Feelin' Alright?

Has luck finally run out for this president? Keeping in mind that luck is 10% opportunity and 90% preparedness, that is the question the main stream media will be asking itself during the now fast approaching hurricane season and beyond. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that their reporting with regard to Barack Hussein Obama has been consistently skewed in favor of the ‘opportunity’ part while totally ignoring the bit about ‘preparedness’ (or competence).

Comparisons to Bush’s presidency have long since lost their edge. Obama has been at the helm long enough for us to have forgotten much of what it was that irked us so much about Bush. Increasingly we look back longingly to times when we could still afford much, including the luxury of bashing the Republican team with abandon.

We have not been bashing Obama. Is that because Obama has been perfect? Few would think so today. (God, the guy lied – and we fell for it!) It’s rather that we have finally come to acknowledge the close connection between our country and its leader. During the eight years of the Bush administration we were under the general impression that our country was strong; that it could easily withstand our joyous bashing of its leadership. Today, we feel as vulnerable as Obama looks. We’ve come to the conclusion that the two go hand in hand; that if Obama fails, the nation fails - we fail.

No, we refrain from bashing Obama because, in doing so, we basically weaken ourselves even more. And we cannot stand too much more self-flagellation. Hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes, of course, are natural phenomenon. Acts of God can’t be helped. It is our ability to respond effectively that is now in question. What about man-made contingency operations such as financial collapse, getting ill due to smoking or drinking Coke and eating too much fat? What about oil spills? Civil unrest? Insubordination? War? It hasn’t been looking so good all the way around. We seem to have run out of all the big ideas, including the biggest one of all: Yes we can!

Disaster appears to be lurking on every conceivable corner. Government is our life vest – or so we’ve been told. This vest has been shown to be severely deflated and barely functioning. What will we do should something really bad happen? Our anxiety is heightened with all this talk going ‘round about Manchurian candidates, Trojan Horses and such. Will we really be forced into having to take care of ourselves? Can we?

It’s best to tread lightly for now. It’s not because we particularly like the guy – the big ‘O’. It’s because we feel he’s all we’ve got. We’ve got to make what we’ve got work – at least for as long as it takes to replace him with a sturdier model.