Did you ever have one of those moments when a person you are listening to reminds you of someone else whom you have seen before, but you can’t quite put your finger on who? I just realized this morning, after three and a half years, who that guy in the white house reminds me of -- Professor Harold Hill.
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Now, that might not mean much to you, but when I was nine years old, the local high school recruited several of us youngsters to participate in their big musical production The Music Man. The high school students literally walked down our street asking if we could spend every evening over the subsequent two weeks practicing and then performing in the play. I got the role of pathetically playing the french horn. It was a more innocent day in 1964.
The main character in the Music Man was “Professor” Harold Hill, a traveling con artist who, like many on the political stump these days, was a master of misdirection. In order to achieve his self-serving goals, he would trump up a more popular urgency that would result in the desired outcome. Watchthis scene from the 1962 movie and you’ll see where I am going with this. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
When I saw President Obama announce his new policy on young illegal immigrants, I automatically asked myself, “What is he really up to?” Of course, it does not require much introspection to conclude what virtually every news commentator has implied, “This is election season and the President is caballo trading for votes.”
The recent rash of classified information leaks are also in the category of political misdirection. President Obama assured us last week that, “The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. It’s wrong. And people, I think, need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people here around me approach this office.” Hot Air’s Ed Morrisey observed that, “The White House has been leaking classified material for over a year, as long as it makes Obama himself look awesome.” A CBS opinion news piece by Peter Van Buren went even further with the bold headline, “Obama only goes after leaks that don't benefit him.”
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President Obama is not the only one who befits the pattern of Music Man. Anyone with a carbon footprint as enormous as Al Gore’s obviously does not give a rodent’s rump about the environment. He may have convinced himself that he cares. But the former Vice President and presidential nominee found free enterprise distasteful long before he was ordained as an environmentalist evangelist.
You could just as easily put a straw skimmer hat, bow tie, and a dandy boater jacket on Eric Holder. The Fast and Furious operation was ostensibly intended to release thousands of weapons into a specific criminal culture in order to discover the network of arms distribution. The accusations detailed in Katie Pavlich’s book seem far more plausible as the Attorney General’s fondness for gun control has been well known since his famous CSPAN-broadcast statement that he wants to “brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”
Toss a bamboo cane to Janet Napolitano while she is still on stage with Eric Holder. Everything that publicly emerges from her vocal chords seems to be a head-fake regarding immigration policy. It is sickening how her actions directly conflict with the stated mission of her agency.
But no one can do the two-step like the President himself. He gives speeches on energy independence that are worthy of a Republican presidential candidate. Yet, at every opportunity, the President kills energy projects that could get us there (i.e., Keystone), citing environmental concerns. Because that’s trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Profit.
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