Obama Press Conference: Not Saying Anything Says A Lot

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Dan Rackley

Dan Rackley is a US Naval veteran living in Philadelphia and a contributor to "Will They Ever Trust Us Again?"

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June 29th, 2011 1:15 PM

Obama Press Conference: Not Saying Anything Says A Lot

A lot of people will at the very least agree with the fact that President Obama has a big heaping plate of problems in front of him on a daily basis. Most of which are justified. I wrote several weeks ago that the situation in Libya is an extremely tricky one for the president and how the rest of the world perceives the United States. It would be a fair assessment to say at the very least that there are some things that he could have been a little more truthful with us on. The situation in Libya is one that especially with the Bin Laden death earlier in the spring that has flown a little under the radar for some of the American public.

Most tend to not totally understand the idea that even though we have handed over the control of military operations to NATO why exactly there are still American military members involved in the attacks on Libya. The accusation by Speaker Boehner that President Obama has violated the War Powers act speaks for itself. But one does have to ask how many planes and troops you have to dedicate towards a military action before you become the team and not just part of it. Never mind what anyone says about Obama, this is a fine line where his personal opinion will continue to affect policy and the nation’s opinion on him.

One thing though, that his personal opinion should not even come into play in the scope of how laws and policy is shaped is the topic of gay marriage. Not too long ago, President Obama announced a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that has been in place in the military since the Clinton Administration. This definitely was a great victory in terms of civil rights. Now recently the state of New York approved the legislation making gay marriage legal in their state. Today at his press conference, one of the questions that was asked, almost as an aside were The President’s opinions on gay marriage. He very quickly answered that he is going to decline answering; citing that he was not going to “make news” on that subject. I would have to say that this is a very smart move by Obama. It’s also one that by not saying anything about it, he said all he ever could.

The President of the United States is voted in to office by will of the people. He is supposed to operate in that same vein. What do the people want? When it comes down to it, it shouldn’t matter what he thinks personally. It should be what’s best for everyone involved. Look at it this way, when President Bush(the halfway decent one) said publicly that he disliked broccoli, it shouldn’t have really been that big of a deal. What does it exactly matter what one person thinks in the grand scheme of things? It’s just one guy’s opinion. Same thing with Obama and gay marriage. I’d like to think that he at the very least on this issue alone, has the foresight to know that whether he thinks it’s a good idea personally; that the majority of people are saying that this is what they want. So while I realize that the man has a great deal of room for improvement, this is one area where he has done well. It doesn’t matter what he thinks. And it is a question that ultimately shouldn’t be asked, because people should realize that it’s what the majority wants, not one person. Even if that one person is the President.