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Grasshopper Soup: Renegade lives up to his name

Bob Sweigert
Special to the Sun

TAHOE/TRUCKEE and#8212; Mind warp! Obama just told us we are lazy to our face and can’t do the things anymore that built the Golden Gate Bridge. Barack! We’re your friends and#8212; chill out!

Barack! The Golden Gate bridge was built because San Francisco Bay is a big crack in the west coast. American ingenuity and hard work was a response to the obstacle the bay posed for commerce and bringing people together. And spanning San Francisco Bay was a temporary job for most workers anyway, but it did help.

What do you want us to do, Mr. President, make a crack just as big on the east coast so we can build another bridge? I know where we could put it. What are you talking about, Renegade? (Renegade is his Secret Service code name. I just had to use it.)



What makes this Renegade guy tick? He stopped the space shuttle program, which is one very big thing we can’t do anymore. Is he a whiner or a big bully? One thing is for sure, he is no leader. Real leaders praise their people, and don’t chew them out unless they are blatantly screwing up like, you know, occupying public parks and buildings, breaking windows, damaging private businesses and assaulting news reporters in public places.

But I understand. You can get yourself in a heap of trouble when you tell people the truth, or tell them to behave themselves. As long as we’re not beating each other with batons.



Richard Simmons could do a better job as our cheerleader than Renegade. One thing is for sure, he would preside over us a bit differently.

Obama has said plenty of beautiful, moving and inspirational things when giving speeches, but as soon as he steps down from the podium he becomes another flawed human being like the rest of us and finds it difficult to practice what he preaches.

I cannot blame Obama for being human. I’m just pointing out his random, awkward ad-libs in case there are some blind Obama zombies left over who still think he’s all that. It’s not likely there are any still around since the honeymoon is over, but you never know. It’s not healthy to go around believing no one should ever poke fun of, or criticize, your man.

We should give people the benefit of the doubt, but there is a limit to my generosity. Barack Obama has been arrogant and condescending on too many occasions since he became president. The only respect he gets from me anymore is my deepest sympathy for being an ordinary American. Leaders inspire their people all the time, not just when they feel like it, or their speech writers can come up with something clever and nice to say about us. Obama promised transparency and we got it. You can see right through him.

Maybe he was just having a bad day. Maybe he was tired. I think some Americans are wimps too. Maybe he just forgot to make the distinction between all and some, which is kind of an important one for the many Americans who aren’t wimps.

But he keeps saying silly things like that. He even told us that Republicans want poison water and poison air. He didn’t use the word poison, but he may as well have. I’m just paraphrasing; making a logical conclusion about what he really meant to say.

If Republicans wanted poison air and water they wouldn’t have any problem finding it, or making it. And there wouldn’t be any Republicans, because they would all be dead from drinking the kind of water and breathing the kind of air Obama says they like.

It’s almost as if he doesn’t like being president (a rumor that I have heard is floating around Washington, D.C.), or he just wants to make us feel bad and pit one group against another, but that can’t be true, can it?

Renaissance (his wife’s code name), please remind Renegade he is also our president.

Bob Sweigert is a Sierra Sun columnist, published poet, former college instructor and ski instructor. He has a B.A. and an M.A.T. from Gonzaga University. He has lived at Lake Tahoe for 28 years.


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