New Obama scrutiny is ridiculous
By Staff
Scot Beard
Criticism of the President of the United States and his policies is as old as the office itself.
History is full of instances where the president makes unpopular decisions – some of which are smart moves and some of which ruin legacies.
In 1832 Andre Jackson vetoed a bill to recharter the Bank of the United States, earning more political enemies than he had when he took office a few years earlier. The result was an elimination of the national debt for two years.
Richard Nixon, on the other hand, made some poor decisions resulting in the Watergate scandal and, ultimately, his resignation.
Our current president, Barack Obama, is no stranger to controversy.
Many of his policy hopes are controversial to many Americans. His plans for health care reform set of a storm of protests earlier this year while his choice for a Supreme Court Justice also drew criticism.
Now he is being criticized for his recreational activities.
In case you missed it, several groups of activists are complaining that Obama is excluding women from his White House basketball games. They claim that the all-male rosters give those guys extra access to the president, which means they have more pull when it is decision-making time.
Really?
Just because Obama enjoys a good, tough game of basketball does not mean he values his playing partners' opinions more than those of his other advisors.
Guys play basketball, and most of them play against other guys. They enjoy the competition and they enjoy the challenge.
It is a good stress reliever.
Most people in the world would probably want the guy in charge of a strong military to be able to blow off a little steam from time to time before many areas of the planet glow in the dark because he decided to launch some nuclear weapons when he got cranky.
This has nothing to do with sexism. Obama has proven he has no problem with putting women in powerful positions.
He nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the United States Supreme Court and his Secretary of State is Hillary Clinton.
It is surprising that the women's rights groups protesting Obama's basketball game have not also petitioned to have Clinton's job title changed from Secretary of State to Administrative Assistant of State. Both arguments are equally asinine.
Unfortunately that is part of the politically correct world in which we live. If somebody isn't happy about something they complain until everybody else is a miserable as they are.
Quit complaining and let the president play basketball with whomever he wants. There are bigger issues he needs to be dealing with these days.
