Throw the Bum Out

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the national media made a headline out of every niggling trip a corporate CEO took in the company jet. The flames of public outrage were stoked as one editorial after another demanded to know how they could be so audacious, so wasteful, so negligent of shareholders' interests, when the companies they were supposed to be running were bleeding red ink, reaching out to the government for bailouts, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

Remember the outcry to "throw the bums out?"

But when the entity is the United States government, and the irresponsible party is the president, and interests being betrayed are those of the citizens and taxpayers of the country, well, somehow, that's different.

Different in at least one way. If Obama had gotten drunk, stolen a tank and gone joyriding through the streets of Washington, DC, that might have been more egregious than the spectacle of Air Force One buzzing Lower Manhattan the other day. But not much else really comes close.

In one colossal blunder this president has made a mockery of the symbols of his office, a mockery of the American people, a mockery of sacredness of Ground Zero, a mockery of the memory of 9/11 and the people of New York, a laughingstock of the office of President of the United States before its citizens and before the world.

This story may be buried once somebody is fired, but it will never die. If abuse of corporate assets is cause to "throw the bums out," how much more is abuse of national assets?

Throw the bum out.