No Laughing Matter

President Obama made an appearance on 60 Minutes, airing this evening, and I get the sense that he's not likely to make another appearance anytime soon. It didn't exactly go as he had hoped. Part of the problem was his performance on the show.

It wasn't good at all.

President Barack Obama said he believes the global financial system remains at risk of implosion with the failure of Citigroup or AIG, touching off “an even more destructive recession and potentially depression.”

His remarks came in a “60 Minutes” interview in which he was pressed by an incredulous Steve Kroft for laughing and chuckling several times while discussing the perilous state of the world’s economy.

“You're sitting here. And you're— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money—’ How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asks at one point.

“Are you punch-drunk?” Kroft says.

“No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day,” Obama says, with a laugh.

Let's see. President Reagan faced a crisis of epic proportions (Iran, the economy) entering his term of office and rose to the occasion; he was dealing with the mess that Carter left. He did so with grace, dignity, and addressing the problem directly and forthrightly. He inspired people and maintained an optimistic view of the nation over the long term, despite the short term hiccups.

President Clinton faced problems early on in his administration as well. He had Waco and the first WTC bombing, and despite his stumblings and fumblings on handling those incidents, he too managed to chart a course of optimism that people found contagious and reassuring.

President GW Bush faced a crisis of epic proportions just months into his Presidency. He handled it with grace, dignity, and with resolve to never let such a heinous attack on our nation occur again. He stood shoulder to shoulder with the men and women of the NYPD and FDNY as they searched for possible survivors on the pile at the former WTC. He cried with them and found his strength and his voice.

President Obama laughs. He laughs because he thinks that it's what he has to do to get through the day.

I can laugh at Obama to help me get through the day because at least I know what my job description is and what questions are or aren't at my pay scale.

Obama's laughing because it's an inadvertent admission that he's so far over his head that he's going to sink into a morass that the nation will take years to recover from. His economic policies are a mess - even the left realizes the mess that they're about to encounter. No economist worth their salt would proffer such a plan (whether it's the confiscatory tax on the very people the nation needs to help the economy recover or throwing trillions of dollars into the air and hoping some of it sticks to a program that works), and yet this is what Obama's best and brightest can come up with?

Obama's foreign policy isn't much better (and that's usually the refuge of an embattled President). He can't do anything with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because the Gazans seek Israel's destruction and have thrown off any shred of diplomacy surrounding their intentions.

Iran wants the bomb (and will get one sooner or later). They aren't exactly getting positive waves from Obama despite Obama's love note.

Hugo Chavez in Venezuela isn't exactly seeing eye to eye with Obama.

North Korea has one (possibly several more, and the means to fire them at US interests in the region and possibly beyond).

Pakistan is coming apart at the seams and al Qaeda is reconstituting itself in places like Somalia.

Iraq - the one place that Obama claimed to have all the answers and thought that we would have to cut and run so fast that the Iraqis would likely find themselves in the Killing Fields v. 2.0, has turned out to be the one place that Obama can't completely frak up. It's succeeded beyond the left's feeble imagination - and is working towards a stable consensual government despite Iranian meddling and a very rough start/birthing process. The left will focus on the lives lost and the money spent, claiming it wasn't worth it. They couldn't be more hopelessly wrong because freeing 25 million from the yoke of tyranny is NEVER wrong. We gave them a shot at liberty and freedom, and they're starting to embrace it.

They will complain that the money spent on Iraq could have been spent elsewhere, ignoring that the trillion dollars Obama has just spent wont even make a dent on the recession.

It's a very tough situation, and all Obama can do is laugh.

God help him. He's going to need all the help he can get.