Obama Confirms His Place In History As The First Adolescent President

Shortly before the Fourth of July, President Obama gave a speech to students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin. In it he said of the Republican Party:

"And I want to emphasize -- I know some of them well. They’re good people. It’s just their ideas are bad. (Laughter and applause.) And I want to emphasize that. We’re one country, we’re all on one team, and so we’re all one American family. But we all go -- we're at Thanksgiving and Uncle Harry starts saying something and -- (laughter) -- you say, “Uncle Harry, that makes no sense at all.” You still love him. (Laughter.) He’s still a member of your family. Right? But you’ve got to correct him. You don’t want to put him in charge of stuff. (Laughter and applause.) That’s all I'm saying. (Applause.)"

President Obama's "Uncle Harry" remark was taken by some to be offensive, or containing racial overtones. The old, white, senile uncle just can't get it right and has to be "corrected" by his young relative. Personally, I didn't find this remark to be racially offensive. Nor do I believe that President Obama intended to convey any offense of any kind. After all, President Obama is mostly white, was raised by his white grandparents, and probably did have to suffer through Thanksgivings as a young man with old, white, misguided Uncle Harry.

His remark was arrogant, however, and demonstrates a stunning lack of perspective. Apart from feeling the need to "correct" those with whom he disagrees, the President also discounts entirely any contribution old Uncle Harry may have to the conversation. Old Uncle Harry may be a little off his game now, but he was a veteran of two wars, witnessed the rise and fall of tyrannical regimes, lived through Watergate and lived under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. Old Uncle Harry held down jobs during good and bad economies. He lived through 90% tax margins in the 60's, Stagflation in the 70's, the economic boom of the 80's and 90's, and the collapse of 2008. When Uncle Harry was a boy, his Uncle used to tell stories about the Great Depression and total loss. Around Uncle Harry's dinner table as a boy, his relatives discussed the New Deal, the TVA projects and World War II. Their first person accounts of those events left an impression on young Uncle Harry. One that he took with him for the rest of his life.

A generation later, Uncle Harry sits across from young President Obama at the dinner table at Thanksgiving. He watches the President snicker at him, roll his eyes at him. He patiently listens as young President Obama pronounces the truth of all things to the table of diners. Then, after listening patiently, he offers his opinion. Uncle Harry's opinion is perhaps inarticulate. He perhaps says it slowly. But, his opinion is based on a lifetime of actual experience, beyond what he read in books as a school boy. Obama winces as he hears Uncle Harry's remarks, and eagerly steps in, like any other omniscient teenager, to "correct" the older man. Because he is still just a boy, the older, wiser Uncle Harry chooses not to humiliate Obama with any further debate at the table. "He will learn, eventually," Uncle Harry says to himself.

Unfortunately, President Obama never learned. This morning, he has inked a deal with Iran, the world's largest sponsor of terrorism, ensuring that they will obtain nuclear weapons in the next 20 years. Uncle Harry would never have signed such a deal. There are only modest restraints on Iran's ability to develop delivery systems. The restraints on Iran's ability to enrich nuclear materials appear reasonable, but the inspections regime is inherently flawed. In order to have any inspection of an Iranian facility suspected of manufacturing nuclear weapons, the world must give Iran 14 days notice. Then, Iran may reject the request, at which time the world has 10 days to make a counterproposal. In other words, Iran gets 24 days to move all of its weaponry out of one facility to another during the delay. Only a child would make such a deal.

President Obama was devoured in negotiations by a number of older, much crazier Uncle Harrys. Uncle Harry might ruin Thanksgiving with talk of lowering taxes or doing away with entitlements, but the President's new Iranian Uncles ruin all holiday meals with a "Death to America" chant during grace. And let us not forget the most important failure of this deal: Iran is legally allowed to enrich Uranium at the end of a 15 year period. They will have the bomb.

And what will old, crazy Uncle Ali do with those weapons? He's already told us, while sitting across the table from the President's representatives. Death to America. Death to Israel. Down with the Great Satan.