WE WON'T BE SEEING THE LIKES OF THIS MAN ANYTIME SOON..

President Barack Obama gave his final State of the Union last week. It was one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard…maybe the greatest speech I have ever heard in my lifetime. Ho hum…in the last 7 years, we have become numb to performances like this from Barack Obama. He is so skilled, so gifted as an orator that we can easily forget that we are looking at something extra-ordinary. I can imagine that people who watched Lincoln might have taken his amazing oratorical skills for granted as well. I am no fan of Lincoln, but I know enough to know that he was one of the great orators and leaders in recorded history.

Barack Obama could hold his own with anyone who has ever served as President of the United States…certainly no President has been more dignified.

Obama has a remarkable style as a leader. As a speaker he is “as cool as the other side of the pillow”. But, don’t be distracted….it is not the style that sparkles the most…it is the content…the ideas, the ideals….the vision---it’s what the man stands for. I challenge anyone to listen to that speech and not stand back in wonder. It was like Mozart. Actually, I bet Mozart had the same problem as Obama…he wrote so many amazing symphonies that people just grew to accept them as commonplace. …just like a Michael Jordan helicopter dunk in it’s day.

If one of the jobs of a President is to bring people together for the common good…and to encourage us to be the best version of ourselves……well, I can’t imagine a better messenger than Barack Obama.. I am not a Democrat. I abhor tribalism and the rigid constraints placed on people from ideological “party’s”. I would like to think that my political views don’t fit neatly (or even stuffed) into either of two square boxes…….Sure, I sometimes disagree with Obama on some fundamentals ….but, I recognize greatness when I see it…..be it black, white, Republican, Democrat, male, female…I can step back and acknowledge.

Obama speaks to the best version of ourselves:

--”our collective future depends our your willingness to uphold your duties as a citizen…to vote, to speak out…to stand up for others, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable----knowing that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us.” -

I often think that most Republicans on the campaign trail forget that truth…”each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us”

Any of us who have gone anywhere in life can’t take all the credit for our position…perhaps we can’t even take most of it…some of us were born a little smarter than others…some with better families, more money, more opportunity, some of us can jump higher…some of us are more attractive…some of us have more outgoing personalities…we more easily make friends, some of us have been darn lucky…..do we really want to deceive ourselves into taking credit for any of this....as if it required back breaking work? It didn’t…any more than being signed as a super model or even a ”Backstreet Boy” requires “back breaking” work.

Personally, I couldn’t be where I am today without a great deal of assistance…I was adopted at two months of age…by incredible parents who were successful and had stature in their community. I was given every opportunity to be whatever I wanted to be…I was brought up as a kid in the recording industry because my uncle was a musical arranger. I got to work with ”stars” and travel on tour...sing in movies..be on T.V.. I did very little to deserve this...I could sing on key and so I got the opportunity. It wasn’t ”work” by any definition. I was brought up on a private golf course where I had a huge advantage over others who I was competing against who had to get a ride to a public golf course to play golf…I was sent to Europe for school…I didn’t earn ANY of this privilege…nor, dare I say...did any of you….even those of you who are holding Academy Awards or Grammy’s or Heisman Trophies, or driving Ferrari’s….you may have worked hard and applied yourself but your talents and your potential to learn is not something that you earned….If I gave you the physical gifts of John Elway I bet you could play in 5 Super Bowls too.

Barbara Streisand worked hard but she was born Barbara Streisand…a highly intelligent and gifted person who only needed a break to become an uber star…she wasn’t entitled to stardom and success….she was given the opportunity…she didn’t own her own recording studio or radio station or film studio. She had to be selected…or else she might have been a hostess somewhere…or a waitress.

Elvis Presley is not Elvis Presley without the looks, the style, and the incredible opportunity…he couldn’t write a note of music…his main talent was growing hair and sideburns and shaking his hips….but he is one of the great icons in American culture…..he barely lifted a finger…he didn’t even play an instrument.

It is what you choose to do (selflessly) from the bottom of your heart that I am willing to stand up and applaud.….it is those things we do that don’t serve ourselves…but that serve others that I am willing to label as ”extra-ordinary…not the skill of being able to win the Indianapolis 500 or earn 20 million on Wall Street….those are “God” given skills that only serve yourself….they don’t impress me…

What impresses me most about Stephen Hawking is not his famous intelligence…he deserves no “credit” for that…but his amazing perspective on how to live a profound life in a very crippled state…..and even then, his emotional I.Q. was up to the challenge….

It just might be true that most of us are doing the best that we can….whether we are Neil Armstrong or the guy on the street who is willing to “work for food”. It is not a “level playing field”…far from it…any more than a tall man is born with the same ability to pluck high hanging fruit as a short man.….we don’t credit the tall man for being able to pluck more fruit, do we?

I have little doubt that Barack Obama would have made a great “Founding Father” had he been around at that time. He would have added a great deal to the discussion….and been a force for good. Similarly, I have no doubt that if Barack Obama had been a soldier in the military that he would have served with distinction…he might have won a Medal of Honor if the circumstances presented themselves. ..or a Medal of Valor. I think it is very clear to everyone that Barack Obama is an outstanding father…and husband…and, he is a humble and exemplary American…one of the greatest examples you will ever find of an American, in my opinion.

Compare and contrast Barack Obama’s character and compassion with any and all of the “7 dwarfs” who were on stage for the Republican Debate last week.

I don’t think a single one of them could park Obama’s car….or carry his luggage. Obama would cast a shadow that would put all of them in the shade at the same time….these men, many of whom would say that Obama is not even a citizen of the United States…many who would say that he is not a Christian but a Muslim, would want to be your President.

Could you imagine the humiliation of electing the crude and rude and pompous Chris Christie to follow in Obama’s footsteps? How about the scowling Carly Fiorina who has just as little regard for speaking truthfully. How about Marco Rubio….the finger pointer who desperately wants us to think he is so very tough…he said in November that Obama has “no class” and that he has removed dignity from the White House. Rubio recklessly stated, “Obama wants to take all of our guns away”. How about having Ted Cruz “the carpet bomber” following Obama to the Presidency?….Ben Carson????,...Donald Trump???

All of the Republican candidates claim they would repeal the Affordable Care Act and leave 18 million Americans without health insurance…they have NO alternative but so what….all of them would want to eliminate the rights of gay people to be married….what kind of a “party” is this?

Give me Barack Obama anytime…we won’t be seeing the likes of anyone like him anytime soon…as far as I am concerned you can add him to Mt. Rushmore….I love George Washington and Thomas Jefferson ..I truly do--they were indispensable American superstars...but for the record…both of them were slave owners throughout their lives….and, another of those with a carved granite face violated the Constitution routinely. Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeus corpus; he detained “disloyal” citizens indefinitely without trial or any access to the courts…he even issued an arrest warrant for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because the Chief Justice ordered Lincoln to restore the Constitutionally promised rights to the people. We wouldn’t hesitate to call that a dictator by today’s standards. Lincoln curbed freedom of speech and imposed martial law…no politician today could survive that attempt at authoritarianism. He couldn’t get his face on a penny if alive today.

Teddy Roosevelt, the 4th face on Rushmore was as militaristic and pugnacious as they come…. he was a first class bully with a ”macho” complex that was legendary. He loved killing things and getting into wars…namely the Spanish/American War and WWI. When he wasn’t leading men towards their death in battle he was killing animals…. One of his biographers said that killing animals, T.R. killed thousands of them….”infused Roosevelt with life”.

As an American..Barack Obama meets or exceeds that standard.

We won’t be seeing the likes of a Barack Obama again for a long time….I already miss him.

Food for Thought....