Obama's been working hard, but not for you

Recent articles talk about our president taking another vacation, this time in Maine. But let's face it, he deserves a vacation. Since the oil spill April 20 he has been going nonstop. First there were two days of media events then two days of fundraising followed by four commencement speeches - whew! Next there were six days of vacation, six days of campaigning and seven sports events.

Add to this all the pressure he endured by not going to the site of the spill until May 28 and the days and days of leadership and coordination he had to do to ensure that the administration was doing everything they could to prevent the clean up.

He had to refuse help from several foreign countries in order to avoid issuing an exception to the Jones Act. My God, this would have cost his party many union votes.

Then they had to devise ways to deny the states the ability to implement solutions of their own. From the EPA to the Coast Guard to the Department of Labor, this was a masterful display of leadership.

Finally, in the middle of this he saw an even bigger opportunity to stifle job growth, a moratorium on drilling that would cost the Gulf area 100,000 jobs.

Wow, this is as good as the stimulus plan! Imagine 100,000 more people dependent on the federal government with just one executive decision. However, to his chagrin a judge ruled that this was unconstitutional.

Not to be intimidated, Obama then had his Secretary of the Interior and Attorney General rewrite the moratorium language to sneak by that pesky Constitution - how's that for superior leadership?

Well, by now you get my point. Lay off the president. He's working hard, even though it's not for you.

Jim Carlin

Algonquin