Saxifrage

So Long Real World

As part of their presidential transition coverage, the news networks have been running stories about the physical details of life for the First Family--the presidential-seal buckles on the seat belts in Air Force One, the five-inch-thick armor plating on the sides of the presidential limousine, etc. etc.  The TV hosts present these stories with a benign air of "Oh how cool!"  In fact however I find them deeply depressing. 

One of the reasons Obama's election was so cheering is that it gives us a president who is something like a "real person," meaning someone I could imagine knowing--an urban guy who lived in a crummy rented apartment while attending Columbia University, surfs the Internet, reads books with his daughters, and so on.  Now he is entering this bubble which is like something out of the fantasy life of a James Bond villain. 

No wonder Obama is so desperate to hang on to his Blackberry--he is quite right to be worried about the danger of losing touch.  We can only hope that--unlike Bush--he may be self-aware enough to recognize when it is happening and caring enough to fight against it.

Obama Gives A Sober Address

. . . extremely well suited to the times--not just in its recognition of the dangers and difficulties we face, but in its frank acknowledgement of how far astray we have gone.  For the first time in a long, long time we've heard a presidential address that is short on bombast, self-congratulation, and hubris, and long on humility, honesty, and a bracing sense of challenge. 

I was hoping to be impressed, and I was.

My First Tears

. . . on Inauguration Day are for the televised image of Sasha and Malia with their grandmother, walking through the Capitol building on their way to the ceremonial platform, wearing big smiles and looking utterly composed and delightful.  What a family, what a day.

Arrogant To The End

It would be nice to think that today is the last day we'll ever need to think about George W. Bush or his disastrous administration.  Unfortunately, we know from sad experience that that's not the case--that we'll be trying to erase the stains he leaves behind for decades to come.  (Many of us believe that the nation never really got past the damage inflicted by Richard Nixon.)

As the final hours of Bush's regime wind down, I find myself specifically disgusted by his behavior in regard to the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at him. As the Times has reported, al-Zaidi has been held incommunicado since December 21, may have been beaten and tortured since his arrest, and faces seven years in prison for his absurd and purely symbolic "crime."

I find it deeply embarrassing that President Bush hasn't publicly spoken up in defense of al-Zaidi or personally intervened with the Iraqi government on his behalf.  The fact that this president who has spent the last few weeks eagerly--even desperately--trying to burnish his reputation as a "compassionate conservative" has passed up this obvious opportunity to actually do something compassionate tells us all we need to know about what his real values are. 

Evidently Bush finds it appropriate for the Iraqi government to respond to al-Zaidi's insult to Bush in tyrannical fashion.  (Deep down, he probably regrets not having had the same kind of powers to use against his critics at home.)

Bush remains what he has always been--a petty, self-absorbed, arrogant man who is apparently incapable of feeling sincere concern for anyone other than himself and his closest friends. Good riddance.