Heffer gets Obama wrong

I am disappointed with Simon’s latest effort at O bashing. It is popular among the conservative media to refer to O as the anointed one, or the sainted one. Now, Simon is calling him Saint Barack. There is little in the public eye that supports this frivolous moniker. My call is that Simon spoke with some conservative nut during his recent visit to the US and swallowed every word that was said. Simon then put the regurgitated tripe into his Torygraph column today without plumbing the depths of what was said and ground-truthing the facts. Cheap journalism if I am correct. If Simon wants to beatify someone, he should focus on someone who merits the title; the Blessed Margaret?

Our notorious Rush Limbaugh has been arguing that the Democrats should gear up to put Hillary Clinton as their nominee for President in 2012. This is what Rush does for laughs and not one bit of it could happen and if Hillary has her way, will not happen. Rush’s humorous effort to divide the Democratic house failed miserably save for gullible Simon to pick it up, dust it off, and actually put it into his column.

Yes, O’s visit to India and the Orient is over the top, but it is not an escape from the line of fire as Simon argues. Moreover, Simon claims 34 US warships are to guard O during his trip; a rumor that the US military has categorically denied. Lazy and sensational journalism on Simon’s part and he should know better.

There are other examples of the type of commentary that comes from a quick visit to New York and Simon’s departing as if he were an expert on the country. Alexis de Tocqueville he is not. His puny efforts to denigrate O fall seriously short. O is not regarded here as capable of walking on water and is sadly aware of his shortcomings and, I suspect, the insurmountable difficulties he will have in overcoming them. I also doubt the O will have much success in his efforts to expand US exports to Asia, but this is not because of Simon’s call that Asia can probably manufacture whatever we have for sale more cheaply. We are not selling kewpie dolls, but rather big ticket defense items and high tech equipment that goes along with it. We continue to be competitive in this arena and I am sure that O will employ whatever political leverage he can while making his sales pitch. I expect more from Simon and am dismayed at his parroting the views of American pundits without adding his usually brilliant insights.

Republican hopefuls that remain in the forefront include Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and, can you believe it, Sarah Palin. I fail to place Sarah as anywhere near presidential material and continue to disdain her backwoods, 'hockey mom' image and her red neck promotion of Republican women as 'mother grizzlies'. Huckabee's take on O's Asia tour began with the observation that the political opposition is always critical of a president who leaves the country. In other words, the visit itself is no big deal. Many Americans believe, along with myself, that the presidential entourage is obscene in number of people and cost.