The Greatest President

The 114th Congress of the United States will be sworn in tomorrow. The GOP will control both houses. In the spirit of conciliation, President Obama will blow them off and hit the road. Instead of scheduling meetings with lawmakers, and sketching out a legislative agenda, he is going back on the campaign trail. Starting Wednesday, he will be in Detroit, Phoenix and Tennessee for the rest of the week.

President Obama has decided that he doesn't need Congress, except to fund the government. He has decided to govern by fiat instead of by pluralism. Whatever he wants can be accomplished either with agencies like E.P.A. issuing new regulations, or by executive whim.

Ronald Reagan used to go on television to ask the American people to support a particular piece of legislation, and the people would badger their representatives. He believed that true power derived from a mandate from the people. Barack Obama will make a speech in front of college students and announce an edict that will subsidize more college enrollment. And the liberal arts majors on the road to indentured servitude will cheer in jubilation.

Obama will also talk about his favorite subject, himself. He will swagger and claim credit for the economic recovery. Missing from his rhetoric will be the fact that this recovery has been paid for with trillions of borrowed dollars, and trillions more injected by the Federal Reserve. The reason the American economy is getting traction now is lower gas prices and the wealth effect from the stock market. The economy is recovering in spite of his endeavors.

This President claimed he was unaware of the VA scandal until he read it in the newspaper. This President said he found out about the IRS targeting the Tea Party from the media. Yes, this President will claim he has steered the ship of state away from the shoals.

When I was little, my mother took me to St. George's Episcopal Church. Among other entreaties, Father Lathrop would always ask the congregation to pray for President Nixon and the nation. I found that stunning as an eight-year-old. I had been taught that Richard Nixon was evil. Every authority figure who influenced me, had made me swallow the same lesson, that he was malevolent and responsible for killing innocent Vietnamese people. Father Lathrop had helped me see the truth, that Nixon was a human being that deserved our love and support.

I pray for God to bless President Obama and the United States of America.