As a present to the country, President Barack Obama’s address to the nation for the week arrived a day early. Um, yippee? It’s his favorite weekly address of the year, so he said, because he had a “special holiday guest star,” none other than Michelle Obama, the First Lady.
I don’t have a whole lot to say about this address, because they didn’t have a whole lot to say in this address. It was shorter than usual (a true Christmas gift). A lot of it was a smattering of cutesy banter involving snowball fights, Santa, and the First Dogs Bo and Sunny. Barack and Michelle talked about their rather generic holiday decoration theme “A Timeless Tradition,” adding that “there’s no holiday tradition more timeless than opening our doors to others.”
Could that have been a subtle nudge about the Syrian refugees again? Even though the context was that they’ve opened the White House to other families over the years, I would say yes, it was their way of taking a swipe at those who don’t have complete faith in the refugee screening process. How can we not open our doors to all those in need? It’s a tradition that transcends time. Have you no heart? If their intent was not to send an underhanded message, I’d be surprised. Everything is political with this President.
In his ongoing attempts to verify his Christian credentials, Obama spoke of celebrating the birth of Jesus and His values of love and compassion, of “caring for those on society’s margins–the sick and the hungry, the poor and the persecuted, the stranger in need of shelter. Or simply an act of kindness.” Aside from the sentence fragment at the end, I can’t disagree with him. But it’ll be interesting to see who they’ll let through their doors once they’ve moved out of the White House and back to Chicago or Hawaii or wherever they decide to go.
Barry said that this is the spirit that binds people of all faiths together as “one American family” during the holidays. E Pluribus Unum. From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. Something like that.
The two then reminded their audience to “honor all who defend those values” in our military and to honor their families, too. They mentioned some government website called Joining Forces. According to the site, “Joining Forces works hand in hand with the public and private sector to ensure that service members, veterans, and their families have the tools they need to succeed throughout their lives,” assisting in their wellness, education, and employment opportunites. Apparently this is something that MO and First Vice-Lady Jill Biden started a few years ago. As a minor side note, the Thunderbirds’ first female pilot, Nicole Malachowski, became Joining Forces’ Executive Director back in September.
The skeptic in me wonders how much the program costs taxpayers and how effective it is at doing what it’s supposed to do. I found one source that tells of the program’s accomplishments from its first year, including the claim that Joining Forces was responsible for getting 50,000 veterans and their spouses hired by American businesses. Because I couldn’t find any immediate negative attention toward the Joining Forces program, and I’m in a giving mood for the holidays, I won’t dig too deep or automatically judge the initiative.
Also, I’m just not in the mood to look into it at the moment. But the issues of cost and whether or not there’s been an impartial assessment of the program’s effectiveness remain in my mind. But that goes for just about everything that the federal government does.
One thing I noticed when watching video of the address was that Michelle sat taller than Barack did. He appeared slouched, while Michelle sat up straight. I’m not a body language expert, but Michelle looked like the dominant one in the video to me. Barack looked somewhat defeated, resigned. I’m not saying it’s surprising. I’m merely noting it since there wasn’t a whole lot else worth critiquing, aside from that whole talking-like-our-vets-are-taken-care-of-but-many-of-them-have-to-think-he’s-full-of-crap deal.
That was basically it for Obama’s address this time. But when BO closed his address by wishing the audience a Merry Christmas, he said it on behalf of his daughters, his dogs, and…Grandma? “Grandma” doesn’t appear on the official White House transcript. So what was that all about? Did one of his kids…no. He must’ve been referring to the dogs, I guess. Ha. Cutesy.
Okay, no. That’s just weird.
