Message to Obama: Act like a leader

It has become rather embarrassing to watch Mr. Obama make a mockery of the office of the president of the United States. It has nothing to do with his deaf ear to the American people on health care or any other outlandish policy he is promoting. It is simply his demeanor and behavior, making him a running joke.

Each time Mr. Obama gives a speech, the opening lines consist of "I want to give a shout out to …" or he acknowledges someone who is "in the house." What way is this for the leader of the free world to act?

I can see that type of behavior coming from a celebrity or an entertainer, but the president of the United States? Has basic presidential decorum been cast aside for a hipper, cooler, more modern leader?

I sure hope not. The office deserves more respect than that.

More than a year ago, I wrote a satirical column titled, "The hip-hop president." You cannot imagine the flak I took from the cult leaders of the Obamaniacs. One would have thought I attacked Allah within the Islamic community. I was called a racist and every other nasty epithet you can imagine. Language contained in many of the e-mails even made me blush. Yet, I think there may have been more truth in that column than I thought at the time.

The president of any country needs to be … well … presidential! He should not be your homey, buddy, bro, etc. He is the president, for Pete's sake. There is no place for shout-outs and Pentecostal, cadence-laden speeches. Does Mr. Obama not realize every time he speaks, 6 billion people are listening, even if his homies in the media are not? Each word he speaks potentially affects millions of people.

Mr. Obama needs to think about every word. Or shall I say the speechwriters and the teleprompter operators need to carefully consider what they place on the prompter, knowing he is going to repeat verbatim what they feed him. They need to be more thoughtful, mature and, frankly, more grown-up. They should acknowledge his position in the world and take it more seriously. Stop trying to make him your average hip-hop guy. He is the president.

Am I the only one in America who is embarrassed when I see the president look more like a cheerleader than the leader of the free world? A campaigner more than a statesman? He constantly reminds us the election is over and he is the victor. Isn't it time he starts behaving in a manner worthy thereof?

The entire body of Democratic leadership in D.C. has become a national embarrassment from the president on down. The speaker of the House stutters and stammers all over the place and then says stupid things like, "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy." She can't be serious. Is that how legislation should be passed? They pass it and then tell us about it?

How about Harry Reid taking to the floor of the Senate the day we found out Americans had lost another 36,000 jobs and referring to it as "really good"? He is kidding us, right? "Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good." He can't be serious. Sadly enough, it is not a joke. Reid is as deadly serious as the deluded Pelosi.

Forty-two men prior to Mr. Obama, while not perfect, at least attempted to cling to a modicum of awe while representing the nation. It feels like Mr. Obama is on a do-or-die mission. He could care less what damage is done in the process if he gets what he wants. But he is alone in his pursuit. What he is selling the American people ain't buying. The polls are proving it every day. He acts more like a kid in a candy shop than the man America elected to lead in 2008.

Our elected officials need to act like leaders, not dictators, cheerleaders or carnival barkers. We have serious issues that demand attention. They need to stop campaigning and start leading. Listening to the American people and doing the work Americans want, need and desire to get done.

America has spoken loud and clear. Right now we need jobs, not health-care reform. Mr. Obama, in one of his thousands of early speeches, promised that jobs had "100 percent of his attention." Jobs, in that speech, were job one. Within a week he was right back to touring the country cheerleading and demagoguing his health-care bill. He promises transparency and then allows Pelosi to embarrass him and the nation by saying Americans only get to know what a bill contains after it is passed.

Mr. Obama has now been president for roughly 415 days. It's about time he started acting like a president. Shouldn't he be able to control his own party? Is that too hard a task for him to tackle? He can't even get Pelosi, Durbin, Reid and Gibbs on the same page, yet we are to trust him to lead the greatest nation in the world?

We don't have the luxury of more on-the-job training for Mr. Obama. Affirmative action has no place in presidential leadership. It is time for him to put down the pompoms, stop with the empty promises, abandon his pursuit of what America has soundly rejected and be a president.