April 12, 2009

     Well, the First Family has done one thing right--they've gotten the dog.  Cute little fella.  With small kids you probably don't want a Great Dane, although we had one years ago and she was so gentle the kids used to climb on her.  Good name for the new guy too--Bo.  I think it was James Thurber who wrote that dogs should have simple, one-syllable names.  Bo works.
 
     The Prez has some other problems, of course.  He came into office hoping for bipartisanship and that hasn't happened.  The Washington Post's wise David Broder points out that not a single Republican in Congress voted for the President's budget.  The gap between Obama's approval rating among Democrats--88% and Republicans--27% is 61 points, higher than it was for George W. Bush or Bill Clinton at this point in their first terms.
 
     Still, Broder thinks that swing voters--a key element in many states--want action on things like energy and health care and will probably support the President as he pushes in these areas.  If that happens some Congressional Republicans will probably get the message too.  They do, after all, want to get reelected.
 
     Then there are the wars.  President Obama has now visited Iraq.  When Dwight Eisenhower, the Allied commander in Europe during World War II, was running in 1952, he promised, "I will go to Korea" where the U.S. was fighting the China-backed North.  When he came back, he said, "Every gun that is fired signifies a theft from those who are not fed," and he told his press secretary, James Hagerty, "The war is over. I hope my son is going to come home soon."  The war was over;  the son did.  So, there's an example, if Mr.Obama chooses to follow it.
 
    None of this will be easy.  But he's done one very important thing.  President Harry Truman said one, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog."  Obama has.  

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