Bill Maher on President Obama

Bill Maher made some critical commentary on President Obama on his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher. As much as I wish I could disagree, I do not. President Obama has a rare chance to bring real reform to health care, and instead he is leaving the crooked insurance companies as part of the solution. He has the chance to reform the fraud in the banking industry, but it has become business as usual for the banking giants. The spending of tax dollars to incentivize people to trade in their gas guzzling old cars for new, more efficient models, and reinvigorate demand for new automobiles has no provision to limit the program to American-made vehicles.

I agree with Maher that this is NOT what I voted for. I have been willing to give the President the chance to get things going before being overly critical. The ridiculous right is doing a great job of that. However, there is no guarantee that his party will retain its strong majority in the Congress after the elections next year. As the old adage goes, "it's time to make hay while the sun shines". NOW is the time to enact the key components of the platform he ran on. Forget bipartisanship. As Maher points out, maybe Obama needs to get a little of Bush's attitude...my way or no way.

Mr. President, don't forget what you promised...change we can believe in. We put you in office to effect that change. If you prove to just be another overpromising and underdelivering politician, you had better enjoy your job, as you could be a one-term president. You have the goodwill of most of the country. You have proven to be the hardest working man to get the job in a long time. But working hard isn't enough. You have to remember why you are there.

Unlike loudmouth Rush Limbaugh, I and most people want to see you succeed. It's time to quit compromising away your platform, when you don't have to. Perhaps instead of getting some Bush attitude, you should channel Larry the Cable Guy and just "Git 'Er Done!"

Take Two

After Chief Justice John Roberts' high visibility flub of the Presidential Oath of Office at the Inaugural, President Obama summoned him to the White House last night to re-administer the oath. While not necessary, I guess the President wanted to silence any critics who would say he is not the legal president. Imagine that! After the nutty lawsuits alleging he was not born in Hawaii, I guess he wanted to be 100% accurate.

In actuality, while spelled out in the Constitution of the United States, the oath is a mere formality. The Twentieth Amendment means that Barack Obama became President of these United States at exactly noon on January 20th, oath or no oath.

Of course, there are now rightie blogs criticizing the President for not using a Bible in the retake. But the Bible is not a Constitutional requirement, nor is the phrase "So help me God". Nevermind that the Bible itself forbids swearing, stating that one should let their "yes be yes and their no be no".

I also briefly saw the swearing in of the White House staff by Vice President Biden yesterday. When they were supposed to "swear or affirm", rather than choosing one, they all said, "swear or affirm". It reminded me of the movie Animal House, where the pledges swore allegiance to the frat, and repeated verbatim, "I, state your name".

Anyone up for a Toga Party?