

To weaken the military today through a combination of purging the leadership and political correctness is foolish and hazardous to our future. Too much harm has come to our country in the past five years in a desperate grab of political power. I hope the media and the American people wake up soon before these two little things bury us.