- Obama's Retirement

A question occurred to me today while I was listening to the radio in the car. I heard that cold play song viva la vida. I won’t recount the lyrics here… look em up. But it seemed to me that it’s really the perfect song for the Obama administration. He’s a smart-ish guy who learned all the wrong lessons and was largely a puppet on a string. The perfect front man for a class warfare - success = villain, failure = victim, worldview.

Anyway, I was listening to the song and wondering what Obama would do when he reenters the ‘private sector’ after being an (imshallah) one term president. He’ll have speaking gigs for a few years, will sell some books and such. He’ll end up wealthy that’s for sure. All presidents do, and I don’t see why he should be different on that score. He won’t have to worry about making a living.

But he’s still a young man. He’s got lots of time left. And his ego is far, FAR too big to be content sitting on the beach with Michelle or going out on his boat with reverend Wright and the boys from the union hall. So what do you think he’ll do?

Remember, this is not Bill Clinton, a popular if somewhat scandalized two term centrist Democrat. No one will EVER consider him for a position that doesn’t involve intentional polarization. WorldBank? Nope. UN? Hah! He’s no more popular overseas than he is here. But he’s going to have to do something. And I can’t see him building houses and trying to broker deals with the North Koreans.

A man might not have to work to live, you he still has to work. We all need to do things. We need to be productive. The idea of retirement is not to stop being productive, but to be productive instead at things that you don’t have to worry about making money at anymore. So what is Obama going to do? Take his lifetime secret service detail and go organize riots on the south side of Chicago? I’m sorry, I don’t see it. And it’s the only thing he really has any experience for.

The only thing I can think that might work for a while is that he can get himself elected governor of Illinois. But unless I’m mistaken even that has term limits. He’ll barely be in his 60’s when that job runs out too. Then what? Revolutionaries and fatty foods notwithstanding, he’ll be around for 30 more years or maybe more.

That’s when the real crisis will come for Barak H. Obama. That’s when all his character flaws will come out. So far I think he’s been fairly exemplary in his personal life. Married to the same woman for years. An interested and active father. He’s not a drunk or a wake and bake type or that would have come out long ago. His whole life has been about achieving a set of political goals.

But when you take away the rabbit some dogs just won’t run anymore, even if the dog catches it, which the President of the United States certainly has. So it’s going to be interested to see how he fills his days.