[img]2039|right|Queen Elizabeth II||no_popup[/img]Without competition, the most sterling recommendation I have encountered in the past 5½ painful years was proffered this morning by an old friend from Venice days, Michael Medved, in a USA Today essay.
One of America’s few clear political thinkers, Mr. Medved revolutionarily suggested that President Obama, chokingly overmatched in his job, retire to the sedentary role of European royalty and appoint a prime minister to carry out traditional presidential duties.
Not only a dazzling suggestion, it is brilliantly weighted with practicality.
Increasingly in the spring and summer since his re-election, Mr. Obama – who loves being bedecked in stately jewelry, bowing, smiling, giving speeches where he does not have to soil his hands, stress his mind or interact with regular people – is the Colonies’ obvious answer to Queen Elizabeth, boxed into a corner where she can dress showily and be prevented from doing any harm.
Mr. Obama regards governing the way a 4-year-old feels about cough medicine. Icky-pooh.
A ceremonial role would perfectly suit the native of wherever as soon as he learns to master the correct enunciation and spelling of “tsk, tsk.”
“In many ways,” writes Mr. Medved, President Obama represents the polar opposite of the crass Lyndon Baines Johnson, “Cool rather than corny, glamourous rather than gauche, aloof rather than earthy
Mr. Obama revels in his role as head of state, but treats get-togethers with Capitol Hill leadership as onerous chores, Mr. Medved writes, concluding:
“As Obama jets around the country (daily), disassociating himself from the hot mess of legislative logjam and administrative apocalypse, a powerful, well-publicized replacement as chief of staff might generate the needed ‘energy in the executive’ to dissipate the atmosphere of drift and decay.”
