Remember when President Bill Clinton famously told us, “I feel your pain”? It was a deceptively simple, yet powerful, statement to show his empathy with the working man and our plight in tough economic time. With just four words, President Clinton effectively communicated the heart of the time-tested Democratic message that more recently has won the party the White House and control of both houses of Congress.
The current Democratic President, He-Who-Can-Do-No-Wrong, could learn a thing or two from his predecessor. And I just don’t mean in the picking up chicks department. Or the getting aforementioned chicks to keep their mouths shut department. I’m referring to the showing empathy for the working man department.
While we are mired in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, The Wise and Benevolent Ruler of the USA is living large in a $4,000 a night beachfront rental home in Hawaii. It’s his right, I suppose. He’s a very wealthy man (I’m not sure how that happened, unless being a community organizer pays much better than I think it does), and he can spend his dough as he sees fit. He even can spend a good chunk of our hard earned tax dollars at his discretion.
I’m not accusing the All Knowing One of doing anything wrong (I know many of you Democratic party faithful think him incapable of doing any wrong anyway). I’m just saying that it may not send the right message at this time. The folks who just scrimped through Christmas because they’re living on one income in a two income world, the families who are wondering how they’ll be able to make their next mortgage payments, the small business owners hoping that they can stay afloat for a few more months – it will be a tough sell for the Great One to convince them that he feels their pain when speaking from a veritable palace in Maui.
President Obama should take a lesson in empathy from the Secretary of State’s husband before his free pass runs out. The mid-term elections are just around the corner, and We The People may have a thing or two to say to him at that time.
