Obama Overkill

Has anyone else noticed that the news media has basically been covering everything short of when our new President goes to the bathroom? Seriously, we're three days into this thing and I already am growing apathetic to President Barack Obama. Not because I disagree or dislike anything he has done so far, it's just that I need a break from him.

We've gone from the Bush administration going largely unnoticed for a good six months to people covering when Obama takes off his jacket in the Oval Office. And I love all the hoopla over every little move he's making. Man, am I glad he closed a prison and ended torture and made lobbyists not want to join his administration. Remember I voted for the guy, but partly because of this media love affair with him, I'm done drinking the Kool Aid.

See, I tend to agree with Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and a Barack Obama supporter, when he says blah about the first few days of this Presidency, especially that inaugural speech everyone has been dreaming and slobbering over for days now.

One wishes that the speechwriters had come up with something more inspiring than a call for an “era of responsibility” — which, not to put too fine a point on it, was the same thing former President George W. Bush called for eight years ago.

But my real problem with the speech, on matters economic, was its conventionality. In response to an unprecedented economic crisis — or, more accurately, a crisis whose only real precedent is the Great Depression — Mr. Obama did what people in Washington do when they want to sound serious: he spoke, more or less in the abstract, of the need to make hard choices and stand up to special interests.

Umm .... yeah we have precedence for this if we harken back to the dawn of the Great Depression. Krugman expounds:

Remember, Herbert Hoover didn’t have a problem making unpleasant decisions: he had the courage and toughness to slash spending and raise taxes in the face of the Great Depression. Unfortunately, that just made things worse.

See, lost amidst the Obama love affair has been the actual stuff his residence in the White House is already accomplishing. There isn't a workable stimulus package yet, the economy is free falling once again, Kim-Jong Il just made his first public appearance since a stroke in August signaling he's alive and well, so why is it that the media has to detail things like Michelle Obama's wardrobe or what the hell she's going to do with the White House decor or what movie the kids watched last night or even how Barack goes sans blazer while working. Who cares? Or actually I know who cares, the idiotic American public.

See we should be focusing on things that Obama's entrance into the Presidency has done already. Like finally getting some government-approved stem cell research underway

The Food and Drug Administration authorized the Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., to test stem cells derived from human embryos on eight to 10 patients with severe spinal cord injuries. The study is aimed primarily at determining the safety of the cells in human subjects, but researchers also will examine the patients for any signs the therapy restored sensation or movement

President Obama is expected to lift a ban on federal funding for such research imposed by his predecessor. While the timing of the FDA approval led some to speculate that the two moves were related, Geron's work had not been restricted by the ban. The cells being used by the company were derived from leftover embryos at fertility clinics before the ban was implemented in 2001.

Maybe I'm just frustrated with all this non sensical and vague "change" business, but if I hear another news report involving what Obama is going to eat for lunch in the next few days or what shoe polish he's using on his penny loafers, I might go up to Wolf Blitzer or Sean Hannity or whoever and punch them in the face myself.