At least I don’t wear the patch

Seems every day the President does something new to disappoint me or make me mad at him, and at the end of every day, no matter how much I twitter about it, blog about it, fuss about it on Facebook, or just bitch and moan about it around the house, some things just don’t change.

At the end of the day, he’s still smarter than me.  Still harder working than me.  Still more self-disciplined.  Still in better control of his temper.  Still better able to handle frustration and disappointment.

Obviously, he is way more successful, but that would be true even if he’d never become a United States Senator, never mind President of the United States.

And although I believe he hasn’t done enough or enough of the right things in the right ways as he could have and should have done, it’s still the case that he has done good things for the country that far outweigh whatever good I could hope to do in ten lifetimes.  In fact, he does more good for the country in an hour than I have done in this lifetime.  I could boast that I haven’t been anywheres near as destructive.  I don’t kill people on a daily basis.  But then I don’t have fleets of predator drones at my command, nor is it my responsibility to keep crazy and evil people from murdering American civilians.

On top of all this, he is taller than me, better looking than me, thinner than me, younger than me, and generally all around cooler than me, and he’s a nerd!  This nerd is cooler than me!

And he’s a better basketball player to boot.

For all I know he’s even a better husband, although that’s a question the blonde and Michelle would have to sort out together.

I suspect he’s a better father than me but comparisons are tricky on that score.  He has girls.  Different problems and different criteria for judging.  Malia and Sasha seem to adore him, but my guys are teenagers and when they were the Obama girls’ ages they seemed to have a higher opinion of their old man than they do now.  Let’s see how the President’s doing when Malia starts dating.

There is one area in which I am superior to him.

I am not a slave to cigarettes.

I can go days without a smoke.

Weeks.

Years.

In fact, I have gone decades without a puff.  I never picked up the habit.

So there, Mr Smartypants Goodytwoshoes President.

Comments

[W. Nottingham]

Um, I always thought that the cartoon guy on the front page, the one with the cigarette stuck in his face, was supposed to be you. Did I miss something here?

[Linkmeister]

That's one of those candy ones like we used to get on Halloween night.

[Victoria]

Yeah, that's about all I have, too - but since I never even took one puff of a cigarette*, therefore, never had to break a habit, I probably don't even have that on him.

It's maddening, isn't it, Lance? I want so much more from him. I want more big ambition and the fight that goes with it. But, good Lord, he has so many exceptional qualities... and I am not there, knowing the full extent of how the Current Insanity comes at the Office... and I've never been able to come up with the name of a person I think could - on balance - do it better in these toxic times. Darn it.

*Never-a-puff is what comes of spending many, many of one's childhood Sundays in a car going down to DC to wander the Smithsonian with two parents in the front seat smoking, turning us green in back.

[Ian Welsh]

You undersell yourself and oversell Obama. These things are on a ledger, and to all the good he has done the evil must be added.

I'm guessing he's deep, deep in a hole. And I'm guessing, despite your bouts of regret and angst, that you aren't.

Men upon the world's stage like Obama do great good and great evil alike.

[Ruviana]

I'm so relieved to find out you don't smoke. The avatar had me worried. But watching your mom die slowly of smoking-related COPD does that to a person.

[Lance Mannion]

Ruviana,

I'm very sorry about your mother. Nope, I don't smoke and never have. This avatar has gotten me into more trouble. I made it on the Mad Men website. It's supposed to be me as I might have been back in 1962. I figured that if I'd been the same me hanging with the same sort of bohemian-arty-academic-intellectual-creative types I've always hung with, I probably would have smoked. BTW, I do wear glasses but not with black plastic frames.