The Patriot Post® · Obama vs. Hayward

I happen to find polls fascinating, but, unlike some people, I think they often raise more questions than they answer. For instance, I’ve noticed that occasionally Obama’s job approval numbers will rise for no apparent reason other than that he’s been pictured holding his wife’s hand or shooting a basketball. It’s a sobering thought that after doing all in his power to radically transform America into something resembling Greece, that’s all it takes for some people to give him a big thumbs-up.

I am also mystified by the fact that although most people think he’s doing a lousy job, they claim to like him. Is it because, as Joe Biden once put it, he’s clean? I understand that personal hygiene counts for a lot, but, for those of us who don’t come in close personal contact with him and must judge him solely on his record, he’s as dirty as any other politician who’s ever swum in the sewer of Chicago politics and is now joined at the hip to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

In spite of his toothy smile, I don’t even think he comes across as a nice guy. I’ll never forget the way he put Sen. McCain in his place at the so-called bi-partisan summit, when he snidely remarked, “John, the election is over.” Boy, talk about your sore winners!

Sen. McCain was certainly not my dream candidate, but he had served honorably in the U.S. military and been a guest at the Hanoi Hilton for several long, torturous years. Mr. Obama’s service to his country, when you get right down to it, had consisted of working hand in glove with the thugs at ACORN.

I wonder if Michelle Obama swoons when her husband talks tough to the Israelis and the folks at British Petroleum. To tell you the truth, even I might get one of those little Chris Matthews-like quivers up my leg if he ever tried it with an actual enemy of ours, such as Mahmud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il, Hugo Chavez, the Turks or the Palestinians. But, clearly, that’s too much to expect of this empty suit.

I would say that Obama’s announcement that if it were up to him, he’d have fired British Petroleum’s Tony Hayward was the last straw, except that every day the president provides me with a new last straw. For one thing, if I had to choose between Obama and Hayward, I would go with the fellow who has more executive experience, better managerial skills, a more successful track record and a speaking voice that doesn’t grate on my ear. That would naturally be Mr. Hayward.

For another thing, Obama, who’s very quick to say who in the private sector he would fire, has allowed Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder to stick around long after, by word and deed, they’d displayed their monumental ineptitude. In case you may have forgotten, the only reason the jet over Detroit didn’t get blown up was because the underwear bomber was an incompetent, but Ms. Napolitano, in the aftermath, assured us that the system had worked like a charm! A few months later, when the Times Square jihadist failed to kill a few hundred New Yorkers because he had apparently taken the same course in bomb-making, the lady took a few more undeserved bows.

She wasn’t even embarrassed by the fact that the creep had successfully boarded an airliner bound for Dubai even though he had purchased a one-way ticket for cash! That should have raised more red flags than one sees in Moscow on May Day. But, heck, it’s no wonder Secretary Napolitano is so doggone proud of her crackerjack system. After all, everyone knows dumb luck trumps competence every day of the week.

That brings us to Attorney General Holder who, in spite of rushing to Mirandize enemy combatants, electing to hold civilian trials for Islamic terrorists in Manhattan and swearing to a Congressional committee that he hadn’t bothered reading the Arizona immigration bill long after threatening to litigate against it, is still holding down his job.

But Obama would fire Tony Hayward, a man who, unlike Holder and Napolitano, doesn’t owe his position to the color of his skin or to gender politics.

I know that a lot of people – at least those in the MSM – thought it was terrible for Mr. Hayward to go on TV and say he wished the oil leak would be capped so that he could get back to living his normal life. I saw nothing wrong with it. I’m sure that’s what everyone on the Gulf Coast was thinking. But for the president, who was busy greeting college basketball players in the Rose Garden, playing several rounds of golf and hosting White House galas for the likes of Paul McCartney, Jerry Seinfeld and Elton John, to take umbrage at his remark was, for me, just one more of those last straws.

Tony Hayward has vowed that BP will make good for all the financial losses suffered by fishermen, motel owners and everyone else on the Gulf with a legitimate claim, even if it costs his company more than a billion dollars. Obama, on the other hand, is destroying America’s economy to the tune of several trillion dollars, and he promises us nothing but more of the same.

Frankly, if Obama is looking for people who deserve to be fired, he need only look in the mirror.

(Don’t miss Burt’s book, “Liberals: America’s Termites” – signed copies are available at the Patriot Shop.)