en en en en en en en en en en lt lt en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en es es en pt en
The upcoming presidential election is one of the most-annoying yet—not only because both candidates pretty much stink, but because it’s also ruining my weekly family phone call.
Every Sunday, like clockwork, I give my parents a jingle for a dandy chat. But our compelling topics like the weather, recent deaths and my dogs’ latest antics have given way, like clockwork, to a plea from my mother.
“Promise me you won’t vote for Obama.”
I once made the mistake of asking why not.
He’d rather be on The Late Show With David Letterman and fundraising in Las Vegas than deal with real issues, she says.
The real issues in question that matched the timing of Obama’s Las Vegas fundraising and Big Apple TV time were kind of important: Protests that began at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo grew into a movement that trashed and burned the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Oh, yeah, four Americans were killed in the latter.
Mom says Obama should have at least pretended to care by high-tailing it back to the White House rather than keeping his fundraising and TV appointments.
Another slam Obama critics are hurling at the prez is that he failed to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in New York a week after Obama’s Lettermanstint. Obama’s camp claimed a travel conflict and argued that the president could chat with Netanyahu any time he wished. He didn’t need any of this face-to-face stuff when the guy was in town.
And the Las Vegas fundraiser? Well, who could blame him for making that a top priority? After all, the gig was hosted by Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Word has it Beyoncé has a crush on the president, and based on the presidential trend upheld by Clinton and JFK, it is only right to cater to women who swoon for our president.
But that’s to be expected, perhaps, as the last 18 months of Obama’s time in office have been spent not tending to issues of national importance at all, says mom. He’s been much too busy on the campaign trail.
Here’s where dad breaks into the conversation, saying presidents should only be allowed to serve one, six-year term. That’s it. End of story. While this would potentially burden school children with extra names to memorize on their presidential pop quiz, it would deter re-election campaign matters from ousting matters of national importance.
Then we get to the movie. 2016: Obama’s America has been deemed a powerful documentary or an extended attack full of hogwash, depending upon whom you ask. Ask mom, and she’ll tell you it’s a scary profile of the man who has helped our country plunge deeper into debt over the past four years. It also touches on the alleged turmoil that may come if he happens to get another term.
The flick highlights Obama’s “anti-colonial” ideals, which he picked up from his dear old dad. A New York Times review says film creator Dinesh D’Souza “argues that the president has emasculated NASA, refused to take a ‘meaningful step’ against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and is willing to let Argentina reclaim the Falkland Islands from the British. He paints in ominous terms the president’s conciliatory 2009 speech in Cairo and envisions a foreboding future in which the Middle East becomes a ‘United States of Islam.'”
Although many reviewers slam the movie as pure propaganda, a few say it actually uses an even hand through most of the flick as it delves into Obama’s background. The heavy hand kicks in at the end, which may explain why the box-office sensation has at times resulted in audience cheers for Romney.
But not everyone is cheering for Mitt. In fact, an 81-year-old school-bus driver in Wisconsin peppered a 12-year-old student with harassment after the driver spotted a Romney-Ryan sign in the boy’s yard. The kid came back with Romney chants and the fact that Obama was pro-abortion. At this time, the sweet, 81-year-old lady bus driver said: “Well, then maybe your mother should have chosen abortion for you.”
The anti-Romney utterance got the driver fired, and it also serves as a prime example of how hateful elections have become—and for what? It’s not like either candidate really seems like he’s ideal for running the country, unless it’s to run it into the ground.
I’ll just be glad when the election’s over, and the family phone calls get back to our usual chat on the weather, the latest dead people and the dogs.