In Defense of Frequent Presidential Vacations in a Time When the Executive and Legislative Branches are Simpatico...

Seems like President Barack Obama has been receiving some undue disapprobation for his penchant in taking quite a bit of "me" time. While I disagree with just about every policy goal he has ever set or achieved in his time as our nation's chief executive, I feel compelled to defend his habit of enjoying spending time away from Washington DC.

The truth of the matter is, that given the current political situation, he's superfluous, so rather than rolling around bored at the White House, a man has to do what a man has to do, and if that means lots of golf, lots of time in a variety of resorts, and lots of unwinding, then let the man eat his shrimp.

Because of the successes at the ballot box his Democratic Party allies enjoyed in 2006 and 2008, our President finds himself in the enviable position of not having a whole lot to do. It's not like any notion that comes to his head, doesn't also come to the minds of Speaker Pelosi or Majority Leader Reid (though Reid for re-election purposes, may have to pretend for a bit not to be so in concert with the President, I'm sure Obama won't take any statements from Reid between now and November seriously). Also, because the vast bureaucratic apparatus that has grown from the astonishing proliferation of agencies directly overseen by the Executive Branch, the President can CHANGE our country at will without any pesky nuisances like bringing legislation to Congress. It's truly a glorious time to be a pro-regulation member of the elite.

Now it may seem somewhat counter intuitive that given free reign over a massive and largely unaccountable (so long as the press is compliant) bureaucracy would be a slow time for a President that so clearly embraces all the wonderful CHANGE that can be brought about by the alphabet soup of agencies. The thing you have to understand about President Obama, is that the people in charge of these agencies are his people, if it's not a crony straight out of Chicago running things, it's at least a like-minded Ivy League graduate with little to no business experience to sully the purity of their vision of how our nation must CHANGE. The end result, the bureaucracy metastasizes like an especially aggressive form of cancer without any particularly active participation from the West Wing, and does so in a manner exactly how the President would want it to. Were he to bother with all that messy and tedious micro-managing that can really take a depressing chunk of potential tee time away from an avid duffer like President Obama.

He can't do 'better' by taking a more active role (and from his perspective, better means more and more federal control of every last damn thing), and given the big majorities in both halves of Congress enjoyed by Democrats, there's really no arm twisting or legislative cajoling needed to pass any legislation he really cares about passing (which of course suggests that any bill that gets thwarted, was designed to be thwarted and was just a piece of political theatre to begin with), so what's a man surrounded by a wife, two daughters, and a mother in law under his roof expected to do?

That's right, hang out and knock back a few cold ones with your favorite golf buddies every chance you get, it's what any red blooded American male would do.

So quit expecting the President to spend more time in DC, everything is going exactly as he wants, and everyone under his command is doing exactly what he expects, but by appearing to be 'hands off', Obama slyly gives himself a bit of 'deniability' with regards to any blunders that come his way, and he can always act 'surprised' and 'disappointed' whenever some underling does something that becomes a bit too controversial. Aloof detachment is the way to go if you want to preserve the ability to throw anybody under the bus at any moment they become inconvenient from a narrative standpoint.

President Obama has redefined what it means to be President in the 21st century, rather than following in his predecessor's business-like, CEO model for organizing his White House, Obama has positioned himself as "Narrator and Chief". His job isn't to run things, so much as to explain things, and shape the trajectory of the narrative.

It's a known fact that writers require copious amounts of downtime in upscale resort areas (preferably seaside) to properly get a handle on their narrative of the moment. So let the Narrator and Chief chill out, it's what he does best (cause he's certainly proven somewhat inept at everything else)



(and as a side note, it should be obvious to any benefactor out there who may wish for my own personal power of narrative shaping to increase, they'd be wise to gift me with Obama-like trips to all expense paid trips to any number of fine resort areas in this country, or around the globe, I promise to give you a shoutout in the acknowledgements of the inevitable best sellers that would follow)

Thursday's Candidate for Tweet of the Week (Vodkapundit Edition)

Stephen Green, the world famous Vodkapundit, tweets:

Obama needs a Dumbass Czar. Kurtwood Smith following him around, saying, "Dumbass!" every time he opens his mouth. #TCOT #TLOT

I would like to add, that there should also be a little shock collar around his dangly bits that gets triggered whenever he answers questions with responses that take longer than five minutes (with the intensity increasing each minute beyond five). That would do him, and the world, a lot of good.

Your Daily Photo (Hope and Change Sold a LOT Better Back Before Obama Had to Actually Govern Edition)

Hope and Change, for sale, but looks like there aren't as many takers as a few months back (and the overexposed nature of the snap is obviously a sly attempt on my part to use a 'mistake' in my photography settings to further comment upon the intrinsic overexposed-ness of President Obama and his disgustingly cosy relationship with legacy media, that or I was shooting with manual settings and forgot to adjust the aperture). Also see some vandals have defaced a few places with the "DISOBEY" stickers below, it seems to be the work of the Stimulator (aka Franklin Lopez) at Submedia.tv, which judging from their rhetoric are your usual group of anarcho-anti-capitalist posers, defacing other folks property is soooo edgy. It seems to also be guerrilla marketing for his HOPIUM tour (darn, just missed his LA appearance)

I used to attend shows like that HOPIUM hokum back in my 20s, not cause I agreed with the politics, or even found the art compelling, generally. Nope, I just used to have a weakness for art school chicks, and events like this tend to draw surprisingly attractive (physically, anyway) chicas.

And if you want to peruse the rest of the Flickr set I shot on Tuesday, it's all here.

I Wish I Had a Rabbit and a Hat and a Bat and a 6 4 Impala

A Baller in the White House, that means more to me than ethnicity. But what really matters is political philosophy, so I'm not on board just yet for the great new Obama era. Hopefully he'll surprise his critics and disappoint his supporters, otherwise it might be a tough few years.

Where was Skee-Lo during the Inaugural? I'd have had him sing this song at my inaugural, guess you'll just have to wait till 2017.

Speaking of Ballers, Eric Holder and Herb Kohl might have gotten a bit silly with all the basketball talk at his confirmation hearing.

And even though I'm giving up a good 3 inches to #44, I could totally guard him, I've got quick feet and a wide body and I'd just Barkley his ass beyond his comfort zone. I used to guard guys taller than him in pick up games all the time, I don't have great handles, don't have a long range shot, but I'm not afraid to get low and use my mass and speed to frustrate skinny upright players like Obama.