Author: Dick

Okay, so the White House has posted this pic of the president and president-elect during their meeting today. Say what you want, but the picture beats hordes of folks in uniform shooting their automatic weapons in the air and celebrating a military coup. — White House photo by Eric Draper

He’s a black president but he isn’t President-elect Obama, whose picture seems conspicuously absent from the White House Web page after his visit today. At least that was the status when I last checked.

Checking the White House Web page this afternoon I noticed no pictures had been posted from the meeting today between the president and the president-elect. They did have one black dude’s picture, at the bottom of the page, but he happened to be the president of Ghana. I would liked to have heard Gee Dubya pronounce President John Agyekum Kufuor’s name. I mean “John” I’m sure the prez wouldn’t have botched, but then again it is Gee Dubya we’re talking about.

Now that the presidential election is history the media’s attention now turns to “The Name Game,” or speculating the possible picks for cabinet and other high government offices.

Obama will pick who he picks so I see no good reason for me to worry over who may or may not become Defense Secretary or Secretary of State. I would rather him choose someone for both of those positions who, at the very least, knows Africa is a continent and not a country.

With the exception of the department which gives me part-time work and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides my health care, I won’t be very heavily invested in the selection of the cabinet or Obama’s advisers. And I won’t have any say over who becomes Secretary of _________ or VA Secretary so all I can do is hope the new president doesn’t chooses dunces for either post.

But I guess the name game is fun, especially for political reporters and pundits. And I am sure that it provides a great ego boost for a number of high-placed politicians or those at the top of their game. I do think it would be great if Obama picked one person who will make people’s jaws drop, like Paris Hilton for Energy Secretary. Of course, it’s a ridiculous proposition but if you remember she did have probably the best energy plan of any of this year’s crop of presidential candidates.

President Bush promises White House workers today that President-Elect Obama will look “as gray and haggard as we all look” by the time he is finished with office.

Gee Dubya thanked his White House staff today and said there will be a seamless transfer of power. He did not mention specifically that White House staffers could or could not remove the “a”s from all of the computer keyboards in the executive mansion and Executive Office Building. Note: “Barack Obama” contains four “a”s. He did sound a note of warning to the incoming president and his staff:

“Some of you have been at the White House for just a few months. Others arrived the same day that we did nearly eight years ago. You’re the ones who can tell that my hair has gotten a little grayer. (Laughter.) Others are career employees who have been here for 30, or 40, sometimes 50 years. I can tell that your hair has gotten grayer. (Laughter.)”

Thanks Mr. President (Laughter), for a wonderful eight years. (Laughter)(Laughter)(More laughter)

Like millions of folks in this country, I stayed awake late into the early morning hours watching the election results as well as talking with an old friend from college days with whom I was visiting. I didn’t get much sleep so my thoughts are a little disorganized. But here are a couple of observations about a predictable post-election rant from the nation’s greatest bloviator:

On the way back to Beaumont this morning I listened on the radio much more to Rush Limbaugh than usual. I sort of expected what he would be saying and how he was saying it and I wasn’t let down.

It wasn’t difficult to tell from the venom coming from his well of hot air that he was livid, so much in fact that he was perhaps the least focused that I had ever heard to him. Of course, I don’t listen to him hardly at all so perhaps he is always like that. And to be fair, maybe he too was suffering from post-election night fatigue.

Limbaugh blamed everyone and their dog for the defeat of McCain: Members of his own party who were in his words “stupid,” the media (naturally), the full-of-rage left wing radicals such as Obama, and on and on. He made fun of Obama’s message to the crowd last night, doing his best “Amos and Andy” routine to imitate the president-elect’s voice. He did try to spin the defeat saying it was going to be a great opportunity to rebuild the conservative movement. That might be true but it might also portend the end to the great numbers who have faithfully followed this hateful propagandist for years. At the very least, he might lose a great deal of his power, both actual and self-perceived.

Predictably, Limbaugh brought up the spectre of Democrats cheating, as if both parties don’t do that. But I found it interesting he damned early voting, calling it a rich opportunity for tampering. Nothing is perfect but I think early voting is the best thing since toothpaste. When I voted last week I had to stand in line with no one and that was terrific because I really despise waiting in line for anything.

I heard a woman on television complaining about having to wait in line on Election Day for hours and who said elections should be held on weekends so people would have more time. I don’t know about that but I do think that day should be put on the footing of a major civil holiday. At the very least, the day after election should be a holiday so people can recover from staying up late at night and either reveling in their victories or crying in their beers over defeats.