The President's Vacation

20% of Americans now believe President Obama is a Muslim. This is the same percentage of Americans who admit to peeing in pools and the same number who believe extraterrestrials are already among us. Not surprisingly, the uptick in the Muslim thought coincides with his support for the Muslim Center--sort of near the Twin Towers site. Ground Zero in my lexicon is Hiroshima. Sadly, the White House actually felt compelled to issue a statement about the President's Christianity and details of his daily devotion and prayers. The Miami Herald ran a piece on the ministers who spiritually advise the President, one of whom married the Bush girl. I long for the day that a President tells people his or her religion is none of anyone's business.

Now Michael Gerson,W's former speechwriter, pens a piece today lamenting the rapid demise of President Obama and his failure to create a non-partisan atmosphere in Washington. Gerson quotes the Nation about Obama's lack of producing results. Astonishing chutzpah. But this is the line from Republicans. R. Emmett Tyrell writes in the American Spectator a piece of how Obama is worse than Jimmy Carter. O what potential lost!

Let's hear it for Eugene Robinson and his column in today's Washington Post, which points out that President Obama is on a quiet winning streak right now. Robinson reminds everyone that expectations for Obama on his inauguration were absurdly high. Robinson writes,even if Obama had done back flips across the Potomac River, people would still ask why he hadn't found a cure for cancer, solved the Arab-Israeli conflict and ushered in an age of universal peace and prosperity.

This past week, the last American combat brigade in Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait. Commentators questioned why Obama didn't do a version of getting in a flysuit with a codpiece and proclaiming "Mission Accomplished". The Left either felt the White House had muffed a photo opportunity or were snarky like Dennis Kucinich who said you're not out until you're all the way out. Just a FYI, there are still 2,500-5,000 soldiers still linked to the combat operation who will be coming home in a week. By September 1, President Obama will make the official announcement that the combat phase has officially ended. He promised he would end the Iraq War in this timeline and he did so two weeks early. He also said he would wind down the war responsibly and is stationing 50,000 troops in training Iraqis for another year. He has fulfilled a difficult campaign promise.

What do we hear from the conservatives and Republicans? Crickets. Only MSNBC covered the withdrawal in any depth and the great heroes returning did not receive coverage from the right-wing echochamber. Silence about their number 1 project of the last 7 1/2 years.

Conservatives and the Left have created a drumbeat about Social Security. The President said he was not going to "privatize" Social Security as long as he was President and would maintain the benefits. He went further and said that with only a few adjustments the program would be strengthened and last another 75 years. Hardly, the sound of major alterations.

You knew something was up that caused George Will to chide the Obama White House about lecturing Israel about peace. On September 2, the so-called Quartet of Powers announced that Israelis and Palestinians would begin direct peace talks in Washington with President Obama presiding.

Much to the consternation of the neo-conservatives, who have been using the threat of an Israeli attack on Iran to pressure President Obama to act against Tehran, the administration informed Tel Aviv that Iran was having trouble with its nuclear program and couldn 't even get around to thinking about a bomb for a year.

President Obama made a commitment that troop withdrawals would begin next summer from Afghanistan. General Petraeus has been lobbying the Hill to make the timetable more flexible . For now, he has been shut down by the White House.

President Obama continues to be criticized for the BP oil disaster. But the well is now contained and BP has been forced by the President to put up $20 billion to guarantee Gulf Residents compensation for their damaged livelihoods. The administration also ramped up its response operation and effectively found ways to keep the oil from the shore, although the total environmental damage remains unclear.

Then we had the announcement this week that General Motors would start selling stock again on Wall Street and begin paying back the government bailout. President Obama's much-criticized bailout of the auto industry saved nearly 17% of the U.S. economy. His bet has paid off but you don't hear much about that here in D.C.

And, Gene Robinson, is right. The President didn't do the popular thing but he did the right thing by defending the constitutional right of the construction of the Muslim Center in lower Manhattan.

So what disaster will strike while President Obama is gone? The good news is that Congress is out of session so he doesn't have to jet in and sort out a late minute glitch in a bill. But something will happen.

We're just lucky we have an over-achieving Black man cleaning up the mess left by the White boys. I think that's the heart of the argument.