Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A Marionette Loses a String

Well, that was the joke.  President Obama lost a teleprompter yesterday while making a speech on urban and metropolitan policy.

While the scenario is certainly funny and amusing, it makes me wonder: why does this guy need a teleprompter so much?  Seriously, this was not a very important, career-making speech after all.  It was just a press briefing on the economic direction this administration wants to take us on.

It is not like any of us took time out of our day to watch this briefing.  No one would have know about it, save for one ABC news reporter writing about it on his blog.  Frankly, most Americans care more about celebrity pop than some boring speech from a politician, even it was our first celebrity President.

I guess the easiest and simplest answer is the one that fits best: Obama is nothing more than a puppet or marionette (or Muppet) who has no real thought of his own.  Normally, this would not bother me.  Most people in the whole wide world have no thought of their own when it comes to political matters.  They usually agree 100% with someone else who appears to know what he or she is talking about.  But this man is suppose to be the Chief Executive of our government and the leader of the free world.  And he cannot speak off the cuff about simple economic matters?

It is obvious to me that our President is, at the very least, being driven by his own ideology rather than his own mind.  This is a dangerous thing to have in any position of power because such people can easily be influenced by outside forces and will fail to make serious decisive action.  Such inability to make a serious decision will ultimately lead to horrendous results.

It is one thing to have a bad decision maker.  It is wholly another to have a no-decision maker.  No wonder the Russians refused to shake his hand.

Should this be the sole quality of an elected leader?  No, of course not.  But it should have been one the determining factors in deciding who should be your leader.  Most people are too incompetent to lead other people and they are barely able to keep their own lives in order.  If you cannot speak from the heart, then what good are you?

Say what you want about President Bush, at least his was not afraid to speak off the cuff, even though the media, who uses lots of editing and teleprompters to appear articulate, mocked him for it.

I guess this is ultimately a reflection of America, where appearance matters more than substance.  I guess beauty really is only skin deep.  That means that Sotomayor is unqualified to serve as a Supreme Court Justice because she is ugly, not because of her crazy ideological bent.  Do not be offended by that, because I am just using the logic that the media wants me to go by, after all.  Do not worry, I will scrutinize her properly later.