Press Conference March 24, 2009

I watched President Obama’s press conference earlier then a couple of the MSNBC talk/commentary shows. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow started off a little slow in forming opinions that they could discuss. Not surprising since they were having to do it pretty much on the fly.

By the third show, Chris Matthews, it was easy to see the experts and commentators were already gathering steam. The opinions and spins and criticisms and naysaying was picking up speed. It’s almost like watching a swarm, a warm of whatever comes to your mind, just swirling from place to place. The swarm can’t decide which way to go or where to settle. It just moves in a blind panic, each member trying to get to something first and shout the loudest, vying for its opinion to be heard and believed.

The last few weeks have been headlines of panic, wailing, gnashing of teeth, outrage, woe-is-me, finger-pointing, more panic and anger. It’s like watching bad TV.

The current administration has been in office all of two months. Why do so many people seem to think that everything should be resolved and peachy-keen after just a few short weeks, especially following eight years of the most reckless, self-serving, xenophobic rich white guys that were only thinking of their own agenda. The country, and by extension the planet, didn’t matter.

Since the election, President Obama has been very honest about the very real fact that the mess is going to take years to clean up. It is going to take hard work and patience from everyone. People are screaming that the government has to stop spending, that we cannot go further into debt. Sorry, but even I can see it is the only way out. If people aren’t spending, nothing moves. Ask any business owner, small or large. We all understand that when no-one is buying, businesses close, people lose jobs. It becomes a tighter and tighter spiral. If the government stops spending, we will sink.

I have a small analogy. It isn’t a very good one, but it is simple and may work. Say you are a homeowner. You have a hole in your roof and the spring rain is coming. Do you go ahead and put the repairs on your credit card or do you let the rain come in and ruin ceiling, walls, floors, and mold to grow? The latter is going to double, triple or quadruple the costs. What do you decide?

Does the wailing and gnashing of teeth really accomplish anything? Does the nit-picking? Do the tantrums? No? I didn’t think so.