Public Posturing, Authentic Lives

In 2008, Barack Obama told Tim Russert with a worried smile on “Meet the Press” that his wife and friends thought he was still there behind all the hype and on 60 Minutes admitted that the “attempt to airbrush your life...is exhausting.”

Five year later, we can still see an authentic person in the Oval Office, the man himself not buried in all the sludge that has been heaped on him by rabid opponents.

The contrast comes up with the undoing of Chris Christie in just a week, from plain-spoken populist to mean-spirited pol who plays dirty tricks on those who cross him and, when caught, throws his closest associate to the wolves to cover his tracks.

Say what they will about the President, even those who hate him can’t pair him with Christie as inauthentic. In defending the Jersey governor, Rush Limbaugh is reduced to daydreaming of better scandals.

“Why can’t we have Obama running around on Michelle or something?” asks El Rushbo. “Wouldn’t that be a much better scandal than Christie and bridge lane closures, for crying out loud?”

As the President wades into Year Six of his tenure with straightening out Obamacare and extending unemployment on his plate, no matter what valid criticisms may be aimed at him from Left or Right, no rational observer will pair him with the intellectual and moral pygmies like Christie, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and their ilk that the GOP is teeing up to replace him in the 2016 balloting.

When all their “airbrushing” is done, will Republicans have to fall back on someone like Jeb Bush, as they did last time with Romney, to create even the illusion of authenticity?

“You can beat somebody with nobody” is an old political axiom, which may lead to a 2016 retro match of former White House names.

Whatever. One thing is sure: Michelle and Barack Obama will be leaving the place hand in hand, Limbaugh’s fantasies not withstanding.