A New Declaration of Independence?

During the past 8 years we have heard liberals banter about such terms as “hubris” and “arrogance” in a perjorative manner to describe the aura that was President George W. Bush. From landing on an aircraft carrier in a fighter jet while wearing a flight suit to declaring that he didn’t regret any of his decisions at the podium in the White House briefing room, liberals screamed and cackled that a President should be humble in order to maintain the respect and dignity of the office of the President of the United States . . . . Well, that is until the liberal messiah came to town, now things are different. On Saturday, President-Elect Barack Obama declared that his inauguration speech was going to be  “a new declaration of independence” to a crowd gathered in Baltimore on Obama’s whistle-stop voyage to Washington DC.

Emperor Obama’s latest haughty proclamation comes in the wake of the most media hyped transition in modern American history. Before Obama, the “Office of the President-Elect” never even existed (officially it still doesn’t), let alone did the inhabitant have his own seal. Never before has a President-Elect made almost daily speeches on national television announcing his cabinet and setting policy before he even had any constitutional authority to do so. And it is an absolute first for an incoming President to demand that the reigning President seek his permission before making governing decision, much like Obama did to President Bush over these past few months. Don’t even get me started about the attempted hijacking of the legacy of the first and greatest GOP President, Abraham Lincoln, by the Obama transition or his complicitness in allowing his image to be used on coins, plates, bottles of water, shoe shine kits, and anything else his surrogates can to make a quick buck.

Think back to eight year ago. Was President-Elect George W. Bush on the cover of every news and pop culture magazine in circulation? Was he on Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood talking about fashion and party plans? Except when he announced Andy Card as his White House Chief of Staff, did we even see Bush in front of a podium over the transition period? Did he decide to use his last week as a private citizen to retrace the steps of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s path to inauguration? Did he even make so much as a suggestion to then-President Clinton about how he should or shouldn’t govern over his final months?

No, he didn’t—to any of that. If he had, he would have been rightly crucified by the media for overstepping his boundaries. But then again, Bush is a Republican, the rules are different for us.

With the risk of being called a bitter clinger, yet again, I will say this: Barack Obama’s transition to power has been the most haughty, arrogant, hubristic, and TACKY that I have ever seen. Obama must realize by now that being President is more than just pomp and circumstance. It is more than grand Hollywood settings and teleprompter speeches. It is more than hawking some merchandise on QVC.

The Presidency is a serious job for a serious person. Barack Obama has thus far only shown America one thing about himself: he is serious about his own aggrandisement.