Barack Obama starts his Hawaiian vacation today. His break to the isles comes just in time to save him from two things: over-saturation with voters, and military families.
A new poll shows that Obamamania is wearing thin. The left-leaning Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll shows 48 percent of voters believed they have heard too much about Obama. The poll also shows that 38 percent of the same folks want to hear much more about Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for president.
I can understand how Obama wants to give his adoring fans a break from his banter and his ever-present image. He’s been on the front pages of People magazine, allowed tabloid TV to interview his children, and mainstream journalists can’t get enough of him. We’ve even seen him emerging from the ocean in his swim trunks, like he is some latter-day Poseidon, Greek god of the oceans.
But when it comes time for important policy decisions, such as what to do about rocketing energy costs and America’s dependence on foreign oil, he tells us to whip out our tire gauges. Check our tires? That’s it? Gas prices will plummet, heating oil for the winter will be plentiful and cheap, and the heavens will rain batteries for Hybrid vehicles if we just check our tires?
Who in the hell is his adviser for energy policy anyway? Jimmy Carter? The misery index is rising and Obama hasn’t even fully secured his position as Democratic candidate for president. It’s no wonder people are dead tired of his image and his rhetoric.
Not everybody is happy about Obama’s island getaway. Military families would like to have a word or two with Obama. They want to hear his plans for their future if he snookers enough people into voting for him in November. After all, the president of the United States is the commander in chief, despite what liberals say about the current president.
The military families invited Obama and McCain for a town hall meeting on Monday in Fort Hood, Texas. I visited Fort Hood when I was researching my book, “American Mourning,” and it is huge. It’s the United States’ largest active-duty base.
This would have been a perfect time for Obama to communicate with a large contingent of families and soldiers who have sacrificed so much. Instead, Obama’s campaign spokeswoman, Shannon Gilson, said Obama had a scheduling conflict. But, she added, he “strongly supports” veterans and military families, and he “has worked hard on their behalf in the Senate,” according to “NewsBusters.
Oh, really. Is that what he calls it when he opposed Gen. David Petraeus’ plans for the surge, which has made our troops safer and helped them get the upper hand in Iraq? I guess he supports the troops by demanding that they surrender to the terrorists in Iraq. And he supports the troops by failing to meet with injured troops while he was on his “presidential” tour of Europe as a “citizen of the world.”
And his scheduling conflict? Doing the hula in Hawaii.
We are sick of hearing about Obama. We’re sick of him preaching to us about tire gauges while he jets around the world and sucks up gas like a pack of hogs at the trough. We’re sick of treating our warriors like school children and pretending to know more about prosecuting a war than professional soldiers.
I just hope the paparazzi and Obama’s traveling PR team, also known as the mainstream press, take a vacation, too. We’ve heard and seen enough. We need a break.
Aloha, Obama. Maybe after you’re rested you can take some time for those military families. They may actually still want to hear from you.
