New Standards for Success

To hear the shouts of the masses about the performance of our President, it would be easy to miss that he is just over an eighth into his first term.

The gears of Washington were designed to turn slowly. The reason for this is that when decisions are made in haste, they tend to be reactionary and foolish. Our nation's fathers knew this and thus made a system designed to promote debate, discussion and hopefully temperance. All political systems being flawed by the presence of people and by nature abhorring a vacuum, this has often lead to things taking longer than they should and debates taking weeks when the results are needed within days, but this is most likely better than things being pushed forward before they are properly inspected.

Any administration does a disservice if it fails to take in the long view, to not look past it's own presence or anticipate the nature of those who will hold office after it passes the responsibilities of governance. It is understandable if this means that results of today's decisions are not fully felt for months or years so long as those results are positive and ultimately good for the nation.

But already, people have called President Obama a failure and declared his polices to be ineffective. The CARS program has been called a waste of taxpayer money. The assorted bailouts have been decried as moves towards socialism. And the fight for healthcare has been judged and continues to be judged even before plans are made that could actually be scrutinized.

With this in mind, I suggest that if one thinks that President Obama is a failure and that his polices are to be considered mistakes, then we should from henceforth apply these same standards to other things of public interest.

-Football games should be decided on the plays and scoring of the first eight minutes. During this time, it will be acceptable for the fans of either side to come onto the field and ask the quarterback what he thinks he's doing and offer their own opinions as to how the game should be played.

-Books will be evaluated by the end of their third chapter, though it will be acceptable for any reviewer to discuss the merits of the book including conjecture on any imagined end based upon where they think the book is going.

-TV series will be considered good or bad by the the middle of the second episode in any given season. During the first five minutes of any given show, it will be considered acceptable to call the network and ask that the writers be fired and new writers finish the episode.

-Meals will be critiqued based upon how the soup tastes. Protests may be made at the serving line against shellfish, even at establishments that serve no seafood.

-College students will be given degrees based upon their performance in the first semester. They will still be expected to show the work from their senior year.

In short, we will not allow anyone to do their jobs. We will decry their efforts at every turn. We will clamor for the replacement of those we feel are inadequate, even if we are unaware what it is we will use to measure adequacy .

You may disagree with me and that's fine. But if you support the way that people have spoken against the President then if you're being intellectually honest, you only read the first two paragraphs anyway.

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