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JerseySmarts.com

Obama Goes to Late Night Television

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President Barack Obama made a visit to Jay Leno’s couch last night and I’m not sure that I’m okay with his decision to do so. I’m not like one of these people on the far right who is calling it the end of the presidency as we know it, but it does strike me as odd that when the country has hit a near-depression level in our economy that the President would be heading over to late night television.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s because this is something new for a President, but his loose attitude at Leno last night was a little bit much for me. Just as it was refreshing to have a President break that austere facade that we have grown accustomed to seeing from the Oval Office, I was a little uneasy that the leader of the free world was yucking it up on a talk show. And as for his comment about the Special Olympics, it was absolutely insulting and another in a line of gaffes from the Obama/Biden combination.

It seems to me that the President hasn’t really evolved from that campaign mode into the leadership role that he needs to assume. He needs to stop worrying about whether or not people like him and get back to swinging the hammer at against the “Washington-as-usual” crowd. Then you have the inherent bias against the Republicans where if a Republican President had visited Leno he would have been universally panned and if he had made the Special Olympics comment he would have been told to resign from office.

It just made me uneasy to have the President on late night television when there is so much crap going on in the country that need strong leadership right now. You can read an even better description (with links from around the blogosphere) about what President Obama’s appearance on The Tonight Show means at Fausta’s Blog.

President Bush’s Farewell Speech

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After listening to President Bush’s farewell speech last night, I hope the fanatics who destroy every word that this man says will let up a bit. His speech was genuine and from the heart. Many of the fanatics who hate Bush (not dislike, but hate the man) are pessimistic anyway, so I doubt that they’ll give this man his moment to say goodbye. President Bush’s speech was very classy and to the point – you couldn’t ask much more for a now-controversial President who is leaving the White House after eight years.

I have to say, though, I got a kick out of the audience shots looking at Vice President Dick Cheney. Again, I think that history and scholars will show that Cheney didn’t overstep the bounds of his office, but rather scared a nation who became used to an impotent Vice President. Frankly, I hope that Vice President-Elect Joe Biden takes as active as a role in that position as Cheney did because Biden has some good thoughts in his head if he just lets them out.

Anyway, Cheney amused me because he has that perpetual angry old man look on his face. About halfway through the speech they spanned to Cheney and he had a look on his face like, “Let’s go, George. I gotta get to sleep!” I loved it – hilarious. And then when the speech was over you KNOW Cheney wanted to turn to the crowd and say, “Alright, assholes. Get out!”

He’s the best.

Whether you love or hate the man, you have to admit that President Bush’s message last night about freedom in the Middle East and a strengthened security system at home was mildly inspiring. Whenever we, as a country, step back and look at the results of our good work around the world you can’t help but be in awe. Sure, most of the world doesn’t understand us and we’ve been too aggressive in foreign policy lately, but that doesn’t negate the positive results worldwide thanks to American involvement.

Foreign and domestic policy will change drastically with the new administration. I’m looking forward to these changes for a variety of reasons, but I thank President Bush and his administration for their contributions over the last eight years.