The irrelevant president

By Tom Quiner

Something happened to me about a decade ago that reminded me of the President.

I was in Atlantic City, New Jersey, attending a convention as an exhibitor. I had a very good show. I had fifteen hundred dollars in cash on me.

I don’t usually carry much cash, so this was a very unusual experience for me.

As I walked down the famous Atlantic City boardwalk, a rough-looking character approached me. He looked pretty down on his luck

He said he was out of cash and needed $6 for the bus to get back to Philadelphia that night.

I felt that God had blessed me with some good business that week. So I pulled out a fat wad of bills from my pocket and began to peel off six ones.

His eyes bulged.

I realize I made a tactical error.

He came closer. “Can you make it $10 … $20 … $50?!”

All of a sudden I felt very uncomfortable as he violated my personal space. Even more, he violated our $6 deal.

I quickly put my money away and told him to forget it.

***

In the political drama this past week, The President and Speaker Boehner had agreed to a compromise plan that included $800 billion in new revenue. After getting the Speaker to agree to that, suddenly the President reneged.

He wanted another $400 billion.

Or no deal.

The Speaker said no deal. And from that point forward, the President of the United States was irrelevant.

Mr. Obama’s presidency is increasingly irrelevant.

He says he’s all about creating (and saving) jobs in American.

But he has no clue on how to do it.

In the recent debt drama, the democratically-controlled Senate voted down his budget 97 to 0. Not one member of his own party voted for their man’s budget.

The Obama presidency is increasingly irrelevant.

There was only one thing Mr. Obama was willing to go to the mat on: that the debt ceiling debate be resolved until after the next election.

It’s all about him. That’s the one thing you can count on.

Speaker Boehner has learned that lesson.