Tonight I’m hoping to write the shortest post of the (in my mind amazing number of) 120+ previous posts. As I’ve mentioned a few times, when I started to write, I expected a few – at the most. I didn’t expect anyone to find this place in the “web universe” and have been amazed that there’s usually about 20 of you reading this each night (listen to me, all personal and such, as if I have any clue as to who you are – maybe some day someone will register and make a comment! :o). Please, if you read this post and haven’t read the previous one, read it. I was really charged up as I wrote it, and I believe we (assuming you’re of the progressive – didn’t we use to call it liberal? – mindset that is apparently mine) somehow need to get through to President Obama before it’s too late. Tonight I had a horrible thought. I’ve always pictured the idea of Sarah Palin as President as ludicrous. However, if Obama turns off enough progressives – and it could happen, quickly I might add, despite his seemingly high poll numbers (remember, Bush was close to 90% after 9/11) the alternative is scary. Can’t you just imagine Sarah Palin representing us all trying to “fix” our economy, or dialoguing with world leaders at places like the G-20 Summit? I can tell you, the thought of that makes me feel like I’m going to ……. well, I’ll let you figure that out on your own.

Here’s what’s bothering me tonight. I’m a school teacher and have been for several years. I teach 6th grade in a small city’s version of an “inner city” school. Now, if you’ve never been in a small room with 25-30 11 year old kids, many of whom are running things at home and could care less about an education, you’ll just have to try to imagine what it’s like. I won’t go into a lot of details, but I think there’s one important point I’ve learned that would serve President Obama well as he’s trying to “deal” with Republicans. The NUMBER ONE MISTAKE that I’ve seen teachers make, over and over, during my years in the classroom, is trying to be “friends” with the students. IT IS A SURE RECIPE FOR DISASTER! When my students say things like “you’re mean” or “you give too much homework” or “that’s not fair” I think, “hmmmm, maybe I’m doing something right.” I’ve learned that when I make the hard choices, I’m clear and honest with them, and I “stick to my guns” with my decisionmaking – not worrying about whether they like my decisions or not – the end result is that I gain their respect. Gaining their respect is NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS in the classroom!

This is the best analogy that I can come up with for what I believe is wrong with what President Obama is doing in his “first 100 days.” He seems to be trying to please the Republicans. In the process he’s going to alienate his own base and he will lose any chance he had of gaining the respect of these Republicans. They really remind me of the sixth graders I deal with on a daily basis. CONSTANTLY PUSHING BOUNDARIES – TRYING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT WITHOUT REGARD TO ANYONE ELSE! President Obama, in my view, is making huge blunder after huge blunder (I wrote him about this, and, not surprising, have not received a response – I don’t think he wants to hear his “own” criticizing him). He has really brought this to a head in his decision to announce that torture is not against the law in America (even though he’s promised that we won’t do it anymore). What he’s failing to realize is that he’s only going to be President for 4 or 8 years (looking more like 4 to me every day) – and if he allows the Republicans to reserect themselves due to his weak kneed decisionmaking – these guys will be torturing again as soon as they are able. By not prosecuting the guilty parties, I REALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND THE THINKING BEHIND THAT DECISION FROM A CONSTITUTIONAL LAW TEACHER, he’s allowing a precedent that will surely be repeated sometime in the future. The end result is that our CIA will have the stigma from the rest of the world that the KGB had from the old Soviet Union. In fact, our country stands in shame in front of the rest of the world because, by not prosecuting war crimes, we are condoning them – THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO LOOK AT THIS.

So, I hope there are others who will try to talk some sense into our 44th President. I was very excited the night he was inaugurated, and I really was filled with hope. I was very thankful that the “reign of Bush” had come to an end (his term was the longest, most painful years of my life as an American citizen – because, despite the fact these memos were supposedly “secret” everyone in the world knew what had happened – there was actually no new information on them – just confirmation and individual identification of who did what) and I trusted Obama that he would make it “right.” Unfortunately, in my view, there is no way it can be “right” if the perpetrators of all the lawbreaking are allowed “off the hook” because we don’t want to “lay blame by looking back” on what happened. This is frustrating, absurd, and DOWNRIGHT DISAPPOINTING! Please help me (I’m writing letters to him) convince President Obama that the only way to gain the respect of these Republicans is to do what is right, whether they like it or not. President Obama, being friends with Republicans won’t gain you their respect!