Gary R'nel: The President's Bizarre Delusion
By Gary R'nel
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It is ordained that the President of the United States shall provide comfort to citizens affected by calamitous events.
President Reagan addressed the nation on the day America suffered through the Challenger disaster that claimed the lives of seven astronauts. In 1995 President Clinton found himself in a similar situation trying to comfort the relatives and friends of those who succumbed in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. President Bush six years later addressed the nation in the days following the September 11th attack saying that these attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. President Obama this week displayed total and wanton disregard for this most sacred obligation.
Mr. Obama suffers from episodes of bizarre delusion. In Obama's universe he need not rush to comfort the masses because "the world is less violent than it has ever been, it is more tolerant than it has ever been." Harvard University psychology professor Steven Pinker claims that research suggests that violence has in fact been on the decline for thousands of years. It is true, he says, that the present moment is one of the least violent periods in our species existence. President Obama subscribes to this theory without trepidation absolving him of any responsibility to provide comfort and moral support to the victims of terrorism. After all, the world is a more "peaceful place".
The gruesome and highly disturbing videos of ISIS acolytes in orange jumpsuits on a beach in Libya decapitating Christians is proof, according to the commander in chief, that we are existing in a less tumultuous world today. And while we agonize over the death of Kayla Jean Mueller, the 26 year old American aid worker killed in Syria, the President reminds us that the world is a more "peaceful place". The Boston Marathon victims and the killing of 12 people at Fort Hood, Texas while regrettable, all occurred in an environment according to the President that is "more peaceful." Obama sees no reason why he should physically embrace victim's families in the best traditions of American presidents. This Nobel Prize laureate has convinced himself, after all, that the world is a more serene peaceful place.
