Obama in 'High School'

President Obama has been enormously successful in changing many people's somewhat subconscious perception of the world into that of a high-school atmosphere-- constantly trying to portray himself (and, consequently, the United States) as the "cool kids" by continuing to support radical regimes around the Middle East with hopes of becoming even more "popular." While reading his remarks to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, I found myself thinking many of the same thoughts I have thought before while watching his speeches: I agree with most of his words, but his actions don't match up to those words. As much as I liked the empty speech, there a few key points that he hasn't seemed to pick up on. This high-school theme was displayed in parts of the President's speech yesterday, and I want to go through this "high-school drama" piece-by-piece; in his attempts to become the cool kid in this high-school-like world we live in, President Obama is becoming more and more like the impetuous high-schooler who's desperately hoping to be voted homecoming king.

"That is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well – for as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and every faith. We are home to Muslims who worship across our country. We not only respect the freedom of religion – we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe. We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them." 

Pssst-- the protests still have nothing to do with the video; which, by the way, was released in July. Did the "unplanned" protests take this long to coordinate? Looking at this from the high-school-world viewpoint, by trying to appease the popular crowd, the high-schooler is hoping to earn brownie points by continuing to spew forth the story they give him even though that story is far from the truth. By going with the flow and believing what (most of) the Middle East is claiming as the reason for the attacks on the United States, President Obama is hoping to gain more credibility but is instead further diminishing our respect in the world.

"And it is because of the progress that I’ve witnessed in my own lifetime – the progress that I’ve witnessed after nearly four years as president - that I remain ever hopeful about the world that we live in. The war in Iraq is over, American troops have come home. We have begun a transition in Afghanistan, and America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014. Al Qaeda has been weakened, Osama bin Laden is no more. Nations have come together to lock down nuclear materials, and America and Russia are reducing our arsenals. We have seen hard choices made – from Naypyidaw to Cairo to Abidjan – to put more power in the hands of citizens." 

Why are we reducing our nuclear arsenals? Because the "cool" kids told us to! The New START Treaty ensures that Russia reduces its nuclear arsenal as long as the United States does the same (I don't understand why we trust them to do that in the first place). Standing your ground is frowned upon if you're hoping to break into the in-crowd; rather than risk being thrown out of that group for the sake of protecting his own interests; the impetuous high-schooler would rather sacrifice himself than face rejection from the popular kids. That's exactly what is happening by the United States reducing our nuclear arsenal.

Those are only two examples (both from yesterday's speech) that portray the high-school-like attitude this President and his administration have seemed to conform to, but they are far from all examples-- from telling Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that he'll have "more flexibility" after the election to being caught giving his true feelings toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this President has been far too quick to sell himself and his country out if it means putting himself a bit further in with the cool kids. Unfortunately, the desperate high-schooler who sacrifices himself with the hopes of being voted homecoming king is going to learn the hard way that things don't work according to that fashion. The cool kids vote for the cool kids; they'll let the impetuous kid stick around for a while as long as they're benefitting from his presence and then drop him like a ball of fire. Following this path leaves you lower in the social status than you started in. The President of the United States shouldn't be engaging in such behavior.