President Enjoys Childish Distractions

Washington DC, Mar 16, 2011. The Middle East is in turmoil, Japan is suffering from an earthquake and tsunami, and the battle of the budget is raging in the USA, but none of this seems to be deterring President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, from a heavy schedule of childish distractions.

The new White House Chief of Staff William Daley was supposed to bring a new sense of discipline and purpose to the White House. Instead, he is permitting President Obama to showcase himself as a poorly focused leader who has his priorities backward.

This morning, as Japan’s nuclear crisis enters a potentially catastrophic phase, we are told that Obama is videotaping his NCAA tournament picks and that we’ll be able to tune into ESPN Wednesday to find out who he likes.

On Saturday, the President made his 61st outing to the golf course, and got back to the White House with just enough time for a quick shower before heading out to party with Washington’s elite journalists at the annual Gridiron Dinner.

With various urgencies swirling about him, Saturday’s weekly videotaped presidential address focusing on “Women’s History Month” seemed bizarrely out of touch.

On Friday Obama took time out to honor the 2009-10 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. Thursday was a White House conference on bullying – not a bad idea perhaps, but not quite Leader of the Free World stuff either.

Obama appeared a little sleepy as he weighed in against the bullies, perhaps because he’d spent the night before partying with lawmakers as they took in a Chicago Bulls vs. Charlotte Bobcats game.

Meanwhile, the president has been studying for weeks whether to establish a No Fly Zone over Libya, delaying action while the point becomes increasingly moot as Qaddafi begins to defeat and slaughter his opponents. And lawmakers from both Parties are wondering why he seems to be AWOL in the deficit reduction debate.

Just chillin'

The Libya indecision follows an inconsistent response to the protests that ousted former Egyptian President Mubarak and seemed to catch the White House off guard.

The response from the White House Monday to Saudi Arabia’s dispatch of troops to Bahrain suggested the administration wasn’t prepared for that one either.

On Thursday, the president will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. And then Friday it’s off to Brazil for the start of a three-country Latin American tour.