Obama Headed To Mexico, While HealthCare Debate Heats Up

While the presidency of George W Bush was certainly the most incompetent and disastrous in U.S. history, so far Obama’s presidency has been, well, the only word that comes to mind at the moment is, strange.

There were those during the Democratic primaries who made the point that Obama didn’t have the experience, knowledge, or track record to show he was prepared for the job of president and so far it shows..

With healthcare reform, the single most important bill of his presidency going to meet success or failure in September, with the debates heating up to a fever pitch, with charges of Republican organized and orchestrated protests disrupting meetings and the August recess being used to essentially decide the fate of healthcare reform, with complaints coming from Democratic congressional aides that Obama has not given enough guidance to the congress and polls showing the majority of people are unhappy with how Obama has been handling healthcare reform, Obama and his staff decided this was a great time to go to Mexico.

It is safe to assume that, as of this writing, no one, not Democrat, not Republican, not a supporter of reform and the public option or an opponent of it, gives one whit about anything regarding US -Mexico relations that couldn’t wait.

While common sense says Obama should be hitting the stump, going out into the country, showing up at some of these real town hall meetings, not the prefabricated made for TV town hall meetings we’ve seen, and advocating strongly for healthcare reform, using his offic and what is called the bully pulpit to meet head on what has already been shown to be lies and distortions by the opposition, Obama has gone to Mexico to deal with issues related to the economy and H1N1.

Even assuming this meeting was arranged weeks or even months in advance, the White House should have made note of that and said that the President was eager to return to engage in the healthcare debate, though I have a feeling that isnt true. But most people do not have presidential itineraries at their disposal, and without some clarification from the White House, Obama leaving for this summit to deal with issues that at the moment seem vastly unimportant, simply looks bad.

Its hard to know who is running the show over there or what, as the saying goes, they are thinking. Did they think that Obama jumping into Air Force One and going to Mexico was something that was going to make Americans sit back and feel secure knowing their president was out doing his job?

Obama’s over all approval ratings are sinking, his ratings on healthcare reform are sinking, his overall report card as tallied by CNN gave him a nationwide C- in every state in the country and Republicans smell blood in the water.And Obama takes off for a summit in Mexico like hes’ glad he is getting out of town. And maybe he is.

In a couple of weeks he will be going to Martha’s Vineyard for some vacation time. But if he doesn’t start showing a little more muscle in his presidency and a little more of a handle on what his job entails, his next trip is liable to be to Lourdes.