Citizens should respect president

Column by Austin Schmitt

Think back to this time last year. What were you doing? A major event in American history was about to occur, but who even realized what it was?

Think back to middle school. Remember when it was time to split up teams for recess kickball? There always seemed to be that one kid who would be the best and would naturally assume that leadership role. Well that kid happened to be on your team and no matter how good he was, you always wanted him to fail.

Yet, at the same time, he was on your team and if he didn’t hit a home run then your team wouldn’t succeed.  It was a difficult situation.

Last week, I caught a glimpse of Bill O’Reilly on his daily show “The O’Reilly Factor.” I’m usually not a big fan of those talk shows because they tend to dive too deep into partisan issues that do not really matter in the grand scheme of things, but this segment was different.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was his guest for a particular portion of the program and they were discussing an issue all Americans should contemplate. Of course, they were discussing President Barack Obama, but more specifically the position of him.

They both seemed to agree that Americans want to have a strong president to represent their country on a global scale and most Americans want their president to succeed.

Since the television was on mute, I was reading the translation. I blinked a couple times thinking the words may have been misprinted, but the dialogue continued on topic.

In this situation, I believe O’Reilly and Gingrich are wrong. Unfortunately, I do not believe most Americans want the president to succeed. And this is not a recent development.

As long as I can remember, the position of president has been one of the most scrutinized positions.

I grew up with Bill Clinton as president. What’s the one thing I remember most about Clinton? Let’s just say the words “affair” and “oval office” ring through my mind. Now, how many people wanted to impeach President Clinton? If not everybody, it’s fair to say there was a good amount.

The next president was George W. Bush. Need I say more? If President Bush did not get enough criticism while he was in office, he is still getting it to this day.

Obama may be president right now, but an infrequent visitor to the U.S. might assume Bush is still calling the shots if he or she just turned on the late night news.

There was a time when Americans took pride in their president. Anybody know why the desk in the oval office has a baseboard in the middle? That would be for former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to hide his paralyzed legs.

Americans did not want to see their president with this type of hindrance. They believed if their leader had a condition of weakness it would, in turn, make their country look weak. This is almost unheard of today. If Obama cut his finger sorting papers, it would be the talk of every household from sea to shining sea.

Revisit the kickball team that you played on for 25 minutes out of the day. As you stand next in line to kick and the kid you envy is up before you, how do you feel?

Knowing if he fails to get on this time, the inning will be over and you won’t get to kick, do you still want him to swing and miss? Next time you go to discredit one of your own, think, “What’s best for him may be what’s best for the team and may be what’s best for you.”

Austin Schmitt is an accounting and finance sophomore. E-mail aschmitt@kykernel.com.