The Troll President

There’s this person who visits blogs. A lot. Way more than just a regular reader. He pretty much lives there, and comments on everything. So far, fine. Bloggers love people who read their stuff all the time. But this guy, well, he lives in the wrong side of reality. You got some folks with low self-esteem, some with a bit too much self-image, then you have this guy. A guy who imagines that his opinion is so good, that no one else has a right to do anything but agree. In the old days, a guy like that would try to get his own radio show, and in modern days most such blowhards write blogs or work for outfits like MSNBC or CBS. But some folks are just too stupid and lazy to write their own articles. Instead, guys like this show up in someone else’s blog, and instead of making cogent and reasoned observations, or at least presenting rational opinion and defending it with something like logic, this guy basically screams insults and flings poo. The generic name for this kind of person is “troll”, but you know who I mean. A troll is a person who basically cannot conduct himself in any way but the most vulgar and disrespectful manner.

That kind of person, I once believed, could never rise to the office of President of the United States. History, however, has proven otherwise. We’ve had jerks in the Oval Office before, self-possessed morons who cared more for their image than the nation’s welfare. We’ve even had a few whose mental balance was, at times, quite possibly in question. Yet for all of that, until now every President has believed that what he said and did was in the best interests of the people of the United States, and that the way in which he conducted himself in public, especially in public debate, was to be exemplary. That has changed with Barack Obama. President Obama cares nothing for anyone but himself, and even the welfare of the United States of America is a distant second to getting his way. There is no one he will not attack, malign, defame, bully or extort to get what he wants. The target selection ranges every so often, from blaming former officials to his own underlings, to his role models, to the Congress, to business leaders, bankers, doctors, accountants … pretty much a cross-section of America whenever he thinks a cheap shot will advance his plans. And like all trolls, President Obama is impervious to logic, recognition of the failure of his plans and the irrational character of his rhetoric and vulgar flavor of his behavior. The difference between a blog and the White House, of course, is that you can read a different blog or tune out the troll on the blog; we have to put up with the White House Troll until 2012.