More RESPECT for the President, Please!

President Barack Obama began his term with the highest of accolades in the press. Hardball host, TV’s Chris Matthews, felt a tingle go up and down his leg whenever Obama speaks. Newsweek’s Evan Thomas said he hovered over the nations, like “a sort of god.” All too soon, however, the President came crashing down, like Icarus in Greek legend. Young Icarus flew too close to the sun and the wax that attached the feathers to his homemade wings melted. Icarus plunged into the sea. President Obama may have gotten too close to those klieg lights.

He senses it himself. “They talk about me like I’m a dog,” he complained recently. Actually, Mr. President, that’s wrong. Americans love their dogs. Just recall the furor that erupted when Lyndon B. Johnson lifted his beagles up by their ears. Americans liked those beagles a lot more than they liked LBJ.

This campaign is bringing out the worst in some of Obama’s critics. I want to say: Enough! Let’s show some more respect for the President of the United States. It’s gone too far when a candidate for governor of one of our famous states publicly tells the president he can take his endorsement and “shove it.”

What’s that you say? Was the president really going to endorse a Republican? Not at all. The candidate who told the commander-in-chief to take his job endorsement and shove it was none other than Frank Caprio, the Democratic candidate for governor of Rhode Island.

It seems the president is campaigning in the Ocean State, but is pointedly not embracing Caprio. Instead, the President’ non-endorsement will be seen as a blessing-in-disguise for former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee. Chafee is running for governor as an independent.

Obama continues to have a high approval rating in Rhode Island—if not in the Caprio household. Rhode Island is one of the few states where local candidates are happy to be seen with the embattled President.

How bad is it getting on the campaign trail? Well, local candidates seem happy to bring former President Bill Clinton in to campaign for them. They’d rather have an impeached former President, one who turned the pardon process into a fire sale during his last days in office. Does anyone remember Marc Rich? Clinton gave him a pardon for dealing in oil with Saddam Hussein. Even TIME magazine cited the Marc Rich pardon as one of the ten most scandalous in our history. Yet candidates prefer to hug Bill Clinton on the hustings to being hugged by Barack Obama.

Does anyone remember the White House in 2000? Bill Clinton survived impeachment and decided to throw a last lavish party for the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the President’s House. He invited those famous “Friends of Bill” to the East Room for a ceremony. Some of them had been allowed to rent the Lincoln Bedroom for sleepovers. Let’s hope he didn’t rent it by the hour.

The late Mary McGrory described the scene under the glittering chandelier as hundreds of Bill Clinton’s strongest backers crowded into the sparkling hall. They were there to hear author David McCullough read from his best-selling biography of John Adams. America’s second President was the first to live in the White House.

McCullough’s deep, sonorous voice rang out with the words of Adams’ prayer for the White House. FDR even had it carved into the mantle of the fireplace in the State Dining Room.: “"I pray to heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that hereafter inhabit it...May none but the honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

The Washington Post’s McGrory records that when McCullough got to the “wise and honest” part, all of Bill Clinton’s closest friends looked at their shoes.

Yet, apparently, this year’s crop of candidates would rather have the jolly, gregarious Bill Clinton stumping for them than the White House’s current occupant. One thing you have to say for Bill Clinton: He never came off as “holier than Thou.”

Maybe it’s the President’s unfortunate tendency to talk down to the American people. He tends to say they cling to their guns and their religion. He thinks they’re not thinking straight if they oppose his policies. They tend not to be rational when they’re afraid. Barack Obama talks about us as if he wishes he could elect a new people.

I’d like to see more respect for the Office of President. But I have one word of advice for the current occupant: RESPECT: It’s what you have to have in order to get.

The eloquent Christopher DiGrazia of Bradford, Massachusetts addressed this issue back in November 2008.

"The selective memory of liberals never ceases to amaze me. In the midst of a Sound Off whine, the commentator labeled "No Democrats?" bleated, "Why are people so mean and hateful of this future president? I don't understand this. Give the guy a chance."

Give Obama a chance? Let's take a walk down memory lane. Remember the screams that Bush stole the 2000 election? That he was poisoning children by putting arsenic in the water? That he was killing millions by not funding stem-cell research?

Remember the bumper stickers? "He's not MY president!" "Somewhere in Texas a village is missing its idiot." "Re-Defeat Bush" and, of course, the ubiquitous "1-20-09."

Let's remember the supposed "loyal opposition" — Harry Reid on the floor of the Senate screaming that the war in Iraq was "lost," Jack Murtha slandering an innocent platoon of Marines as cold-blooded murderers and Washington Congressman Jim McDermott telling CNN "I trust Saddam Hussein more than I trust George Bush."

Have you forgotten Nancy Pelosi traveling to Syria to meet with Bashir Assad, or Jimmy Carter groveling to Hugo Chavez, both insisting they had as much right to conduct foreign policy as the elected president of the United States?

Or let's just talk plain slander — "BusHitler," "Bush Lied, People Died," "Bush is a cocaine freak." "Bush is a dry drunk." "Bush is a fascist." "Bush knew Sept. 11 was going to happen." Just for fun, why not Google "chimp" or "chimpy Bush."

You'll find thousands of Web sites comparing George Bush to a monkey, or slamming him as a subliterate moron who can't even tie his own shoes.

For the last eight years, the Democrats have blackmailed this country. "Put us in office," they made it clear, "or we will ruin you. We will lie. We will give aid and comfort to the enemy. We will leak top-secret intelligence to the New York Times. We will use organizations like Code Pink and CAIR to funnel money and weapons to the Iraqi resistance. We will slime George Bush at every turn and do our best to destroy his administration." But now that B. Hussein Obama has been elected, people like "No Democrats?" think we should just shrug our shoulders and fall in line?

Sorry, no. Your filthy party has poisoned the political well, and it's long past time you had a good stiff dose poured down your throats. "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism!" you screamed incessantly, and so I plan to dissent.

Obama is not my president. I do not wish him well. I will laugh at his mistakes and cheer his stumbles. I want the GOP to block, hinder and slam him at every turn. I want him driven from office four years from now a broken man with his administration in ruins.

In short, I want Obama given the same respect and deference that Democrats have given George Bush since November of 2000.

CHRISTOPHER DIGRAZIA Obama can expect same treatment Bush received

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