Going down

If you were President of the United States and your poll numbers were heading toward the earth's core, how would you celebrate Christmas?

Would you dress up your beautiful family and go to church? Would you tell reporters cute stories about the kids opening their presents on Christmas morning as you and your wife looked on with pride and love? Would you go to a homeless shelter or hospital and help serve Christmas dinner?

That's not how President Obama did it.

"The president and his wife, Michelle, started their day at 6:40 a.m. by going to the gym -- a feat unimaginable to most parents of young children eager to open presents on Christmas morning," the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

If you were president, would you give your wife a beautiful gift that would make all the married female voters in America think you're a wonderful husband?

"The first couple did not swap presents," White House aides told the Post, "and the Obamas did not attend church services, instead spending the day at the oceanfront home they are renting in Kailua, on the island of Oahu."

Later in the day, the Obama children opened presents with their cousins, the Post reported.

President Obama is tenaciously pursuing an unpopular agenda, and he does himself no favors by missing the easy lay-ups.

A week from now, when pollsters call people at dinner time and ask if they approve or disapprove of President Obama, no one will attribute the drop in popularity to the president's decision to skip church services and family gift-giving in favor of working out and playing golf. There will be so many other things to blame by then.

But keep an eye on the answers to questions like "Does President Obama share your values?" and "Do you trust President Obama to pursue the right policies for our country?"

That's where the Ghost of Christmas Past will rattle his chains.


Copyright 2009

.