A prez fit for ‘24’
This summer we’ve experienced scenarios straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. Our country is besieged by economic near-collapse, Mideast conflict, earthquake, hurricane and rising seas that threatened to swallow up the Eastern seaboard. And, like a Hollywood disaster film, this America has a black President.
In movies and TV programs, black presidents have faced alien invasions (The Event), meteors (Deep Impact), the disintegration of the Earth’s crust (2012), terrorists (24), war (24), and political treachery (The Man). Aliens and asteroids are the only threats our (fast graying) President Obama has not faced.
Until this week, Obama merely faced a recalcitrant Republican House and economic meltdown – and the Tea Party Patriots.
I’ll admit, I imagined the equivalent of 24’s Jack Bauer tasing Reps. Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan to uncover the co-conspirators in their right-wing plot to “nuke” Social Security and Medicare.
We’re all too familiar with the brickbats thrown at President Obama – questioning his birthplace, his love of country, his academic achievement, his basic competence, his faith in capitalism, and even his choice of vacation spots.
Through it all, Mr. Obama has held his head high and appealed to our nation’s better angels. He has counseled patience in the face of the growing economic unease and desperation in our nation’s financial, rural and minority communities.
Obama’s travails recall a line from Jonathan Swift: “When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.”
Obama has proven himself better than any celluloid black president. With extreme prejudice, he gave the go-ahead for Navy SEALs to assault the redoubt of a man who had been a clear and present danger to our nation. He has faced down a debt crisis, hurricanes and floods, and brought down Libya’s Khadafy without the loss of American lives.
If Mars attacks, I expect fully this president to kick some Martian behind. I and the rest of America will be standing besides him.
Originally published in the NY Post, 08/30/2011. Click here.
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