I Like our President
By Moni Rae
Obama has been in office for several months already and only recently have I really started to pay attention, to watch the news. Normally I just watch The Daily Show, the Colbert Report and/or read a few articles online (it’s not that I don’t care I just get easily annoyed with all the unimportant drama talked about it the media). He’s had to deal with quite a bit since he’s taken office: the economy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the general American population (face it, we’re not the brightest). And with all of this he has held on to his sense of humor, his intelligence, and although he is a politician he doesn’t seem like one.
Stephen Colbert was in Iraq this past week to place attention on the troops. President Obama’s appearance on his first episode from the Middle East made me realize how much I like our president, simply because he made fun of himself. Our president popped up on the screen because he had "overheard" the conversation between Colbert and the general he was interviewing. And he overheard not due to the exceptional satellite quality but because his "ears are that big". Our president is a huge dork. As a huge dork myself, I appreciate it.
My appreciation of our president’s dorkiness is not the only thing that makes me like, respect, and appreciate him. Obama gave a speech in Cairo that was well received throughout the world, everywhere except for Fox News it seems. Listening to the speech and the points that he made seemed novel. He was a president who didn’t spew political rhetoric, he just laid out a speech filled with common sense. Some people think he was too harsh on Israel, that he’s anti-Israel based on the speech he gave: not at all. In fact, in what is seen as a response to the speech he gave in Cairo Israel has laid out a plan for a "limited" Palestinian state. While Palestinian officials do not agree with this policy and view it as a halt to the peace process I, along with the US and other nations, see it as a very important first step. Previously the two-state idea was a no-go for the state of Israel. For Netanyahu to even bring up a two state solution (while truly not being two states) is a big deal. It’s a starting point. After all, politics is a game of compromise and for him to have moved from a one state to a limited two state is a large step… now it’s just time to wait and see how long it will take for Israel to relinquish control over the Palestinians and let them have their own state.
I can’t remember a recent president who laid it all out in a speech: the good, the bad, the ugly. All people have their faults, all countries have their faults, and Obama made me like him just by stating the obvious… something no one else has done.
