WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?
“Where the hell have you been,” my friend, Barney asked.
I went trekking.
“Where the hell is that?” he wanted to know.
Anywhere you can go off, follow a path or two, and sort yourself out.
“I thought you did that on your sailboat?”
I do, but this time I went trekking . . . in the Australian Outback.
“Why in hell would you do that?”
I was confused and depressed. I thought it would straighten me out.
“So, did it?”
I don’t know yet.
“You don’t look happy.”
I’m not.
“What’s the problem?”
Disappointment. Big time disappointment.
“About . . . ?”
Barack Obama.
“What’s so special about you? Everyone who’s not in his stable, or so far out on the left wing they can’t see their own reflection, is disappointed in him.”
I thought he’d do better . . . much better.
“He had no relevant experience for the job; he was saddled with a leftist Congress that he helped bring into office; and he owed too much to special interests, like George Soros and the big city intellectuals who used to think they ran the country and now do. How could he do well?”
I thought he was smart enough to cut the edges off what he’d promised the left, like Bill Clinton did.
“Smart doesn’t mean he has any guts. Every person he’s come up against has faced him down. Totally gutless I’d say.”
Maybe, but I’m more concerned that he seems arrogant to the point of not caring. The brightest lawyers see all sides of an issue and as a result have trouble making a decision. This seems close to what he’s doing on the Afghanistan troop question. I thought he’d be a quicker study on the real role of the Presidency.
“Thin-skinned rascal.”
Maybe that’s part of the problem. I don’t believe he’s ever before had to take severe criticism. It seems like he rationalizes opposition to his ideas as still being campaign rhetoric. That makes it easy for him to take, and he just dishes it back and forgets about it.
“Not a bad observation. So where’re you heading now?”
I’ve got a date on the South Pole with Al Gore.
“Is he a trekker?”
No, he’s a tweeter.
