President Obama seems to have stepped in it again. He has taken an event that should have been a uniting feature of the War on Terror—the killing of Osama bin Laden one year ago—and turned it into a partisan political ploy. A new ad has Bill Clinton—Bill Clinton, mind you—praising the courage and leadership of Obama as he made the decision to proceed with the raid that led to bin Laden’s death.

Now, I’m not going to detract from the significance of making that decision. It was the right call. But then the ad goes on to imply that the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, might not have had the backbone to do the same. This is the Obama team at its partisan worst. When we all should be glad that a master terrorist reaped the consequences of his evil actions, we are treated instead to a glorified image of the current president interwoven into his reelection campaign:

What, in fact, did he do that anyone else in his position would not have done? As Romney quipped, even Jimmy Carter would have made the same call. There’s also no credit being given to all the groundwork that was laid by the Bush administration that led to the raid. In particular, Obama and his allies have decried the enhanced interrogation techniques that effectively provided the information necessary to make the “takeout” possible. Then there’s the SEAL Team itself, which is largely forgotten in the reelection bid. No, this is all about Obama. What’s devastating is that SEAL members are speaking out, miffed over the grandiose role being promoted for the president. One cartoonist, Michael Ramirez, has displayed his feelings about Obama’s role rather blatantly:

Obama made the right decision, but his decision was not the most courageous on that day. He was simply doing what was necessary after all the spadework had been done for him. It was the soldiers who put their lives on the line to accomplish the mission. There was a hierarchy of courage in the events that transpired one year ago today.

I can never run out of things to say about President Obama’s economic policies. He just keeps providing more to talk about. Take, for instance, his promotion of the so-called Buffett Rule lately, the one that thought it was a good idea to tax the rich more [as if that would have actually made a dent in the deficit]:

Apparently, Congress wasn’t as convinced. It went down to defeat in the Senate. It was never a serious proposal for deficit reduction; it served a political goal only.

Now the Obama campaign team is out with a seven-minute video touting his economic successes. I’m not sure how they found seven minutes worth of footage, but when you’re disconnected from reality anyway, it’s no problem:

Overall, one has to wonder what he really can show for all the record-high levels of spending:

That’s a pretty good representation of his “record.” Think it will play?

On this day in 1789, George Washington took the very first presidential oath of office. His inauguration on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City was the beginning of a grand experiment. Although the fledgling nation had been in existence since 1776, it had only an ad hoc government throughout most of the American Revolution, then switched to a very weak Articles of Confederation in the 1780s. At Washington’s inauguration, the new Constitution also was inaugurated. The question in everyone’s mind was whether it would or could work.

Ten thousand citizens were present to witness the first inaugural. Washington, at six-foot, three inches, looked every bit the part of a president. Of course, he already had won the confidence of Americans by his leadership during the war. They now looked to him to transfer his leadership from military matters to those of civil government. Everything he did would be seen as a precedent.

After he repeated the oath of office, Washington then kissed the Bible and went inside to deliver his inaugural address in the newly improvised Senate chamber. The address was short, but focused on the need for a strong Constitution, the addition of a Bill of Rights [which came along two years later], and how government was to be for the public good. As was his practice as general of the army in the war, he took no pay other than reimbursement for actual expenses.

At the end of his address, he and a number of the legislators and local politicians then walked to St. Paul’s Chapel to pray. He knew this new nation would need all the prayer it could get. It really was a grand experiment. Many thought it would fail. One of the reasons it did not can be traced directly to the wisdom George Washington brought to the presidency and to the precedents he set, not the least of which was to step down after serving two terms, thus laying to rest the fear that the presidency would evolve into just another kingship.

Excellent character in high office is a requisite for success in government. Washington set the bar high. We can’t say the same for all of his presidential successors, but we can, on this day, honor the good start he gave us. May we work now to preserve that heritage.

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case has put racism back on the front page again, at least in the minds of some. One can argue, however, that it has never left the front page with the current administration. The Eric Holder Justice Department is setting a record of sorts by challenging a number of commonsense laws, from photo IDs for voting to Arizona’s attempt to stem the tide of illegal immigration. Yet it dropped a case of voter intimidation by the Black Panthers. Sources within the department say race is the determining factor for much of what goes on there.

I thought the election of a black president was supposed to lead us into a paradise of racial harmony. Well, not if you bring an aggrieved attitude with you into the office. All you do is fan those racial flames. I think we’re actually in worse shape with respect to race relations now than we were before Obama entered the scene. Charges of racism fill the air:

It’s not just a black/white thing, either. In what passes for higher education in our country, we see a strange sort of discrimination at work:

And if you’re a conservative who wants to be a professor at one of our institutions of higher learning, you may be in for a rough ride, as shown by an incident that has made the news lately. Discrimination comes in all forms when progressives are in control:

I write about double standards quite often. They are one of my pet peeves. Of course, they go far beyond peevishness; they are pernicious to the spiritual health of a nation. As long as sin abounds, they will exist; but we can temper their influence by insisting on judging people righteously, according to their character. I seem to remember someone who once said he had hope for a day when character, not the color of one’s skin, would be the determining factor for one’s worth. We’re going backwards.

Speaker John Boehner says President Obama “checked out” of being president quite a while ago. Instead, he has been in full campaign mode. He’s jetting around the country on Air Force One, paid for by the taxpayers, holding one rally after another. Of course, at every stop he schedules one event he can claim is policy-oriented. This provides wonderful cover for the real purpose of his travels. Why pay for campaigning with one’s own money when one can use the money provided by all Americans, regardless of political party? And everywhere he goes, the campaign strategy is pretty obvious:

This week, his choice of venue has been college campuses where he can talk about keeping the student interest rate low and blaming Republicans should it rise. Of course, this is a program that is now fully under control of the federal government rather than just guaranteed by the government—another takeover of the private sector, but one that didn’t get the same scrutiny as his healthcare ploy. As he talks to the swooning college audiences, he likes to use the “common touch,” which is really rather a stretch for him:

He seems kind of hooked on that “silver spoon” rhetoric:

Of course the silver spoon comment is directed at Romney—you know, the guy with all the advantages—while our poor, beleaguered president has to overcome tremendous financial obstacles:

I get worried when I see the rapture in the faces of those college students as he speaks. College used to be a place where one learned how to think. I didn’t see much genuine thinking going on. Will the emotion of “hope and change” carry the day again? Well, I’m certainly hoping for a change.

The end of the semester nears; my classes are winding down this week. Teaching university students can be a joy one minute and a frustration the next. To any of my students reading this, let me emphasize that I like you and that I believe I am carrying out God’s will to be there. Some days are quite fulfilling, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

But there are obstacles to overcome, in general, with the present generation. All that talk about short attention spans and apathy is all too often real. There are times when I feel like I have to be an entertainer to keep their attention. Boring one’s students seems to be the greatest possible sin.

Not that I think I’m all that boring, but one definitely has to be called by God to continue on the “down” days. My desire is to bring new information to them that will cause them to think more seriously about God’s claim on their lives. At the very least, I would like them to grasp key principles to help them analyze the trends in our culture. One of the reasons, though, why the current generation may not be up to speed on these principles may be the quality of the professors they are forced to take in their courses:

It’s a long uphill struggle, and it has been for the twenty-three years I’ve taught at this level. The society overall is no longer very attuned to eternal truths, or even the idea of truth. We want to be entertained instead:

Timeless truth is a hard sell nowadays, but I’m grateful for the opportunities I have to explain how that truth applies to history, politics, government, and the culture. When you know God’s call, it makes all the difference.