Have you ever been stood up? Worse still, have you ever been stood up for a really important date, say the most important event of your life? Now, it’s one thing if your date is sick or is the victim of some unforeseen cataclysmic event. It’s quite another to run into him at the local soda shop with another chick or … four other chicks.
That is, in effect, what happened to the Boy Scouts of America.
This week, the nation’s most popular values-based youth organization was stood up by its honorary chairman, the president of the United States, for its most important event in 100 years – the Boy Scout Jamboree that commemorates its centennial anniversary.
It’s not like Barack Obama didn’t know this was coming. Normally, the Jamboree is held every four years, but this one was delayed a year to mark this important occasion.
To be sure, the president of the United States is a busy man. There are many pressing issues that need his urgent attention, like the war in Afghanistan, the intelligence leaks and our economic meltdown.
One could forgive him for attending an urgent meeting with Hamid Karzai, his intelligence chiefs or even his pathetic economic team. Better still if he had scheduled a meeting with a cadre of experienced economists who actually know the difference between a government giveaway and an economic stimulus, who are smart enough – and honest enough – to have paid their taxes. Wow! That would be a momentous event worthy of his undivided attention – but no!
The Boy Scouts were dissed just so he could appear on “The View” with a group of vacuous airheads. Instead of encouraging a group of young, highly motivated achievers, Obama chose to discuss political issues on a program that is designed to appeal to welfare queens and other mentally challenged ne’er-do-wells, who park themselves on couches to watch the drivel on daytime television.
Obama’s three predecessors each found the time to address at least one Boy Scout Jamboree, and President Ronald Reagan sent the first lady to the 1985 event.
At a time when the majority of our young people would rather play video games than take part in outdoor activities, wouldn’t this have been a perfect venue for Michelle Obama, who has launched a campaign to end childhood obesity?
Guess the serial-vacationing first lady was too busy planning next week’s trip to Spain with daughter Sasha and friends at the Ritz-Carlton, Villa Padierna, in fashionable Marbella, to break a sweat with the 45,000 Boy Scouts who are camping out in the heat and humidity at Fort A.P. Hill near Fredericksburg, Va.
To be fair, the president never confirmed that he would be there for the address to the Scouts, which was scheduled for 11 a.m. yesterday (they had to settle for a short recorded message).
Bob Dries, chairman of national news and media at the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree, told at least one news source that the organization learned on Monday that the president had scheduling conflicts. Another news source reported that the Boy Scouts knew two months in advance that Obama would not be able to attend. Nevertheless, the news media did not confirm that the president would bypass this historic celebration until his schedule was released on Monday afternoon.
By Tuesday afternoon, the White House was in full damage-control mode, announcing it was the fundraisers, not the TV appearance, that prevented the president from attending. Communications director Dan Pfeiffer told FoxNews.com. “We were always going to be out of town that day.”
So let’s get this straight: After speaking in New Jersey, the president decided to travel the short distance to New York to tape “The View” instead of traveling the short distance to Virginia to address the Boy Scouts. Oh! That makes everything perfectly clear.
We get it! The Boy Scouts is not a priority. Raising money and addressing the enamored ladies of the “The View” is a priority.
Was he really too busy, or was he more concerned about offending his radical-Left base by addressing a group of youth who are committed to honoring God and keeping themselves “morally straight”?
I hope the president scored a lot of points with “The View”‘s mush-brained audience. He’s going to need it to make up for the families of the current 4 million Boy Scouts and the more than 50 million living alumni he offended.
I can tell you that this wife of an “Order of the Arrow” Eagle Scout was personally insulted.
