Have Plane, Will Travel

President Obama is in Oslo today to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm not even going to begin to comment on the vacuous nature of the award; the President and his ilk think it is worthy (more commentary on their standards.) This President's penchant for traveling seems to be unprecedented. Next week he'll be in Copenhagen, then it's off to Hawaii for Christmas.

In November it was Asia: Japan, China and Korea. That was after jetting separate times to New Jersey, Wisconsin, Texas, and Alaska. October saw the President fly to San Fransisco, New Orleans, Texas, New York, Hackensack, Boston, Connecticut, Florida, and again to New Jersey. September's jaunts included a vacation to Camp David, then Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Lordstown and Pittsburgh, Maryland, Troy (NY), New York City for UN speeches, and back to Pittsburgh for the G-20. August began with a weekend at Camp David, then trips to Elkhart (IN), Guadalajara (Mexico), New Hampshire, Montana, Colorado, Phoenix, Cape Cod (a day at the shore), and Boston for Edward Kennedy's funeral. Egypt, Germany, Russia, Italy, Saudi Arabia filled the President's summer travel schedule in June and July.

Okay, maybe that was overkill. I teach my English Comp students that concrete examples are necessary to fully make one's point. The frosting on this cake is that Michelle Obama often travels with her husband, which is fine. But in the case of the one day trip to Copenhagen (which was so last minute it didn't make the calendar,) to pitch Chicago's bid to host the Olympic games, the first couple took separate flights, both private. This extravagance is exclusive of the extra 747 that follows the President with his entourage anytime he goes overseas. That's three jumbo jets to Europe for a forty-five minute presentation shilling for the Pres's home town.

Somebody with more time, research ability and math skills than I should do the comparison chart with other Presidents. I could be wrong, but I suspect that Obama would top the chart for miles, days away from Washington and money spent on trips. I know that the Asia, Europe and Africa trips could be considered valuable foreign policy junkets. I would feel better about them if our leader hadn't bashed the US at virtually every stop, though. And the US trips, for the most part, were oddly reminiscent of campaign appearances. Most of the time, he was plugging health care reform.

One begins to wonder what this President thinks his job is. Brave men and women are fighting and dying in Afghanistan while the Commander-in-Chief dithers for three months about plans to reinforce the effort as recommended by his generals in the field. The economy continues its decline as unemployment rises and the President can only talk about how much worse it would be if his party were not mortgaging our descendants' futures. Even his plan to spend our way out of recession is going so slowly that the majority of the money won't hit the streets until midway through 2010, coincidentally just ahead of the elections in November.

What I think is happening is that we are getting what we deserve. (Yes, we. No, I didn't vote for Barak Obama. But neither did I work very hard to see that more acceptable people were running and being elected instead.) We chose a man who looked good and spoke well. Now he is enjoying his reign as the first black President, clean and articulate, as Joe Biden once commented. I think Barak and Michelle believe they have hit the community organizer jackpot, like winning some national lottery of political success. They are milking it for everything they can get away with, expenses be damned. After all, I suspect they reason, they deserve it.

Every day I pray for my President. Every day I wonder exactly what to say to my Father in heaven. I usually start with the ancient wisdom that teaches us that the king's heart is in the Lord's hands. This is some comfort, until I remember that the heart of the Babylonian king was in God's hands just before the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem. I often recite the Apostle Paul's comment that the authorities which exist do so by God's ordination. I trust that by praying for my leaders, we may live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and reverence, as Paul suggests elsewhere. I can't help but wonder if I am more in the line of Jeremiah or Simeon; they were both praying for the salvation of Israel, you know. Only one of them died happy.