H/t to Dan Kizhner for the photo. On March 27 George Ross came to Brooklyn College to speak to three of my classes. George was the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. You may recall him from The Apprentice. George gave an inspiring, insightful talk that covered negotiation, real estate, and how to succeed. A number of students stayed until after 9:00 PM. It was a great experience.
Two nights ago Mike Marnell, publisher of Kingston, NY's Lincoln Eagle, called me to tell me that he had just seen President Obama interrupt Donald Trump's reality television show, The Apprentice, to announce the death of Osama bin Laden. President Obama had singled out Trump's program because Trump had been rattling him about his unwillingness to release his birth certificate and his and Factcheck.org's past lies about the vault copy. Now that Obama has released the vault copy, Factcheck.org's claim that the COLB was the vault copy eliminates the pro-Obama site's very name. It should call itself "Liespreader.org."
I dislike Trump as much as Obama (that is, I both dislike Trump and Obama and I dislike Trump as much as Obama dislikes him). But singling out a specific citizen's TV show because of that citizen's protest is unpresidential. In effect, Obama has stooped to Trump's level in deliberately interrupting the season's final episode of The Apprentice. News as momentous as the bin Laden capture should not be used to play petty politics. Obama has once again demonstrated his pettiness, just as he did with his silly game over the birth certificate.
A friend told me that she recently had lunch with a local left wing activist who expressed considerable disappointment with President Obama. I am not disappointed in Obama. He has done everything that I said that he would. Now that Obama has entered a third war, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee might consider entering a different line of work. Perhaps the Nobel Peace Prize committee might consider donating its endowment to a worthy cause.
Obama's targeting of a specific citizen creates an unfortunate precedent. Given his complete failure in the economic realm, his massive expansion of wealth and income inequality through his unprecedented subsidies to Wall Street and commercial banks, his hamstringing of the American economy through his interference with oil and gas exploration, and his inability to refrain from increasing the number of wars in which the US is engaged, his inability to function in a presidential manner does not surprise me.
But there are additional dangers associated with his attack on Trump and on freedom of speech.
Update: Pinni Bohm gave me this link to Obama's speech at the White House correspondents' dinner. Obama is reaching new unpresidential lows.
I have researched and written about employee benefit issues and in my previous life was a corporate benefits administrator. I am currently associate professor of business at Brooklyn College. I hold a Ph.D. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, an MBA from UCLA and an AB from Sarah Lawrence College. I am working on a project involving public policy. I blog on academic and political topics.
