When the news outlets recently reported President Obama’s none-too-flattering quote in regards to the oil spill (“Plug the d**n hole”), we were shocked, but it was the news. It was treated more along the lines of Dick Cheney or Joe Biden swearing on the Senate floor – wildly inappropriate, but it’s not like they said it on purpose in public.
How quickly things change. Last year, the only butts the president was looking to kick were the unhealthy cigarettes he was chain smoking. But on Monday, his rhetoric changed and coarsened.
The news was abuzz with what President Obama told NBC’s “Today” show: “I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose a** to kick.”
Way to be a role model, Mr. President.
At the same time you’re cheapening the office of President, you’re also using words we’re trying to teach our kids not to use. “But Mom, why can’t I swear? The president does it!”
How does your swearing lend “hope” to the nation? What kind of “change” does it bring? I’ll tell you what kind. My young son can now feel completely vindicated in using coarse language and acting like a bully. Why? Because, sir, you did it.
Not only did you swear, but you did it in such a manner that the threat behind it wasn’t even veiled. Is this what you want for the children of America? Is this what you want for your little girls?
Mr. President, perhaps while you’re trying to kick cigarette butts, you should also work on kicking your own crass.