Where was Obama?
Jesse Jackson was at the union rally in Madison yesterday. Susan Sarandon was there. But Obama was a no-show.
He opted to go golfing. That's right. Obama was on the golf course instead of marching in solidarity with public union employees.
Another broken promise.
From the Associated Press:
Union leaders urged Vice President Joe Biden during a White House meeting last month to go to Wisconsin and rally the faithful in their fight against Gov. Scott Walker's move to curtail collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
Request rebuffed, they asked for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
So far, however, the White House has stayed away from any trips to Madison, the state capital, or other states in the throes of union battles. The Obama administration is treading carefully on the contentious political issue that has led to a national debate over the power that public sector unions wield in negotiating wages and benefits.
A few labor leaders have complained openly that President Barack Obama is ignoring a campaign pledge he made to stand with unions; most others say his public comments have been powerful enough.
It's a fact that Obama has failed to keep yet another promise he made on the campaign trail.
...As a candidate, Obama seemed to promise more to organized labor, among the Democratic Party's most loyal constituencies.
"If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself," Obama said at a speech in 2007. "I'll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner."
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, the nation's largest nurses union, called Obama "largely a bystander" in the debate over collective bargaining. "I think we're feeling a sense of betrayal from him and not liking it much," she said.
Not only did Obama fail to "put on a comfortable pair of shoes" and march in Madison, he's failed to give federal workers their "right" to collectively bargain.
His statements about Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans assaulting unions and vilifying public union employees are incredibly hypocritical. What has Obama done for federal employees? What about their so-called "rights"?
Obama has mastered the art of breaking promises. I suppose that comes with practice.
Clearly, Obama prefers to put on his golf shoes rather than his comfortable protesting shoes.
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I think it's particularly inappropriate for Obama to be out golfing not much more than 24 hours after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan.
The crisis is still unfolding, with the nuclear plant unstable, yet Obama sees fit to romp around a golf course.
He appears so detached and self-centered. Broken promises are just par for the course.
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