Maybe it’s on national security. Maybe the economy. Energy policy. Whatever – doesn’t matter. The scenario being played out these days is pretty much the same regardless of the particulars. You knock on the door – it’s always closed. Always. Often you have to knock for some time before being given approval from inside to enter. The big screen will be on – the volume loud. You can easily hear it from outside the door. The sports channels are the ones most commonly playing, though sometimes the channel will be set to music, or Fox News. Sometimes Valerie Jarrett might be there, but most often it is just the president and his personal aide. A large leather chair will be facing the television – it’s well worn. Not part of the White House furnishings but something the president must have brought in from back home. That’s where you’ll most often find the President of the United States – the most powerful man in the free f**ing world.
He often sits with one leg draped over one of the chair’s arms and the other leg stuck straight onto the floor. Shorts, sweats, a t-shirt, and like I said, no shoes or just those sandal things that so many of the younger people like to wear these days. And that leg that’s draped over an arm of the chair will be bopping up and down, like…like someone with a lot of nervous energy. Like a kid does. And there’s the smell of smoke hanging on the president. The guy never quite smoking – that was all bullsh*t. I told you that already. In fact, there’s one of those smokeless ash trays on the desk in there. And that desk, it’s a mess. Magazines spread out all over it. Stupid sh*t too. Real low brow reading material the president is into. People. Rolling Stone. Lots of those tabloid things. The most common thread with this sh*t is it’s about the president. If it’s about him, he’s gonna read it. Good or bad – doesn’t matter. If somebody is talking about him, he’s reading it. He’s watching it. Whatever. The guy’s self-obsession is off the f***ing charts.
So that’s what you first see when you enter the room – the upstairs office, of President Obama. Next you’re gonna notice how small the guy looks. Really thin. He pads his suits up you know. The top end. The shoulders. It became an actual issue during the 2008 campaign – some of his handlers were saying it made his neck look too small. Fact is, it made his neck look just like it is – small. The guy is scrawny. All knees and elbows sitting in that chair. Sometimes he gets up when you come in, sometimes he remains seated and will just turn the volume on the TV down with the remote and say, “What you got?” That foot is bouncing up and down while you give him the briefing, but he rarely looks over at you – always looking at whatever is on the television.
If it’s Jarrett in the room, or the personal assistant, one of them is there to keep the time. Your time. Don’t go over that ten minutes. And even if the president doesn’t look like he hears a word you’re saying, they are listening to everything. Every **da*n syllable coming out of your mouth, and if something is said they don’t like, they jot down notes. Been told it’s to use for the end of day summary they give the president – their own version of what is important and what can be ignored…and who might need to be pushed down, or pushed out…or whatever. So you’re looking at the president, this skinny guy, who’s ignoring you, who’s dressed like some kind of f***ing frat boy wannabe, with somebody else taking notes on what you’re saying, and then you get up and walk out.
The president might acknowledge you on some days, give a little not, maybe even a thank you, but most often he just continues to look at the TV, bounce that foot on the chair, his skin looking off-color, pale, the eyes out of focus, the hair a helleva lot more gray than is shown in public, the wrinkles around the mouth far deeper…and the hands. His fu***ng hands are so…they are just these thin little stick digits. They are like these long-fingered woman’s hands. And his wrists, you could wrap your own fingers all the way around those wrists – again, so much like a woman’s hands. Almost freakish. Certainly not the strong alpha-male type image that America was given during the 2008 campaign.
From the WH insider, and I suspect this is exactly how it is.
This seems like the ideal situation for the political hacks of the world. The utter weakness of the man on top would allow them free reign at carving out their own political fiefdoms without interference. Yet you see the best potential candidates for this fleeing the scene. Rahm Emmanuel in his insatiable lust for power has decided that being Mayor of the problem called Chicago is actually more desirable for him than having unfettered access to the unlimited resources of power and dollars that this White House provides. David Axelrod, who for a time was the person actually 'doing' President - working from 6 am to 10 pm each day in his White House office. Yet he has jumped ship as well, choosing instead to run the campaign from one thousand miles away rather than to deal with the situation you have outlined.
And on and on it goes until finally we find out that no one is in charge. As Governor Christie so eloquently asked of Obama last week, "What in the hell have you been doing?" Meanwhile, trillions of dollars are being looted from our Federal Reserve thanks to the treason of Ben Bernanke. And there is no account of where that money is going, except that we do know a billion of it will end up in campaign coffers.
The other day, the President of the United States commented that even if America does not succeed, his daughters would. That must be one heck of a trust fund he now has set up for them. But I do know that if he is re-elected in 2012, there won't be a recognizable America in 2016. Oh well, I hear Uruguay is not so bad. ¿Qué opinas sobre eso?